Forty years ago this month, the March-April 1978 issue of Elementary Electronics carried a number of articles on ways to make your phone work for you.  These involved both commercial products and homemade projects.

The magazine noted that Ma Bell’s iron grip on telephone equipment was just starting to loosen.  It noted that in the recent past, it was forbidden do do as much as add a piece of felt to the bottom of the phone to keep it from scratching a table, or put a shoulder rest on the receiver.  Still, it advised you to check with the phone company before using any accessories–and not to give your name or address when you called!

The phone company would install four-prong jacks (for a fee).  If you had only one jack, you could use cube taps to plug in more than one device.  Plugs with a built-in socket were also available, which allowed you to stack as many as needed into a single outlet.

One of the homemade projects shown in the magazine was the remote control shown hooked to the coffee pot in the picture.  This device would be legal anywhere, since it had no direct connection to the phone line.  But it allowed you to turn appliances on by remote control at no cost.

Instead of a connection to the phone, it simply contained a microphone which was placed near the phone, and it was operated (at no cost) by the phone’s bell.  To turn the appliance on, you called yourself, let it ring two times, and then hung up.  Then, you would call again between 20 and 40 seconds later and let it again ring twice.  The appliance would turn on only with this exact sequence, thereby almost eliminating the risk of the coffee being turned on by a random caller.

Also shown was a loud external ringer to ensure that you never missed an important call.