The rotary dial is a device mounted on or in a telephone or switchboard that is designed to send interrupted electrical pulses, known as pulse dialing, corresponding to the number dialed. It was invented in 1888 by Almon Strowger. The device was phased out from the 1970s onwards with the onset of Touch Tone™ dialing, which uses a telephone keypad instead of a dial. Some telephone systems no longer recognize pulse dialing by default, so now it would have to be ordered from the telephone company as a special feature, to support older customer equipment.