The Phone-Kon-Trole was invented by the donor's great-grandfather, Morton Clark, Sr. in the early 1920s. The device was used with early 20th century rotary phones. These telephones had a lightweight base with a rotary dial, small neck, and cradle for the handset. It took one hand to hold the phone steady and the other hand to dial, leaving no hands to to hold the handset. The Phone-Kon-Trole collar allowed the caller to lift the handset off the cradle to activate the dial tone and freed up a hand to dial the number. The practical invention was shortlived as Western Electric soon came out with heavy, big based, no-neck telephones which stayed put when dialing a number.