Old guy test.

[Batesmotel]

Who is old enough to remember placing a phone call by clicking the receiver, waiting for the operator and then giving them the Local Exchange and Number?

So click, click, click. 

Operator, number please.

Ingersol 65930.

 

I met up with a real old friend last week and we caught up and his old phone number came up. I remembered it but I remembered the by the Exchange and Number system way. Like Ingersol was IN or 46 so Ingersol 65940 was 466-5930. 
 

Huish HI or 48. Marble Arch MA or 62. Etc. 

[DAKA]

I remember being able to make a call by clicking the numbers (I think I remember that )

[railfancwb]

2 minutes ago, Batesmotel said:

Who is old enough to remember placing a phone call by clicking the receiver, waiting for the operator and then giving them the Local Exchange and Number?

So click, click, click. 

Operator, number please.

Ingersol 65930.

 

I met up with a real old friend last week and we caught up and his old phone number came up. I remembered it but I remembered the by the Exchange and Number system way. Like Ingersol was IN or 46 so Ingersol 65940 was 466-5930. 
 

Huish HI or 48. Marble Arch MA or 62. Etc. 

Remember it early.

Also remember that the monthly bill was increased for each phone you had connected to that one line. Even if you bought a surplus phone and connected it yourself they would detect it and start billing for it. I’ve wondered how they detected the extra phone but suspect it might have been the current draw of the extra ringer. 

[railfancwb]

The original dials had click counts associated with the number being dialed. Then came touch tone, but phone system still had to be able to deal with old dial instruments. Wonder if land lines still have to deal with clicks. 

[Batesmotel]

3 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

The original dials had click counts associated with the number being dialed. Then came touch tone, but phone system still had to be able to deal with old dial instruments. Wonder if land lines still have to deal with clicks. 

I believed they do. I only got rid of my land line a couple years ago and the old Candlestick Phone in my office still worked. I very seldom used it but it did work. 

[Borg warner]

16 minutes ago, Batesmotel said:

Who is old enough to remember placing a phone call by clicking the receiver, waiting for the operator and then giving them the Local Exchange and Number?

So click, click, click. 

Operator, number please.

Ingersol 65930.

 

I met up with a real old friend last week and we caught up and his old phone number came up. I remembered it but I remembered the by the Exchange and Number system way. Like Ingersol was IN or 46 so Ingersol 65940 was 466-5930. 
 

Huish HI or 48. Marble Arch MA or 62. Etc. 

I still remember the phone number for when I was in High school. EMpire 4-1937

[DAKA]

We have kept the "Land Line" because it may be a "second line of defense" if the Cells go off...I have an old Princess phone I can plug in

We NEVER answer the land line, all are "hang ups" but every few days I listen to the messages...In case there is something IMPORTANT  

Old phone number from my dad's office, he was a physician.. IN 2 1345 (Brooklyn NY) 1940's

[miketx]

Our number in Hot Springs AR in the early 60's was NAtional 34567. Tough one!

[railfancwb]

WO 8 1316

WOodland

[railfancwb]

In one of the area code expansions in Tennessee greater Knoxville became 865.

Or VOL

[Huaco Kid]

We could not put a quarter (dime?) in the payphone, and dial home, and Mom would answer, and you had a full one-second to yell, "We're read...."

And Mom would come pick you up at the swimming pool.

[miketx]

In Glenwood it was BR 549.

[Hook]

What the hell are you guys dinosaurs? 🤣🤣

[Hook]

What the hell are you guys dinosaurs? 🤣🤣

[Batesmotel]

Old enough to remember days before electronics. 
 

Party lines anyone?

That would freak kids out today. 

[Borg warner]

22 minutes ago, Hook said:

What the hell are you guys dinosaurs? 🤣🤣

Nope.  Not dinosaurs, cave men. I'm speaking for those of us who grew up in the previous century when people were not tied to an electronic leash everywhere they went. It was a time of nuts and bolts when everything was mechanical and not electronic, and the only thing that went beep was not your "Device", but the horns on foreign cars. It was a time where men were men and women were glad of it.

[janice6]

7 hours ago, Batesmotel said:

Who is old enough to remember placing a phone call by clicking the receiver, waiting for the operator and then giving them the Local Exchange and Number?

So click, click, click. 

Operator, number please.

Ingersol 65930.

 

I met up with a real old friend last week and we caught up and his old phone number came up. I remembered it but I remembered the by the Exchange and Number system way. Like Ingersol was IN or 46 so Ingersol 65940 was 466-5930. 
 

Huish HI or 48. Marble Arch MA or 62. Etc. 

Blackburn 1 1718 I told her.

