[stephenr]

I grew up with a rotary phone. From memory, 1 was the shortest to dial, 9 the longest.

[magicalhippo]

Actually this is country specific AFAIK. Wikipedia has a picture[1] of a phone from New Zealand which has 9 as the shortest.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial#/media/File:New_Ze...

[tech2]

This might also explain why the Kiwi emergency number is 111 as a counterpoint to the UK's 999. Interesting!

[stephenr]

Kiwis don't count /s

[jtnag]

I stand corrected then!

[TuringTest]

Pedantic tidbit of archaic lore: this was so because each digit was represented by the number of clicks that the rotating disc triggered on the line (with 10 clicks for 0).

[addingnumbers]

If the dial was locked or missing, you could still "dial" a number by quickly tapping it with the on-hook switch the receiver would rest on, because that was the same effect the rotary dial mechanism was producing