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European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-di
by timonoko 7y ago
European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.
- DonHopkins 7y agoThank you! Knowing that story is a great mnemonic to remember it, even if you have a push button phone!
- troymc 7y agoI grew up in North America (where 911 is the emergency number), so when I moved to Germany and wanted to remember 112, I noticed that it spells out: 1 + 1 = 2
- XaspR8d 7y agoThat would foil me if it was my only memory device. A+B=C is true of ~55 (napkin math) different 3-digit numbers. Plus another 40-ish for A×B=C and 50-ish for A-B=C...
- iNate2000 7y agoBut it’s A+A=B
- LadyCailin 7y agoThe good news is, there’s not that many of those. 112, 224, 336, 448, 550 (its a stretch), and you’re likely to start at the beginning, therefore getting it on the first try. Actually, I’ve heard that on cell phones in EU, you can still dial 911, and it’ll connect. I have had occasions to call 112 before, but it’s always been in big enough emergencies that I didn’t have time to experiment. I’m eagerly awaiting the day when I come across an emergency that’s urgent enough to call 112, but not urgent enough that it can’t wait a little bit for me to try something. It’s a delicate balance
- eigenvector 7y agoIn another recent HN thread, someone posted that due to the way emergency dialing is implemented in the cellular stack, dialing "911" will dial the local emergency number because "911", "112", etc. aren't treated as actual phone numbers, they just trigger the cellular network to bypass normal dialing sequence and connect you to the local emergency system.
- RandomGuyDTB 7y ago(assuming it's A + A = B, there are still 4 sequences that could be if every number is an integer between 0 and 9, but if they remembered one of the numbers was a 1 it would drop the possibilities down to only 1 + 1 = 2)
- kees99 7y agoWhy not 111? That would have been even easier to manually-pulse dial.
- timthorn 7y agoOr for a line between telegraph poles to tap it out in the wind.
- geocar 7y agoThat's NHS non-emergency issues in the UK, and I presume that would have been a factor.
- manderso 7y agoThe NHS 111 number dates from 2009.
- DonHopkins 7y agoBecause cats.
- Angostura 7y agoIn the good old days, they looked at 111 at an emergency number but it was rejected because it was too easy for the digit 1 to be tapped out by in high winds by wires rubbing together. That's why the UK went with 999 as something memorable, but slow to dial.
- rbanffy 7y agoAFAIK they changed it to 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3. Sorry. Someone had to.
- peterleiser 7y agoTry calling that number on your Android phone. It still "works" on my Essential phone with stock Android 10.
- 7y ago
- TrickyRick 7y agoFor someone not familiar with morse or pulse dialing, how does one do that?
- rsync 7y agoYou click the handset down, like you are hanging up the phone, but just very briefly. So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ... You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the phone this way ...
- ObscureScience 7y agoIt's been awhile since I tried it, but isn't it n+1 presses to dial n? So you can dial 0 with one click.
- __void 7y ago"0" was coded with 10 pulses
- AKrumbach 7y agoNo; if you look at an old rotary phone, you're counting the number of finger holes in order to determine pulses. To dial a 0, pulse the line 10 times.
- pomatic 7y agoUnless you are in New Zealand - the dial is numbered "backwards" there so 0 is 1 pulse etc.
- toby 7y agoOh wow, thank you for the memories :) I grew up in New Zealand when everything was pulse dialing and had an American modem that my father got us, so in order to dial any phone number I had to rewrite it by subtracting every digit from 10.
- Aardwolf 7y agoThere are so many of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_nu... In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's not trivial to remember which one. The American 911 is more memorable, even in Europe, simply due to it appearing in popular culture so often, I hope that if someone dials that one in Europe it'll also get forwarded to a real emergency line.
- endless1234 7y ago>In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's just ridiculous to remember them. Eh? 112 works in the whole EU. As your link says. Of course old legacy numbers also work in many countries.
- TheRealPomax 7y agoIt's almost as if Europe is not a country. Just like the US, every country in has its own emergency numbers that you should probably know if you're in that country, but for Europe as a whole, 112 is the universal emergency number. And while 911 might be known to many outside the US, as a number that requires actually navigating the dialing pad, it's not all that great. The UK's 999 or Europe's 112 are far better at being something you can dial while under duress (with 999, as a repeated number, being by far the superior choice here).
- spookthesunset 7y agoIt is a trade off though. I’m sure “911” is no accident either. Because it is slightly harder to dial, it probably has far less accidental dialings than some other countries emergency numbers. I bet little kids would constantly pick up a phone and dial “999999999”.... harder to mistakenly / playfully dial “911”
- grawprog 7y agohttps://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/here-s-why-911-became-the-number-for-emergencies/ar-AAG1w66 https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/here-s-wh... >Up until 1968, the United States was still using hundreds of seven-digit emergency telephone numbers across the country. In fact, some states, like Nebraska, had more than 180 different ambulance service numbers alone. >The code 911 was chosen because it best fit the needs of all parties involved,” according to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). “First, and most important, it met public requirements because it is brief, easily remembered, and can be dialed quickly. Second, because it is a unique number, never having been authorized as an office code, area code or service code, it best met the long range numbering plans and switching configurations of the telephone industry.”
- hyakosm 7y agoIf I remember, some old payphones locked the rotary dial after 1 and 2.
- ranit 7y agoThanks for the information. I didn't know. A nitpick: this is not "morse" [code].
- timonoko 7y agoYes it is. Spells "EEI". Cry for help or "expression of disapproval” in Chinese.
- parliament32 7y agoAnecdote: A user at work was assigned extension 112. Works fine on the Cisco handsets we mainly use, but when users were trying to dial it directly from their VoIP apps on their cell phones, they often got dumped out to the phone emergency menu (depending on which VoIP app they're using). We're in NA so it was a huge mystery as to why this was happening just with their extension, took a while before we realized what was going on.
- DonHopkins 7y agoNote: You should NEVER say that you hate the phone company on an open land line. And please, be nice to the operator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jEiTxg21q8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jEiTxg21q8