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When I was a kid, a single phone line was shared between 3 or so homes. If you picked up the phone and heard the neighbors talking, you said sorry and hung up a
by abraae 6y ago
When I was a kid, a single phone line was shared between 3 or so homes. If you picked up the phone and heard the neighbors talking, you said sorry and hung up and waited for a while before trying again.
When the phone rang, the ring was morse code for the letter matching the intended home. Our number was 4045D, so our ring was long, short, short.
- alexpotato 6y agoMy dad grew up with "party lines", as they were called back then, with over 10 lines. The number of rings determined who the call was for and anyone (even in different houses on the same line) could pick up and listen in or talk on the line.
- DanBC 6y agoSome systems used phased ringi g so only the correct phone would ring, but I'm having trouble finding details. That last party line in the US was taken out in 1991! https://www.numberbarn.com/blog/phone-history-party-lines/ https://www.numberbarn.com/blog/phone-history-party-lines/
- tomnipotent 6y agoIt's amazing to think that even switchboard operators were a thing long into the 1980s.
- EvanAnderson 6y agoThere wasn't an operator, though. It's a "party line". The same wire pair is connected to multiple subscribers. My grandmother had one of these in the early 80s.
- jjcon 6y agoI don’t know why exactly but I genuinely love this image - thank you for sharing. It makes me nostalgic for a time I never even experienced
- Grustaf 6y agoVery interesting, when and where was this?
- abraae 6y agoIn New Zealand in the late 1960s.