Do you remember when you first did 10-digit dialing?

 

When I moved to PA in June 1999, two weeks later, everyone had to dial the area code along with the 7 digit phone number. I didn't know why this extra work was needed, I moved from Albany NY where we simply dialed 7 digits.

I had never heard of the area code 610--yet I've had the same home # since 2002.

In 2010, I learned that in Chicago, 11 digit dialing is mandatory, even if calling your neighbor. 1 plus 312 or etc. then 7 digits. 1 isn't optional.

I was in Hartford CT in 2016, and could not get a fax to go through. (fax lol)

I even opened a trouble ticket, and the clec who was Cox, said are you forgetting to dial a 1 before your area code (long distance back to HQ)? Sort of a scenario where I was trying to disable the burglar alarm but punching the code into the fire alarm panel. In my panic, I didn't really notice the red paint around the digits and display. All one can say is, DOH!!

Phone technology.

Heck, I even remember the battery powered oak crank phone hanging on the dining room wall of our farmhouse. The ringer was powered by one of those old 6 volt cube shaped dry cell batteries and it could give you a pretty good jolt if you touched one of the terminals while you turned the crank. All phones back then were "party lines" and you were only supposed to answer your "ring". I think ours was 2 shorts and a long. But the phone rang on all the phones in your "party" whenever anyone in the party got a call. If you wanted to snoop, all you had to do is pick up the receiver and listen.

If you wanted to call someone else on your party line, you just cranked in their ring code and waited for them to pick up. If you wanted to call anyone else you had to crank in an "extra long" to get the operator who could patch your line in to other party lines operated out of the same phone office, or they would patch into the next operator up the line if it was a longer distance call. Sometimes you might go through several operator patch panels to get a distant recipient and you could hear as each operator made the connection to the next segment up the line.

When I was about 7, the phone company upgraded to rotary dial phones with 5-digit numbers. They raised the price and my parents couldn't afford it so we got rid of our phone and didn't have a phone for the next several years. The dial phones were still party line based, but they were "smart" enough so they only rang the phone number being called and not everyone else on the party line. Even that offered little privacy though. Often when you picked up the phone to make a call you would drop in on a conversation of someone else on your party line.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

The first phones I remember

alandb wrote:

... The dial phones were still party line based, but they were "smart" enough so they only rang the phone number being called and not everyone else on the party line. Even that offered little privacy though. Often when you picked up the phone to make a call you would drop in on a conversation of someone else on your party line.

The first phones that I remember were the rotary dial party line phones. In our town half the numbers were four digit and the other half were five digit. The ringer circuit in the phone was tuned to a specific frequency. The other party's ringer circuit was tuned to a different frequency. Only a ringer signal from the phone company at the correct frequency would cause your phone to ring.
When I moved to DC in the mid eighties we had seven digit dialing for local calls, covering three different area codes. The way they accomplished local dialing across the multiple area codes was to make your seven digit number valid number for you with any of the three area code prefixes. For example if your number was 555-1234 and your area code was 301; you could be reached from a local DC area phone in any of the three area codes with any of these numbers: 555-1234, 301-555-1234, 202-555-1234, or 703-555-1234. Eventually we transitioned to 10 digit dialing. these days (at least with my cell phone) I think the 1 is optional for calls within the USA.
Mark

5 digits, and the meaning of 1

baumback wrote:

these days (at least with my cell phone) I think the 1 is optional for calls within the USA.

Growing up in the 50s in western Ohio, our house phone number was 5 digits. It was on a party line, though we did not hear a neighbor all that often when we picked up.
When long-distance dialing arrived, I learned that the leading 1 is not actually part of the phone number, but rather a code to instruct your local switch to process the call through the long distance system.
Outside of big cities, most local office switches in those days were SXS switches, and that 1 would physically cause your call to be connected up to the next higher level of office--none of the remaining digits you dialled on that call would be seen by anything in your local office.

I don't know how that worked in the No. 5 crossbar and Tracker switches which were used in the bigger city central offices, but the code was the same for consistency.

