Abstract: A telephone dialling system uses a hand-held wand to read telephone numbers represented in bar-code form. The coded numbers are converted to electrical signals, stored and then dialed out in impulse or tone signalling form. A microprocessor implementation and its routines are described. The coded representation may be a 2-out-of-5 code or preferably a hexadecimal code provided by four bars. The hexadecimal allows the provision of characters in addition to numerals 0-9 and enables instructions and other control functions to be entered into and acted upon by the microprocessor. The telephone numbers can be provided on documents such as letterheads or directories. The instruction and control facilities can be generated from labels formed on a pad and containing the hexadecimal codes.