Telephone, candlestick telephone

'Candlestick' telephone with dial (on base), 1927. PO model 150L. This is the standard design of telephone which the GPO rented to its subscribers. This example has a lettered dial, indicating that it was for use on the infant automatic exchange network in London. Telephones without a dial were connected to manual exchanges, where a human operator would ask 'number please' and make the connection by hand. The first exchange to be converted was at Holborn in 1927. The bell would have been wall-mounted in a separate unit nearby. The dial label is later - London Wall only converted to automatic in 1936 and the 999 service did not commence until 1937.