--
personal GPS user since 1992

I do

archae86 wrote:
baumback wrote:

these days (at least with my cell phone) I think the 1 is optional for calls within the USA.

Growing up in the 50s in western Ohio, our house phone number was 5 digits. It was on a party line, though we did not hear a neighbor all that often when we picked up.
When long-distance dialing arrived, I learned that the leading 1 is not actually part of the phone number, but rather a code to instruct your local switch to process the call through the long distance system.
Outside of big cities, most local office switches in those days were SXS switches, and that 1 would physically cause your call to be connected up to the next higher level of office--none of the remaining digits you dialled on that call would be seen by anything in your local office.

I don't know how that worked in the No. 5 crossbar and Tracker switches which were used in the bigger city central offices, but the code was the same for consistency.

Remember a party line as a teen--my friend's parents had a ski house in VT. We would pick up the phone and people were already talking.

How about this one? As college students, we would make a 3rd party call, to a payphone. About 40% of the time it worked lol

Memories are great

Late 40s or early 50s -1st number I remember was Northcliff (NO) and 4 digits after that

2nd number was Market (MA) with a 6 added after the MA and the same 4 digits after that.

That was the number my family had when I married and moved out of the house. It was called 626-_ _ _ _ then.

When we married we had Clearwater 7 - _ _ _ _.
It then changed to 444-_ _ _ _ the same 4 numbers as the Clearwater.
There was another prefix before or after Clearwater but I can't remember what it was.

To his day we still have the same 444-_ _ _ _ number we had in the 1960s.
We just shortly had it ported to a cell phone as the phone company removed all the coper in our area and went to fiber.
We have 2 cell phones so we ported it to one of them as no need to have 3 phones anymore as the one offered with fiber is Voice Over Internet. The only thing I miss with no landline is being able to FAX when I need to.

The 444-_ _ _ _ number is us and we didn't want to loose that.
Silly I know. Our daughter said she wants it when we are through with it smile

--
Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

funny

mgarledge wrote:

Late 40s or early 50s -1st number I remember was Northcliff (NO) and 4 digits after that

2nd number was Market (MA) with a 6 added after the MA and the same 4 digits after that.

That was the number my family had when I married and moved out of the house. It was called 626-_ _ _ _ then.

When we married we had Clearwater 7 - _ _ _ _.
It then changed to 444-_ _ _ _ the same 4 numbers as the Clearwater.
There was another prefix before or after Clearwater but I can't remember what it was.

To his day we still have the same 444-_ _ _ _ number we had in the 1960s.
We just shortly had it ported to a cell phone as the phone company removed all the coper in our area and went to fiber.
We have 2 cell phones so we ported it to one of them as no need to have 3 phones anymore as the one offered with fiber is Voice Over Internet. The only thing I miss with no landline is being able to FAX when I need to.

The 444-_ _ _ _ number is us and we didn't want to loose that.
Silly I know. Our daughter said she wants it when we are through with it smile

Your memory made me think of the song Beechwood 4-5789.

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-marvelettes/beechwood-4-...

About 10 years ago I was driving in my car and the radio showed "Jenny 867-5309."

I took a pic and emailed my work group. I said hey Jenny, you get a new cell (like she's never heard that one)....lol

Mapping

As this is a GPS-oriented site, I'll work a mapping wrinkle into the discussion. Except it is a different meaning of mapping.

The reason AT&T got rid of the alphabetic component of central office names (WYandotte, BUtterfield, ...) was that the association (aka mapping) of letters to numbers differed from country to country. So International dialing, which was clearly coming, would not work properly if there was anything but numbers involved in telephone numbers.

Personal anecdote: I was visiting Intel's factory in Penang Malaysia, and needed to figure out the mapping from letters to numbers for something in US terms. I got hold of someone answering the phone at an Intel US operation, and had quite a bit of difficulty expressing the question to them, let alone getting an answer. Of course, since it was daytime in Penang it was the dark of night in the US, which did not improve my chances. I did succeed in the end.

