speaking of relay based counters...
http://www.retards.org/library/technology/electronics/relay-counter.pdf
I think this is the one I remember seeing when I was in grade school in 1960
or 1961. It used a phone dial and relays. As I remember, the article was
in a magazine, but I cannot remember which magazine. It would have been one
of the electronic magazines of the era. Was Popular Electronics published
at this time?
Martin Marshall