pondering......... |
Ric |
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Plankowner Posts: 9165 Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: pondering......... Do you think Alexander Graham Bell's phone number was just 1? | ||
RCK |
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Master and Commander Posts: 1431 | Subject: RE: pondering......... When Alexander Graham Bell first tried the phone he got a busy signal!! | ||
Tom McNulty |
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Master and Commander Posts: 1455 | Subject: RE: pondering......... Couldn't have been any number as I don't think the dial phone was the original. It must be raining where you are. Too much time today? | ||
mike652 |
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Great Sage of the Sea Posts: 715 Location: Conway, NH | Subject: RE: pondering......... Our home phone number when I was a kid was 202-2 (spoken two oh two ring two), it was a party line. The next phone number we had was 51. Had to turn a crank on the box to get the operator (Hattie), then you told her what number you wanted. Then we got dial 464-5100. | ||
Ric |
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Plankowner Posts: 9165 Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: pondering......... You called "central" and asked for the number (or person) you wanted, later we had a dial. Number was "Red 493". Two prefixes , Red and Black. Whole phone book INCLUDING yellow pages was the size of a comic book. | ||
Ric |
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Plankowner Posts: 9165 Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: pondering......... Nope. Nice day... just marking time until I go pick up this woman for day together. | ||
Roy Ator |
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Great Sage of the Sea Posts: 892 Location: Palo Pinto County, Texas | Subject: RE: pondering......... Our 'ring' was two longs and a short on the hand crank. One long was for the operator. Anytime the phone rang, everyone picked up for the local news. We were on a nine party line that was maintained by the users of the line. The wall phone had two large dry cell batteries. We still have an independently owned telephone system with excellent modern service including DSL internet. | ||
SOB490 |
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Old Salt Posts: 489 Location: San Freakcisco CA area | Subject: RE: pondering......... So far as I can recall, my family and I have always been tied to Ma Bell's apron strings. We originally had a hand crank system that rang "central" and we told the operator who we wanted to be connected to by name, not their phone number. So far as I know, nobody even had individual phone numbers, just a jack on the switchboard. The operator (Depending on the time of day, she was one of two old spinster sisters who lived together and their parlor was full of switchboards and batteries) always knew the whereabouts of Doc Steese as well as just about everybody -- and everything -- else in town. Before switching over, we had a 3-party line so we knew by one long, or one long and one short, or one long and two shorts who the call was for. When we shifted from the old crank-style and got a real phone number, it was 490. That was in 1944 -- some 12 years later, my qual boat was .... 490. Mere coincidence. We got phones with rotary dials on them in 1949 and went to a 5-digit phone number, but we didn't get actual dial service in 1952. I never understood why we had dial phones but no dial service - whether Western Electric was overstocked or we were just slow getting the new style central switch. We went to the 7-digit dialing system in 1956 - just before I left home for boot camp. I can still hear all of the pissing and moaning about having to look up and then remember the number long enough to dial all of 7 digits! Pop was good with numbers, but Mom finally wound up having to write them down on a pad of paper held by some plastic contraption that the phone sat in. We still had to dial "Operator" for long distance calls - I don't remember when direct long distance dial came into our area, as I was long gone by then. Ain't technology grand? | ||