--
personal GPS user since 1992

More phone trivia ...Missing letters on old phones.

Some folks probably don't remember that many old phones did not contain all 26 letters of the alphabet on the dial. They were missing one or more of the letters O, Q and Z. So the 6 key or hole on the dial just showed MN, the 7 show PRS and the 9 showed WXY.

I think the main reason the O was left off is because in the early days it was common to say "dial OH for operator", which meant dial zero. So it was thought to be confusing if there was a letter O as well as a zero. I'm not sure why Q and Z were left off other than these are used infrequently in common words and I think they wanted no more than 3 letters for each digit. Letters weren't assigned to the zero key because of the "dial O for operator" convention stated above. It is also probably why phone numbers never started with the digit zero.

And ... to wrap up this trivia, why are no letters assigned to the 1 key and why is zero the last digit on the phone keypad rather than the first?

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Engineers

alandb wrote:

And ... to wrap up this trivia, why are no letters assigned to the 1 key and why is zero the last digit on the phone keypad rather than the first?

The phone keypad is laid out in the same pattern as the adding machine that was common in those days. The keypad you see with 12 spaces also doesn't show the other four digits in the touchtone design. The fourth column contains the letters A - D which are part of the overall switch to switch signaling.

--
Illiterate? Write for free help.

phone trivia, the only part I have any idea about

alandb wrote:

why is zero the last digit on the phone keypad rather than the first?

0 delivers 10 pulses, because 0 pulses is hard to count, no way to differentiate 1 nothing 3 from 1 3, easier to machine the gears to place 0(10) at the end

--
the title of my autiobiography "Mistakes have been made"

Disagree

Box Car wrote:

The phone keypad is laid out in the same pattern as the adding machine that was common in those days. The keypad you see with 12 spaces also doesn't show the other four digits in the touchtone design. The fourth column contains the letters A - D which are part of the overall switch to switch signaling.

Pattern perhaps, 3 x 3 but otherwise I would disagree; there is a significant difference. The adding machines (and most calculators) have the 7–8–9 buttons along the top row whereas the phone has 1–2–3 along the top.

A very detailed history of the development of the two types of keyboards can be found at https://thenextweb.com/news/heres-why-telephones-and-calcula...

--
John from PA

Song memory ...

John, since you mentioned a song that this discussion brought to mind, I will do the same ... the 1972 Jim Croce hit "Operator".

'Operator, could you help me place this call,
The number on the matchbook is old and faded ..."

Then later in the song ...

"Operator, let's forget about this call,
There's no one there I really wanted to talk to,
Thank you for your time,
You've been so much more than kind,
You can keep the dime ..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb85NvjbBm8

It is easy to forget how much and how fast things change. Ask your parents and older relatives lots of questions and ask them for lots of details. Someday, you will be glad you did.

--
Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Ah!

almostbob wrote:
alandb wrote:

why is zero the last digit on the phone keypad rather than the first?

0 delivers 10 pulses, because 0 pulses is hard to count, no way to differentiate 1 nothing 3 from 1 3, easier to machine the gears to place 0(10) at the end

Ah, makes total sense cool

Real Operators

I can remember talking to the operator to give her the extension or name of the person I wanted to call. The operator knew where to put the plug and connect the call. There were also party lines where multiple people share a connection. Now those were interesting!!!

Back to life, a payphone

A small group of engineers and programmers have a pay phone in a Philadelphia book store that went live yesterday. You can use the phone to call anywhere in the continental USA for free.

See https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/tech/pay-phone-philadel...

--
John from PA

Operater assisted calls

I was hit by a trailer when I was about 6, on my bike on the footpath, the driver did not account for inswing ran over the curb, and did not stop
the lady who's house we were in front of, picked me up,took me inside
picked up the phone and told Mrs Vickie to 'find Fiona, and send an ambulance to my house, one of her boys has been hit'
not a very large town
'Aunty' Billie's house
about 6 doors down from the medical centre
about 12 doors down from the switchboard
mum was at "someone's" but the operator knew where everyone was

Ancient Australian news service
telegram, telephone, tell Mrs Vickie

--
the title of my autiobiography "Mistakes have been made"

We have been dialing 10 digits…

….for as far back as I can remember. However, we have only been dialing 10 digits for local calls since this past June.

