5 ms·

I grew up on rotary phones in the 80s. Though I havent touched one in over 30 years, I still remember the distinctive feel of the rotary dial, it certainly had

I grew up on rotary phones in the 80s. Though I havent touched one in over 30 years, I still remember the distinctive feel of the rotary dial, it certainly had its own character but it was quite tedious to call another number, especially a number with high digits. In the 90s they were removed from my area but they were still touch dials translated to pulses. It felt a lot more modern but it would still take longer to dial high digits. I remember having a repertoire of 40-50 phone numbers that I had commited to memory. I still remember a few which I still use now in passwords:)

sokoloff 5y ago
I recall as a kid thinking it seemed ridiculous for there to be a specific monthly surcharge to allow TouchTone dialing. (I also learned that you could drop the service and TouchTone dialing would still work, so it really felt like they were just taking money from people too ill-informed to make a good decision.)
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  It was ridiculous. I learned from 2600 that apparently telcos needed to upgrade their switches (or some other thing) just to be able to distinguish who had touch tone phone service from rotary.
function_seven 5y ago
I remember when I heard the rationale¹ for the assignments of area codes in North America: Populated areas with a high subscriber count would get the lowest codes to reduce the number of pulses required. Hence 212 for New York, 213 for Los Angeles, and 312 for Chicago. My next thought was self-pity. My area had just been assigned a new code: 909. The absolute worst code possible². 28 pulses required for us bumpkins while only 6 were needed for the cool people in the city. :) [1] There's a good Underunderstood episode on this. Apparently it's not exactly certain this was the rationale. No memo exists detailing it, but it matches up pretty well with how they were initially assigned. (https://underunderstood.com/podcast/episode/area-code-conspiracy-theory/ https://underunderstood.com/podcast/episode/area-code-conspi...) [2] Well, I guess 900 is actually worse, but that's not a geographical area code.
- cookie_monsta 5y ago
  I always thought it was particularly cruel that all emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) in my country were reached by dialing 000. It doesn't doesn't make much difference now, but imagine waiting for that rotary dial to spin all the way back around while your house is going up in flames around you...
  - darkwater 5y ago
    I think in (most?) Europe is 112 since forever exactly because rotary phones. (checking wikipedia [1] ...) TIL It was also to permit physically blocking all the other numbers in public access rotary phones while leaving emergency calls enabled. Smart. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_number) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_numbe...
    - visiblink 5y ago
      In British Columbia, 112 was once the prefix for making long-distance calls. That changed in 1985 to bring us into conformity with the rest of North America. Edit: also, you could call for free on rotary pay phones by tapping out the number on the "hangup" switch.
      - genewitch 5y ago
        In the late 80s I was messing with a rotary phone hook switch and dialed 117 accidentally, which was the proctor test set. It was an automated phone testing platform, and it would let you test things like the coin receiver and touchtone tones, among other things. I never had the coin sound maker, but I did have a small transcription digital recorder years later that could trick the proctor test set into thinking a nickel had been inserted. I don't remember all the other tests, hopefully there's a webpage somewhere about it.
    - hyakosm 5y ago
      In France main numbers for emergencies are still 15, 17 and 18. The 112 redirects on these.
CamelRocketFish 5y ago
Which phone numbers do you remember?
- timthorn 5y ago
  If from the UK, I'd bet on 01 811 8181
- jonathantf2 5y ago
  0891 50 50 50 is stuck in my head. I still have no clue what it's for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1S5BvsTNSQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1S5BvsTNSQ
kitd 5y ago
it was quite tedious to call another number Just as an aside, the reason the UK uses 999 as the emergency number is because it was much quicker to dial on a rotary phone.
- qwertox 5y ago
  It's 110 in Germany. The 1's are quick to dial and the 0 a good confirmation.
- timthorn 5y ago
  My understanding of the reason was to reduce the likelihood of phone lines swaying in the wind tapping out eg 111 autonomously.
- cookie_monsta 5y ago
  How is 9 quicker to dial than 1?
  - dotancohen 5y ago
    The UK phones started with 9 and worked downwards.
    - cookie_monsta 5y ago
      Really? I can find plenty of pics of vintage GPO phones online but none of them work like that
      - dotancohen 5y ago
        Here's one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/New_Zealand_Rotary_Telephone.jpg/440px-New_Zealand_Rotary_Telephone.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Ne... It's from New Zealand, but they drive on the same side of the road as the UK ))
        5y ago
jacquesm 5y ago
You could use this to your advantage as well, for instance in a phone booth or with a coin op phone in a bar by simply breaking the circuit with the hook in the rhythm of the dialing pulses. Free calls!

