The Dial Comes To Town
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as a charming example of the effort once made to teach the public a new technology, in threads about phones and teaching seniors.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2021 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends tzs · 2021-01 · on “Making VoIP Calls with Antique Rotary Phones”
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]
Cites nitwit005 · 2025-10 · on “I spent the day teaching seniors how to use an iPhone”
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]
Cites 2143 · 2026-06 · on “Apple WWDC 2026 Livestream”
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.
Cites Stratoscope · 2026-07 · on “How RCA Victor sold Sound Service to classrooms in 1939”
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]