This is NOT your grandpa's iPod. Oh wait. Maybe it is.
March 29, 2010 1:37 PM Subscribe
What sort of apps does it have?
posted by sexyrobot at 1:42 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by sexyrobot at 1:42 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Fans of a certain band could access this device's iPod functionality through Dial-a-Song.
posted by bicyclefish at 1:44 PM on March 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by bicyclefish at 1:44 PM on March 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
heh.
(looks around...)
I count 4 rotary dial phones in this room alone- all working, connected, none newer than 1947, and one from 1918.
don' need no steenking iphones.
I collect 'em and restore 'em.
posted by drhydro at 1:45 PM on March 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
(looks around...)
I count 4 rotary dial phones in this room alone- all working, connected, none newer than 1947, and one from 1918.
don' need no steenking iphones.
I collect 'em and restore 'em.
posted by drhydro at 1:45 PM on March 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
We had a rotary phone AND internet access growing up (well... later on). It always reminded me of the supposed brief period of time where Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals shared the planet together.
I'll leave it to the commenters that follow to assign which was what.
posted by basicchannel at 1:47 PM on March 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
I'll leave it to the commenters that follow to assign which was what.
posted by basicchannel at 1:47 PM on March 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
When I was a kid (early '90s) you still only had to dial the last four digits of a phone number if it was in your local exchange.
And (by the way) I remember kids in high school who didn't know how to dial a rotary phone. WTF
posted by dunkadunc at 2:01 PM on March 29, 2010
And (by the way) I remember kids in high school who didn't know how to dial a rotary phone. WTF
posted by dunkadunc at 2:01 PM on March 29, 2010
I can't remember the last time I heard a dial tone.
Growing up our house shared the telephone with several other homes on our rural road. You could pick up the phone and listen to the neighbors chatting until they shouted at you to hang up.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 2:02 PM on March 29, 2010
Growing up our house shared the telephone with several other homes on our rural road. You could pick up the phone and listen to the neighbors chatting until they shouted at you to hang up.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 2:02 PM on March 29, 2010
I still have a black rotary phone bolted and hard-wired to the wall in the hallway between the dining room and the kitchen. It's not hooked up and won't work with the Comcast digital service but I don't have the heart to take it down.
Those old black phones are pretty close to un-killable in a way that no consumer products are built now.
posted by octothorpe at 2:05 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
Those old black phones are pretty close to un-killable in a way that no consumer products are built now.
posted by octothorpe at 2:05 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
Hello, Jenny? How are you? Fine, fine. Can you connect me through to the comments section please? Thank you.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:07 PM on March 29, 2010 [8 favorites]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:07 PM on March 29, 2010 [8 favorites]
You know - A rotary dialler would make an awesome (if somewhat useless) app for the iPhone.
posted by seanyboy at 2:08 PM on March 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by seanyboy at 2:08 PM on March 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
Those old black phones are pretty close to un-killable in a way that no consumer products are built now.
That's because you couldn't actually OWN them; you rented them from Ma Bell. So naturally they were built to minimize service calls.
posted by evilcolonel at 2:10 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
That's because you couldn't actually OWN them; you rented them from Ma Bell. So naturally they were built to minimize service calls.
posted by evilcolonel at 2:10 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
You know - A rotary dialler would make an awesome (if somewhat useless) app for the iPhone.
There's a few of them. You don't get to having a billion apps in the app store with just fart apps and tip calculators.
posted by birdherder at 2:10 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
There's a few of them. You don't get to having a billion apps in the app store with just fart apps and tip calculators.
posted by birdherder at 2:10 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
I once worked with a guy that invented a method by which you could measure the size of the room you were in by using the phone, its dial tones and feedback. It was pretty cool when he demonstrated it in a meeting.
He did it almost every single time he met someone new or needed backup to get a point across. We called him Fonezee.
posted by jsavimbi at 2:16 PM on March 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
He did it almost every single time he met someone new or needed backup to get a point across. We called him Fonezee.
posted by jsavimbi at 2:16 PM on March 29, 2010 [5 favorites]
My parents' first phone number was 8.
Later it was changed to 78. Then 5778. Then 6-5778. It still has that suffix today.
If you're old enough to have used a rotary phone, then the clicking sound that the dial makes in the receiver is probably familiar to you. That click is the literal sound of the phone hanging up. Touch tone phone systems tend to be backward compatible with the old pulse dialing system, so you can dial a touch tone phone by tapping the hook at that same rate, counting the clicks.
It used to be that a lot of accidental 911 calls were generated that way. People would sit at work all day behind a PBX, so they'd dial 9 to get an outside line. They were accustomed to then dialing 1 to get a long distance trunk. So they'd go home with their brain still in office mode and dial 9 and 1, then realize they were at home and facepalm, then tap the hook to try to clear the line, thus accidentally dialing another 1.
posted by rlk at 2:18 PM on March 29, 2010 [19 favorites]
Later it was changed to 78. Then 5778. Then 6-5778. It still has that suffix today.
