Posted on 05/21/2024 10:19:32 AM PDT by DallasBiff
The rotary dial phone was once the be all and end all of the telephones. Like the cellphone of today, everybody had one, and they ruled domestic communications for decades.
But that all changed in the 1980s when they were supplanted by a new upstart, push-button telephones. Their days were numbered (pun intended).
Many born after the 1990s have likely never seen one, which is a shame. But for those who do remember, join us as we take a trip back in time in remembrance of this glorious piece of telecommunications history.
(Excerpt) Read more at interestingengineering.com ...
The time service I remember was “popcorn” and had an automated voice saying “at the tone, the time will be xyz and xy seconds.”
Ya, I remember a rich relative that didnt mind wasting the additional 70 cents per month or whatever it was for the fancy phone. I remember it was quite the big deal in our house at the time, “the way some people throw money away.”
Not quite.
A lightning bolt struck the line out where my grandma lived and everyone on the party line had a bright light flash in their house right before the phones melted.
You can still listen to the time on WWV shortwave. Seems at one time it was connected with the Naval Observatory — maybe still is. If Internet and GPS went down this is how you would do time synchronization.
Amherst 9-5448
DTMF = dual tone, multi frequency.
I have the Verizon fiber optic service which allows me to connect just about any old phone and have it work. I use it to test old dial phones.
I was on a party line as a pregnant young married. The other party hogged that line. Fortunately I went into labor on a Saturday morning when my husband was home.
Back in the 70’s it was a real experience using a rotary phone to be the ‘10th caller’ to a radio program in order to win a prize. Especially, when there were a lot of 8’s, 9’s or 0’s in the phone number.
Also https://www.oldphoneshop.com/
I once tried to buy a blue 302 at an estate auction, and ran it up to around $500 and the other bidder wouldn’t quit. Maybe I’ll find one at a yard sale someday.
I still have one that my grandmother used; it costs a lot less if you just want them refurbished/adapted.
I think it was around then too when my middle daughter came home all worked up because of the difficulty she had getting home from a friends house.
Long story short, the only phone available for her to use to call me was her friends grandmothers phone out in the stables and neither she nor her friend could figure out how to use a rotary so they couldnt call out.
She spent a lot of time there so I explained it to her and she still didnt get it. I wound up making a fake dial so she could see what I meant.
My first thought.
GMTA
Hahaha!!!
It was deliberate.
People skilled with data entry could push the buttons MUCH faster than the switching system could keep up. The equipment needed enough time to discriminate between which of the three column tones AND which of the four row tones were intended before the next number was pressed.
There simply weren't tone detectors and other electronics available at the time to do this over noisy and lower quality lines.
Flipping the top and bottom rows slowed down the 10,000 numbers entry per hour accountants...
my aunt&uncle had a crank phone till the 60s...
Here’s a film from the 50’s explaining how Bell System introduced the new phones:
The Dial Comes To Town
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45T7U5oi9Q
“ATT was withholding a lot of technology.”
whose?
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