The Dial Comes To Town
PVid881 HN recommender · recommended in 1 month, 2021–2026
documentary · general · evergreen · 2021–2026 on HN
A 1940 Bell Telephone educational short teaching customers how to use their new dial phones and why the change was happening. It is a period piece about rolling out a new technology to ordinary people.
Cited as a charming example of the effort once made to teach the public a new technology, in threads about phones and teaching seniors.
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4 comments from Hacker News
For those who don't know how to use a rotary dial phone, here is a 1940 educational movie by Bell Telephone they made to teach customers about this new technology [1]. [1] ▶ this video
The Bell System did this when dial telephone service was first introduced. They held town meetings with a giant rotary dial onstage where someone explained it and demonstrated how to dial your calls. And they made an instructional film about it! ▶ this video
I think this “awesome”, “amazing”, “super exciting” phase came much later than the moon walking era. Remember it’s been over 50 years since humans walked on the moon. Much has changed. See these old videos, where people talk in a straightforward way: Car transmission link How to dial your phone link The dial comes to town ▶ this video Now go watch that Apple video again and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Telephones only seem intuitive because we got taught to use them as kids. If you look back, there was a massive effort to teach people to use them. You can still find some of the educational films: ▶ this video