Telephone Technology: Push Buttons and Party Lines

Fishwrap / Newspapers.com ^ | November 4, 2019 | Jenny Ashcraft

[\/\/ayne]

Ever work with Corporate Systems? We had leased AT&T lines all over the country. Our equipment could read the frequency level but the AT&T techs could tell by the sound of the tone. So we’d say “yeah, it’s -11” and they’d tune it up and say “should -17 or -18 by the sound.” And it would be.

[IronJack]

Now they’re called “chat rooms” and you’re charged up the wazoo.

[IronJack]

You can look up the DTMF frequencies in the internet.

[Verbosus]

I think it was more of a case of “in case it is needed in the future” type scenario.

The same names (albeit a fake name) would infer it was copied.
I don’t believe it was ever actually used, it was just seeded with a fake names.

[fruser1]

“operator would plug a wire into your jack”

And if the phone company was unionized back then, it’d still work that way.

[zeugma]

I would tune the Shortwave to 5 MHz and get the time from WWV.

The government is talking about discontinuing that service, sadly.

[zeugma]

Telecom Digest was one of the oldest mailing lists on the internet. I was a subscriber for many years. Occasionally someone would write something up describing some weird bit of telecom history. Some of the stories were fascinating. I still recall a description I read in the digest that described, in detail exactly what it was like to place a call from NY to CA in the 40s. You would initiate the call by ringing the operator. This was done by flicking your receiver off and on several times, which would cause a light to flicker on the operator's switchboard as your device when on and off hook. You'd tell the operator the number you wanted to connect to, then hung up. The operator would then start the process of building a physical wire all the way across the country by patching from one operator to another along the line. Once the circuit was complete, and the called party was on the line, the operator would ring you back, and then you'd start talking. The entire process could take half and hour or more just to build the line.

I need to look through the Digest archives to see if I can find the original. I think some Freepers might be interested.

[_Jim]

TI has “GUS” (Greater Users Service or some such) and “GERTIE” between TI sites; no toll calling between Lubback, Dallas, Houston and the plants in the NE like Boston ...

This awhile before ‘WATS’ (Wide Area Telecommunications Service) Lines and 1-800 services ...

[headsonpikes]

Long distance calls were just as you described back in 1950s British Columbia, but it usually took just a couple of minutes to get connected.

[_Jim]

Hams used to abuse the direct-dial long distance system badly; ring up a party, let it ring once, twice and hang up. Dial again and repeat .. all this a signal to get on say, 80 meters on the ‘usual’ frequency OR it meant that a BIG DX (dx means ‘distance’: e.g. rare station, special events dxexpedition or rare island or country station, etc.) was “on” ...

Do this a dozen times to get all your ‘buddies’ notified!

[Rebelbase]

2600 published a phone booth photo my son took in the Bahamas around 2000 or so.

[dakine]

Heck, I remember when a long distance call was: “Hurry up and say ‘hi’ to your Uncle, this call is costing a fortune!”

[Rebelbase]

I just called 203-SPRINGS and it worked fine.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks. I’d never heard of that before. Interesting little bit of history trivia.

I’d love to see a question based on that on Jeopardy.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I worked in a remote Red Chinese village called “Shui-fu” in the fall, winter and spring of 1976-1977. We were building and starting a new fertilizer plant.

There was one phone that us foreign visitors could use that was run off some large old-fashioned dry cells. For an international call, you had to reserve a full day in advance and they would come get you when the call was ready and your party was on the line.

I made only one call to my Mom to wish her Happy Birthday in January 1977. The call was mostly “Happy Birthday, Mom!” followed by “What? I can’t hear you” and “Huh, what did you say?” and “Can you hear me now?” (it was great practice for future cellular technology!)

The ten minute call cost me $100 which is about $425 in today’s dollars!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yeah...it was usually “Hon, your mom’s on the phone — quick! Get on the extension!”

[lightman]

My grandmother was a telephone operator in the 1920’s.

Someone in the family said that if the rotary dial hadn’t been invented every working age woman in the US would have needed to be an operator by the start of WWII.

[21twelve]

Where I live one has to use the area code for even local calls. So “popcorn” wouldn’t work.

Growing up our phone number was WAlnut-6-2043.

But I can’t remember what I had for breakfast!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Interesting tidbit!

[The Great RJ]

I also remember named telephone exchanges. Some exchange names were strange. One in a neighboring town was inexplicably “Flyger”. When I was a kid our small town you still had to crank the phone and talk to an operator who then connected you. Long distance calls took a long time to set up and you would give the operator the information then hang up and wait for the operator to call back when the connection was made. Long distance calls were expensive and often were only used to bring bad news like a death in the family. You had a sense of dread when a call was from the operator saying you had a long distance call.