Sixty years ago this month, the January 1959 issue of Electronics Illustrated showed how to put together this convenient autodialer for a telephone. It was designed to be used with a burglar alarm or fire alarm, to place a call to a pre-designated number.

The heart of the unit was the lever which went over the phone. In case of alarm, a solenoid released to let the phone off the hook. Then, the same lever was used to dial the phone by pushing the hook buttons. This was driven by the wheel shown here, which rotated thanks to a phonograph motor.

A bell or buzzer would sound over the phone, alerting the owner to the alarm.  The article did note that if the line was busy, the message would not go through.