Posted on 05/21/2024 10:19:32 AM PDT by DallasBiff
We ‘upgraded’ to a phone chord that could reach into the living room (phone was located in kitchen)- We thought it was the greatest invention ever lol
Years later- we got a TV with a remote- talk about heaven!
Even without a dial, those old phones would dial using the Hangup Hook button. If you did it fast enough hitting it 5 times was the same as dialing a 5.
Never a party line but my number was Sunset 1-5090
Nope. "Phones of color" could be had as far back as the 30s, and maybe earlier. You probably had to pay more on the monthly charge, however. Original ones are quite rare today, and are highly collectible.
Phone numbers back then were handed out in the order a person became a customer. When I was a kid my parents bought a business and kept 'the old phone number' which was 62. Your grandmother could have been one of the first 999 customers
Capitol 5- 2321....I can still hear my dad calling his office!!
We had numbers to dial for time and weather, with automated responses. A few years ago, I read that the Naval Observatory was still doing Time; I don’t know if it’s still true.
Back in the early days, they hired teenage boys to be operators. Problem was they caused too much trouble, so they switched to women, and all was well.
Same here. I have faded memories of the old wall crank phone we had on the ranch when I was a little tot.
My home number growing up had two 0s, two 9s, and an 8. Calling home from a friend’s house and messing up the last number and having to start over was horrible.
About 10 years ago, some of us were talking to a girl in her late teens and mentioned rotary phones - she said,’I’ve seen one of those!’
Strowger
1st phone party line... 2 longs and a short
Skyline 2-0332
Can’t believe I still remember that.
Loved the sound old rotary phones made when you dialed them…especially the 9’s, 8’s, 7’s.
“this was allowed by the superposition principle.”
Nice quantum application. Is there a cat hiding in there?
These rotating bar switches obviated the local operator to complete a local call. The switches connected physical wires, circuits, to make an electrical connection to a specific residence or business set of wires. No more operator plugging A to B. The plug (then switch) connected a pair of wires called tip and ring, a terminology that persisted for decades, even when the technology advanced to digital switches, as did the term twisted pair.
Rings were caused by 40 volts DC flowing down that circuit . That voltage could knock you on your butt.
Early wall phones had hooks on the side on which to hang the receiver (the part you hold to your ear). The hook operated an internal switch (the hook switch) to disconnect everything so as not to deplete the batteries. So to end a call, you literally hung the receiver on the hook, hence the "hang up" term, which is still in use to this day.
On the bracket that the Handset rests the Ear Piece and makes the contacts that disconnects the Call. (Wall mount phones)
Or the Saddle of a Desktop Phone.
Those old Phones were tough too, You could hammer in a 16 Penny Nail with the Handset and it would still work.
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