--
With God, all things are possible. ——State motto of the Great State of Ohio

I remember.....

when our phone number was 2 digits and you spoke them to an operator. And when I was very little and my mom could not be awakened I cried to the operator to get my dad and she knew how to connect me to him with no number, at his store. He called a neighbor doctor who rushed over and saved my mom's life. She had encephalitis. This would be the late 1940s in Oklahoma.

--
rvOutrider

Times change

Most kids today are as baffled by dial phones as they are with manual-crank windows in cars.

I remember when you could direct-dial local calls (7 digits) but had to dial "O" for an Operator to dial and connect a long-distance call and may have had to wait an hour or more to place your call because "the long-distance circuits are busy." They were so expensive by the financial standards of their time that long-distance calls were generally short and either for business, dire family news, or five-minute calls among relatives passing the phone around on birthdays or Christmas.

--
"141 could draw faster than he, but Irving was looking for 143..."

Connect through 1-800

In the late '80s (before cell phones) my wife and I were vacationing in Hawaii. I worked for IBM in Cleveland and when we wanted to call someone back home from Hawaii, I'd call the IBM 800 number and ask the operator to connect my call to the local number we wanted. Worked like a charm.

Phil

--
"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."

I remember

Lost Anyway wrote:

Most kids today are as baffled by dial phones as they are with manual-crank windows in cars.

I remember when you could direct-dial local calls (7 digits) but had to dial "O" for an Operator to dial and connect a long-distance call and may have had to wait an hour or more to place your call because "the long-distance circuits are busy." They were so expensive by the financial standards of their time that long-distance calls were generally short and either for business, dire family news, or five-minute calls among relatives passing the phone around on birthdays or Christmas.

Growing up we had no cars with AC and no cars with power windows nor stereos nor cruise nor intermittent wipers. My uncle's cars had all of the above and as a young kid I was envious.

Imagine as a < 10 y.o. kid I thought intermittent or delay wipers was so cool. I went to Caldor, bought a unit, and installed it in my parents' car. I was so disappointed, it didn't work as I had expected. It made a loud clicking sound, and basically cut the power off, then on. So the behavior since my parents' car was a GM, was the wipers disappeared every time the unit clicked off (they returned to the full park position). The way the factory GM behaved was the wipers stayed out, you know, maybe 35 degrees. Come to think of it, so did Fords, so how did that work, meaning the wipers don't return to park during the intermittent function, they stay exposed at maybe 35 degrees?

I remember making calls overseas for 10 cents a minute using a calling card. Heck, I remember when 10 cents a minute long distance within the USA was a good price! Remember the 1010 dial
around.....

Speaking of wipers--it blows my mind that today, my daily driver, has a pivot just like a 1960s GM or a RV or a bus. And the car is a 2006. Not sure if I am describing it correctly but it drove me bonkers when I got this car used so I tried to adjust it, made it worse.

This isn't mine, but it's along the same principle--my driver side is similar

https://www.zoro.com/autotex-adjustable-wiper-arm-350-to-450...

I had the idea

johnnatash4 wrote:

Imagine as a < 10 y.o. kid I thought intermittent or delay wipers was so cool.

On the road with my family in 1964 somewhere between Paris and Mont-Saint-Michel we were traveling in light rain and I had the idea for intermittent wipers. I mentioned it to my father who did not think anyone would want such a thing if it were made.

Years later when they were common he had the grace to remember my suggestion and to agree that it worked out useful in practice.

Some other guy also had the idea and held up the world's automobile manufacturers for ransom and tied them up with lawsuits because he ran out and got a patent on it.

--
personal GPS user since 1992