Here are some fun facts about an old telephone
Old Telephone Facts – Before smartphones became popular gadgets, people used wired and bulky telephones for communications.
The present generation might know nothing about the telephones used years ago, but here are some fun facts about this old “gadget,” based on the article in Mental Floss.
Before the voicemail system was invented which caters to your message when the person you are calling is currently on a call, old telephones had stentorian tones. It was the busy signal.
Newer phones have buttons to end the call but the old ones haven’t. In order to end the call, you should put the phone back into the “cradle” or “hook” if it is a wall phone. The telephone company had a special tone to alert customers that their phone was off the hook.
Have you heard of “party lines”? This was very common in the first half of the 20th century, especially in rural areas and during the war years. That was when copper wire was in short supply. It is a local telephone loop circuit that was shared by more than one subscriber. There is no privacy in this. It could happen that when you are talking to a friend, someone could pick up the phone and listen to your conversation.
The Bell System started implementing its new Electronic Switching System in the mid-1960s. During that lengthy and elaborate process, the modern switches were installed parallel to the old mechanical devices already in place.
Because of this, a loop was created so that when a circuit was overloaded, people could talk to one another between the beeps of a busy signal. They can also talk during the spaces between a repeating “Your call could not be completed as dialed” recording.
There was a number card installed in the center of the dial plate in a rotary dial telephone. Old phones also had large print plastic dial covers were once a common promotional giveaway item. This old gadget had exchange names as well. It was when you could even tell what neighborhood a person lived in by the first two letters of their telephone number.
Old phones also had talking clocks and you can also summon the operator by tapping the switchhook.