Posted on 07/20/2011 6:44:18 PM PDT by jocon307
You probably dial a few of them every day, but do you ever stop and think about the history behind a phone number? When were the first numbers introduced? How did you end up with a particular area code?
We’ve got the answers to these quandaries and more in our collection of 10 fascinating facts that you might not know about the common phone number.
(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...
Check out these interesting facts about phone numbers, area codes, etc.
For example the NJ area code 201 was the very first one, yay Jersey!
Maybe I'm drawn to post this since I've spent so much time on the phone lately calling DC (area code 202!)
Two longs and a short.
I’ve always disliked that phony-baloney 555 exchange number. Whenever I hear it in a drama it somehow breaks the spell of the suspension of belief and you acutely realize that it’s all fakery before your eyes.
I wish they explained why, in the old days, people would call the operator and saw things like “Klondike 558”, etc. Any Freeper know why?
A benefit of having Bell Laboratories located in Murray Hill.
For example, when I was little, I remember people referring to my home phone number as "Highland 4, w, x, y, z," where the exchange was "444." Sometimes the "Highland 4" was abbreviated as "HI 4." I also remember "Delmar 3" or "DE 3" for "333," and "Niagra 2" (NI 2) for "642."
I wonder where that came from. But then, I also remember when we had a party line too.
Mark
I know they used to use letters instead of numbers, such as OV23636.
I wonder what people would think of party lines today?
Our tone was two longs and a short.
That would have been a number on the Klondike exchange. There were no universal numbers at the time.
They left out a few singularly phascinating phone phacts.
1) Early phone keys are reverse from 10-key — phones go from top to bottom where as 10 keys go from bottom to top.
Why?
Well, like typewriters, which shuffled the keys so the arms wouldn’t jam, the designers of the first digital phones were worried that 10 key operators would overwhelm the ability to process the input.
2) “1” in the initial entry code told the (then-analog) switches that this would be a call outside of the area. Thus, the older area codes had an embedded “1” — 213, 818, 212, 617, 312, etc.
It is now an anachronistic standard that calls outside (or sometimes inside) the area begin with “1” — it tells the switch that there will be a call outside of the immediate area. For massive areas, such as the L.A. 818 area, it was just easier to require the code and handle all calls as if out of the area.
It was considered an easier way to remember numbers. KL was 55, then a third number, then a dash, then four numbers. KLondike 3-3413 is 555-3413.
Yeap, ours was LO1, short for Logan One or 561
The murder rate would go up.
:~)
As late as 1978 in New Brunswick, Canada although we in town had a private line, I had friends 15 miles out in the country who had party lines. I was always reminded to watch what I said.
The first two letters in an exchange equated to the first two numbers of the exchange number. Early on, if you were in the same exchange, you only needed to dial the last five digits, like you do today in an office.
Each telephone office exchange had a two digit number assigned, and a nemonic was created to help remember it. Where I grew up, my exchange was “Prescott 2,” with the first two letters PR equating to “77.” Thus my phone number started with “772.” This is why there are letters on your phone dial.
Apparently, the phone company figured people could remember a name and five digits easier than remembering seven digits.
TW32938 I was 5 years old. I’m 58 now. Lived in Westminster, CA at the time.
“Hickory” 2 here.
I keep calling my Congressman asking to stop runaway spending and the phone just rings and rings!
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