Dial W for Wolfe

I have just been rereading The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (Pocket Books paperback edition). It seems Gene Wolfe is more than commonly found of using "dial" as a verb. In The Doctor of Death Island, on p. 258, an orderly in a prison hospital says, to a patient in a hospital bed, "I thought you might want me to dial you down for the night." It is fairly plain from context that this means turning the control to lower the head of the bed. In Feather Tigers, on p. 157, the following passage occurs. "QuoQuo inclined his head (the conventional gesture of acquiescence) and taking his blaster from his belt dialed a semidiffuse beam and depressed the firing stud." I don't think this is of any great significance, but it is mildly interesting (to me, at least) in light of the Solar Labyrinth discussion recently. William Ansley