Delta_G:
That's the way those old phones work. The dial is clicking it on and off the hook over and over really fast. Once for a 1, twice for a 2, three times for a three ... ten times for a 0. You can actually dial any landline phone without the dial or keypad by simply tapping the hook over and over in the right pattern. If you listen on the line while dialing an old pulse (not a tone) phone then you can hear the clicks as it pulses the hook.If you want it to work a different way then you'll have to rewire the phone so that the hook and the dial are operating separate switches.
I remember some guys in College trying to dial numbers that way. Never got it to work because we would loose concentration part way through the number.
Paul