Digital Vision./Getty Images We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. For those too young to remember, the idea of a corded phone of any kind must sound strange. After all, most of us use smartphones these days. And even modern landline phones mostly use cordless handsets, for the few who still use such old-school gadgets . However, there was a time when every landline handset was connected via wire, and a notably coiled one at that. Besides giving phones a distinctive visual identity, these coiled wires made it easier to carry the handset around with you, expanding and contracting without getting tangled up. Modern phones, even landlines, don't bother with coiled wires anymore. If you're taking a call with a cordless handset, you're free to walk around the room at your leisure, without thinking about the physical phone jack. Back in the day though, people were restricted to where their phones were located while taking calls, with that coiled cord stretching out behind them.…