History

• According to Oldtelephones.com, the first telephone was a heavy wall-mounted wooden telephone. The first desk stand telephone was introduced by Alexander Graham Bell in 1892. In 1894, independent manufacturers introduced several other models.
  
  

Types

• Old telephones can be categorized into wood wall phones, candlestick phones and desk sets.
  
  

Features

• The traditional candlestick phone did not have the feature of dialing buttons. It only consisted of a transmitter (mouthpiece) and a separate receiver. Later, desk sets were introduced with the transmitter and receiver attached to a single handset.
  
  

Function

• Since old telephones did not have dialing buttons, the numbers were dialed by an operator. The person took the receiver off the hook and asked the operator to dial a particular number. In the 1940s, telephones were introduced with the dialing feature and the operator dialing system vanished.
  
  

Most Popular Model

• Rotary dial is the most popular model in old telephones, according to Collectorsweekly.com. The Western Electric 202 from the 1930s is an example of this model.