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When we all have pocket telephones (a 1919 comic)
(lemmy.world)
On March 5, 1919, cartoonist W.K. Haselden published a comic in the British newspaper The Mirror, illustrating what the world would be like if telephones were portable.
I don't remember an obvious way to turn off a phone's ring back in the days when everyone had a land line. The best you could do is have your answering machine pick up after one ring if it had that option and maybe it would be fast enough to do it in less than one ring.