sokoloff 5y ago

I recall as a kid thinking it seemed ridiculous for there to be a specific monthly surcharge to allow TouchTone dialing. (I also learned that you could drop the service and TouchTone dialing would still work, so it really felt like they were just taking money from people too ill-informed to make a good decision.)

salamandersauce 5y ago
It was ridiculous. I learned from 2600 that apparently telcos needed to upgrade their switches (or some other thing) just to be able to distinguish who had touch tone phone service from rotary.

function_seven 5y ago

I remember when I heard the rationale¹ for the assignments of area codes in North America: Populated areas with a high subscriber count would get the lowest codes to reduce the number of pulses required. Hence 212 for New York, 213 for Los Angeles, and 312 for Chicago. My next thought was self-pity. My area had just been assigned a new code: 909. The absolute worst code possible². 28 pulses required for us bumpkins while only 6 were needed for the cool people in the city. :) [1] There's a good Underunderstood episode on this. Apparently it's not exactly certain this was the rationale. No memo exists detailing it, but it matches up pretty well with how they were initially assigned. (https://underunderstood.com/podcast/episode/area-code-conspiracy-theory/ https://underunderstood.com/podcast/episode/area-code-conspi...) [2] Well, I guess 900 is actually worse, but that's not a geographical area code.

cookie_monsta 5y ago
I always thought it was particularly cruel that all emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) in my country were reached by dialing 000. It doesn't doesn't make much difference now, but imagine waiting for that rotary dial to spin all the way back around while your house is going up in flames around you...
- darkwater 5y ago
  I think in (most?) Europe is 112 since forever exactly because rotary phones. (checking wikipedia [1] ...) TIL It was also to permit physically blocking all the other numbers in public access rotary phones while leaving emergency calls enabled. Smart. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_number) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_numbe...
  - visiblink 5y ago
    In British Columbia, 112 was once the prefix for making long-distance calls. That changed in 1985 to bring us into conformity with the rest of North America. Edit: also, you could call for free on rotary pay phones by tapping out the number on the "hangup" switch.
    - genewitch 5y ago
      In the late 80s I was messing with a rotary phone hook switch and dialed 117 accidentally, which was the proctor test set. It was an automated phone testing platform, and it would let you test things like the coin receiver and touchtone tones, among other things. I never had the coin sound maker, but I did have a small transcription digital recorder years later that could trick the proctor test set into thinking a nickel had been inserted. I don't remember all the other tests, hopefully there's a webpage somewhere about it.
  - hyakosm 5y ago
    In France main numbers for emergencies are still 15, 17 and 18. The 112 redirects on these.

CamelRocketFish 5y ago

Which phone numbers do you remember?

timthorn 5y ago
If from the UK, I'd bet on 01 811 8181
jonathantf2 5y ago
0891 50 50 50 is stuck in my head. I still have no clue what it's for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1S5BvsTNSQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1S5BvsTNSQ

kitd 5y ago

it was quite tedious to call another number Just as an aside, the reason the UK uses 999 as the emergency number is because it was much quicker to dial on a rotary phone.

qwertox 5y ago
It's 110 in Germany. The 1's are quick to dial and the 0 a good confirmation.
timthorn 5y ago
My understanding of the reason was to reduce the likelihood of phone lines swaying in the wind tapping out eg 111 autonomously.
cookie_monsta 5y ago
How is 9 quicker to dial than 1?
- dotancohen 5y ago
  The UK phones started with 9 and worked downwards.
  - cookie_monsta 5y ago
    Really? I can find plenty of pics of vintage GPO phones online but none of them work like that
    - dotancohen 5y ago
      Here's one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/New_Zealand_Rotary_Telephone.jpg/440px-New_Zealand_Rotary_Telephone.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Ne... It's from New Zealand, but they drive on the same side of the road as the UK ))
      - 5y ago

jacquesm 5y ago

You could use this to your advantage as well, for instance in a phone booth or with a coin op phone in a bar by simply breaking the circuit with the hook in the rhythm of the dialing pulses. Free calls!