At a business, a secretary, almost always a woman, would answer the phone for all calls. There were no direct lines into anyone. If you were in she would transfer the call to your office. If you were out she would use this pad to take messages. When you came back in to the office you would always stop at the front desk and you would be handed your messages.
No. These are literally older than every lemmy user and none of us remember these weird analogue doodads. They’re far superior to absolutely everything that exists today because the good old days and this darn AI transcription nonsense. I’d rather pay a lady to answer my phone when I can’t just to get these.
I thought it was a telegraph slip and was like “I’ve seen these in museums!”
Fun fact: The last Western Union Telegram was sent in 2006.
(I realize that’s not the same as a telegraph slip.)