What is that white button?

google.com -> rotary telephone

I could have done that for you, but if I did that then I wouldn't have actually helped you in any way. /adv/ is for helping people.

>>16566198
It cuts the call off. You use it when you finish one call and want to make another right away without putting the reciever back in the cradle.

>>16566205

I've used a phone like that before but I've never seen a button like that above the rotary plate.

You didn't help yet. I still can't find any explanation for that button.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial

>>16566214
I gives ye a hint: touchtone phones were also sometimes made with a button beneath the receiver and above the dialing numbers.

There's a "hang up" button and a "front desk" button, either of which might be mounted in that position on any kind of desk-ornament phone.

But who was the phone?

>>16566274
"Front desk button"?

http://www.vintagephones.com.au/ccp0-emailfriend/green-acf-telephone-pmg-refurbished-shell.html

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/private-automatic-branch-exchange

>>16566283
Hotel: this hooks you up with whatever you need.

Otherwise: 'front desk' might be to summon a nurse in a hospital, back before hospital beds were plastered with electronics. Or a sales rep, or technical support; the call goes to another phone in the same building rather than going to the phone company's giant robot.

>>16566320
I can't see how that works on a rotary dial. Must be the same as dialing 1?

>>16566322
There were varying styles of rotary phones; other than the basic "call a number I wrote down" a phone can do some certain tricks. These things were readily available even before the 90s, because there was huge demand for them. "Front desk" basically means call a fixed point within the same building. This is generally a receptionist, or a cubicle for someone who just answers phones all day.

That button seems to be PABX system. Not sure what it means though.

>>16566331
The basic principle is the same. You cut the line and the switchboard will count the number of times you cut the line.

I grew up in the 80ties and we had only rotary phones at one point. You could dial a phonenumber by just repeatedly click the hang-up button. One time for 1, two times for 2 and 10 times for 0. So that's why I find the front desk button weird...

>>16566340
Long story short: router/server

It's this thing you put in a big building, to make it so you can supply phones to more people with less bills to pay. It also increases the number of tricks a phone can do; those 90s/00s phones with a lot more buttons (look at any receptionist desk) generally lean on those things. I'm not sure if all-digital phones run on them, because my last major employer shat the bed when those were installed.