[GreenKeys] I bought one like this on ebay

[Jim Haynes]

I guess that is a copy of a Western Electric 60-type selector.  They
were used to select which phone to ring on a system that had many phones
on a single pair of wires, as in railroad service.  Also used in the
early Highway Mobile Radio Telephone Service to select which phone
to ring.  Also used in telegraphy.  Related to the Gill selector,
which used gravity rather than a hair spring to return to the starting
position.

 	---

 	"Ya can argue all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was."
 	"No it ain't! No it ain't!  But ya gotta know the territory."
 		Meredith Willson, The Music Man