With all of the new gadgets coming out every day, it's comforting to know that the ever faithful rotary phone is there to remind us of just how far we've come in the telecommunications industry in such a short amount of time.

Are you old enough to remember using the rotary telephone?

Here's some important news about the rotary phone you may not be aware of:

• Rather than using the cool sounds we use to play Mary had a little Lamb on today's touchtone telephones, the rotary phone used a dial that would send electrical pulses to the switchboard that would process what number you dialed by the number of pulses transmitted.
• The rotary dial is round and approximately 4 inches across - except for jumbo dial phone for people who had really big finger.
• Rotary phones had letters associated with each number that still is found on modern telephones: 1, 2 ABC, 3 DEF, 4 GHI, 5 JKL, 6 MNO, 7 PRS, 8 TUV, 9 WXY and 0 Operator.
• Austrailia never did use the number/letter association concept, but many others did.
• To keep you from dialing the rotary dial too far, manufacturers place a little piece innovatively referred to as a "fingerstop" at just the right location.
• If you wanted to dial the number 7, all you would have to do is put your finger in the hole with the 7 displaying below and swing that rotary dial until your finger stopped, pull your finger out and the dial would wind back to the starting place sending 7 clicks to the switchboard letting them know that you just dialed a 7!

Do you have any memories or thoughts you would like to share about the rotary telephone? If you do, please submit your rotary stories and ideas here so we can add them to our rotary news website.

Check back often as we will continue to cover the latest news and fond memories of the amazing rotary telephone.