 

[janice6]

1 hour ago, Borg warner said:

Nope.  Not dinosaurs, cave men. I'm speaking for those of us who grew up in the previous century when people were not tied to an electronic leash everywhere they went. It was a time of nuts and bolts when everything was mechanical and not electronic, and the only thing that went beep was not your "Device", but the horns on foreign cars. It was a time where men were men and women were glad of it.

It was the time of ANALOG!

[janice6]

7 hours ago, Batesmotel said:

I believed they do. I only got rid of my land line a couple years ago and the old Candlestick Phone in my office still worked. I very seldom used it but it did work. 

Telephone relays would advance one set of contacts with each click.  Banks of these relays would choose the lines to connect you to your number.

 

That would advance this:

[janice6]

7 hours ago, railfancwb said:

Remember it early.

Also remember that the monthly bill was increased for each phone you had connected to that one line. Even if you bought a surplus phone and connected it yourself they would detect it and start billing for it. I’ve wondered how they detected the extra phone but suspect it might have been the current draw of the extra ringer. 

They detected the ringer.

[railfancwb]

5 minutes ago, janice6 said:

It was the time of ANALOG!

If you were any distance from the radio transmitter the variable capacitors were much better at bringing in a good signal than the modern digital fixed step tuners. 

[tous]

16 minutes ago, janice6 said:

Telephone relays would advance one set of contacts with each click.  Banks of these relays would choose the lines to connect you to your number.

 

That would advance this:

Connecting one telephone to another was simply a matter of connecting two wires from the source and destination together.

This was known as a tip and ring -- visualize a 1/4 phone plug; the tip is isolated from the barrel of the plug, the ring.  An operator at a plug board would basically complete the connection between two telephones by plugging one into the other manually.

Technology improves and plug boards were replaced by Central Offices -- a place where all of the telephone wires from a large area terminated.  If you were lucky enough to see a Central Office back in those days, the sheer bulk of the wiring was astonishing.  Now, instead of an operator, each portion of a phone number was represented on a long, floor to ceiling pole in the CO -- a lot of poles all wired with one destination telephone or sub-switch along its length.  If you say, dialed 1 on your phone to call a friend, at the Central Office, a solenoid would move a finger up the correct pole and short that wire.  Repeat for the other six digits in the typical  local phone number. 

Connection made.  You and your friend can converse until one side goes back 'on hook,' i.e., hangs up.  Then the solenoid returns to rest, ready for the next digit dialed for the next call.

It was just fascinating watching it all happen.  A simple, tip and ring connection between two units multiplied by thousands and it all worked and was very efficient.

The clicking described in the above article that distinguished which number is being dialed is called Pulse Code Modulation -- PCM.

Long distance was achieved by, rather than connecting two telephones, long distance connected two central offices and then resolved to a particular telephone.

janice is correct.  AT & T could tell how many telephones were at a termination, even if they were all on-hook,  by measuring the impedance when the unit's ringers activated.  Even if you disconnected the ringer on the pirate unit, they could measure the impedance drop of the secondary unit(s).  Then came a visit by the phone police or termination of your service.  Ma Bell didn't mess around.

Also remember that there were no private telephones allowed on AT & T's network.  They had to be leased from the local Bell facility.

Next week, we'll look at the transition to electronic switching, DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency,)  and Touch Tone telephones.

Note that in most countries in Europe, the government owns the phone system with the expected level of service of all governments -- horrible.

 

[janice6]

Analog radio would produce a signal with noise.  A weak signal could be heard down into the noise level, actually noise equal to the signal, with a discerning ear (I was a radio operator for the Navy and Amateur Radio).

Digital radio requires a 3 dB signal to noise ratio to result in information being heard since the information in the signal has to be digitized.  As a result, a digital signal that isn't twice as loud as the noise (3 dB greater) will produce no sound at all.

For critical communications, analog radio will result in a more dependable communications than digital.

However, digital communications allows you to encrypt the signal and to more easily change frequency unknown to the operator.  that is, more operator friendly.

LEO's have areas in communications where the signal simply disappears when analog signals would only get noisy.

[tous]

I forgot to add, AX(TEL)-1765.

Our phone number, well, my parent's phone number, when we lived in Bountiful, Utah around 1956.

I was six.

I couldn't afford a telephone of my own.

So (sorry, gwalch ) I can recall a phone number from 66 years ago, but don't ask me what I had for lunch  on Friday. 

 

[Batesmotel]

1 hour ago, janice6 said:

Telephone relays would advance one set of contacts with each click.  Banks of these relays would choose the lines to connect you to your number.

 

That would advance this:

I love mechanical technology.