3 ms·

Related trivia: New Zealand rotary dialers had the numbers in ascending order, that is zero was in the rest position and nine nearest to the turning stop. The p

Related trivia: New Zealand rotary dialers had the numbers in ascending order, that is zero was in the rest position and nine nearest to the turning stop. The pulse encoder was therefore "ten minus digit", i.e. one pulse when dialling nine, ten when dialling zero [1] - a thread with some crusty old PT&T engineers argues whether this arose to avoid patent/licensing issues or just as a mistake [2] So the emergency number was 111 rather than 999 on the same basis of reducing accidental use, not just from line noise but especially from having the finger slip out partway through the turn of the dial (even with international dialling there was no reason anyone would attempt a number starting with three zeros) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial#/media/File:New_Zealand_Rotary_Telephone.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial#/media/File:New_Ze... [2] https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?topicid=171168 https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?topicid=171168

NeedMoreTea 7y ago
Fascinating, I never knew that. Seems like the UK GPO sold or licensed handsets overseas too, which I also didn't know. From your link 1, they appear to have used at least some GPO 746's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones#/media/File:746_telephone_in_ivory.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones#/media/File:746... The 746 was the standard handset just about everyone got in the 1970s.
- thombat 7y ago
  That 746 photo certainly looks identical to the standard NZ unit, right down to the removable cover in the centre-top (which in big fancy offices was host to an extra switch for some kind of PABX function [possibly just a safer cradle-rest-tap for transferring calls?]. These switches were long rectangles and usually made of clear plastic like a small version of HAL9000's logic blocks - in the days before the BT phone jack reached NZ (around 1987) it was as exotic as anyone's phone could get - we used to salivate over UK electronic magazines and the riot of innovation on display: not just alternative handsets but even directly connected modems rather than acoustic couplers.
  - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
    Aye that switch sounds identical too. There was also some sort of extra switch set that was like a matching base, with 3 or 4 extra switches, that I only ever saw in a movie or two. Both illustrated on that Wikipedia page. Exotic was the arrival of the phone plug. Two phone points in the house and a push button phone, which usually still had a bell. The peak of 80s luxury. By the 90s I wanted a second line as the USRobotics Courier thing was always hogging the phone. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones

NeedMoreTea 7y ago

Fascinating, I never knew that. Seems like the UK GPO sold or licensed handsets overseas too, which I also didn't know. From your link 1, they appear to have used at least some GPO 746's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones#/media/File:746_telephone_in_ivory.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones#/media/File:746... The 746 was the standard handset just about everyone got in the 1970s.

thombat 7y ago
That 746 photo certainly looks identical to the standard NZ unit, right down to the removable cover in the centre-top (which in big fancy offices was host to an extra switch for some kind of PABX function [possibly just a safer cradle-rest-tap for transferring calls?]. These switches were long rectangles and usually made of clear plastic like a small version of HAL9000's logic blocks - in the days before the BT phone jack reached NZ (around 1987) it was as exotic as anyone's phone could get - we used to salivate over UK electronic magazines and the riot of innovation on display: not just alternative handsets but even directly connected modems rather than acoustic couplers.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  Aye that switch sounds identical too. There was also some sort of extra switch set that was like a matching base, with 3 or 4 extra switches, that I only ever saw in a movie or two. Both illustrated on that Wikipedia page. Exotic was the arrival of the phone plug. Two phone points in the house and a push button phone, which usually still had a bell. The peak of 80s luxury. By the 90s I wanted a second line as the USRobotics Courier thing was always hogging the phone. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPO_telephones