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The “dial” on a rotary phone broke the connection in rapid sequence a number of times corresponding to the number dialed. If your dial broke, you could place calls by “flashing” the “hook” the right number of times with pauses between.

You could do the same with a touch tone phone, too.

Heck, you could do it with a pair of alligator clips at a punch down panel. The telco was fun before everything went digital.

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