If you're old enough to have used a rotary phone, then the clicking sound that the dial makes in the receiver is probably familiar to you. That click is the literal sound of the phone hanging up. Touch tone phone systems tend to be backward compatible with the old pulse dialing system, so you can dial a touch tone phone by tapping the hook at that same rate, counting the clicks.
It used to be that a lot of accidental 911 calls were generated that way. People would sit at work all day behind a PBX, so they'd dial 9 to get an outside line. They were accustomed to then dialing 1 to get a long distance trunk. So they'd go home with their brain still in office mode and dial 9 and 1, then realize they were at home and facepalm, then tap the hook to try to clear the line, thus accidentally dialing another 1.
posted by rlk at 2:18 PM on March 29, 2010 [19 favorites]
Is that dial tone more high-pitched than it is now?
Careful study of old newsreels proves that everything used to be higher piched than it is now. It's because the universe is expanding.
posted by longsleeves at 2:19 PM on March 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
Careful study of old newsreels proves that everything used to be higher piched than it is now. It's because the universe is expanding.
posted by longsleeves at 2:19 PM on March 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
Okay...Raise your hand if you had to remember what your house's ring sounded like, so that you didn't answer a call meant for the other homes on your party line?
For extra credit...What was your exchange's name? Ours was FLeetwood.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:26 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
For extra credit...What was your exchange's name? Ours was FLeetwood.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:26 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Is that dial tone more high-pitched than it is now?
I think it's actually just got more, erm, what's the word. The envelope got narrower. It got less "buzzy"
posted by delmoi at 2:27 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think it's actually just got more, erm, what's the word. The envelope got narrower. It got less "buzzy"
posted by delmoi at 2:27 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've seen pulse-to-tone dialing converters that let you use old rotary-dial phones on modern systems. (The alternative is just to install a keypad between the phone and the wall, and not use the phone's rotary mechanism for dialing; this works too.) But they'll ring and talk with modern equipment just fine, generally.
For a while I've been keeping an eye out at yard sales for an old Western Electric black desk phone; one of the early models with the heavy, rounded handset. I want to take it and connect it up to a VoIP ATA; make modern digital phone calls using the granddaddy of all home telephones.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:28 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
For a while I've been keeping an eye out at yard sales for an old Western Electric black desk phone; one of the early models with the heavy, rounded handset. I want to take it and connect it up to a VoIP ATA; make modern digital phone calls using the granddaddy of all home telephones.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:28 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I count 4 rotary dial phones in this room alone
I've only got the one on my desk, but it's plugged into a VOIP cable modem for awesomeness sake. (also, to prove that VOIP works just fine with older hardware... way older hardware.)
That and the fact that I can answer it by slamming my palm on the speaker side of the handset, and have it bounce up into my hand, 1970's news-desk style.
posted by quin at 2:30 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
I've only got the one on my desk, but it's plugged into a VOIP cable modem for awesomeness sake. (also, to prove that VOIP works just fine with older hardware... way older hardware.)
That and the fact that I can answer it by slamming my palm on the speaker side of the handset, and have it bounce up into my hand, 1970's news-desk style.
posted by quin at 2:30 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Seattle persons, please note. Pics of a recent visit to the Museum of Communications, which includes working iterations of each stage of the development of the physical apparatus of telephone exchanges. Each digit in a number corresponded directly to a numbered circuit in a physical array of open contacts. When your number was sent to the device, it would shit and set the contact corresponding to the number dialed.
On rotary phones, the clicks you hear the dial make corresponded to the numeral on the dial - that click was in fact the transmission signal of the numeral to the local exchange.
In the museum, we were able to watch these gizmos spin and clack and buzz in response to numbers we were dialing. It was really, really, interesting and cool, really. I swear.
posted by mwhybark at 2:37 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
On rotary phones, the clicks you hear the dial make corresponded to the numeral on the dial - that click was in fact the transmission signal of the numeral to the local exchange.
In the museum, we were able to watch these gizmos spin and clack and buzz in response to numbers we were dialing. It was really, really, interesting and cool, really. I swear.
posted by mwhybark at 2:37 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Wow - I just realized it's been nearly a decade since I've heard a busy signal.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:37 PM on March 29, 2010
posted by bashos_frog at 2:37 PM on March 29, 2010
it would shit
OMG.
I meant to type "it would shift." Geez.
posted by mwhybark at 2:38 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
OMG.
I meant to type "it would shift." Geez.
posted by mwhybark at 2:38 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I saw a shelf of reproduction candlestick rotary phones at a liquidation outlet a couple days ago, and was amused to see a round paper instruction disc in the centre of the dial for people who had no idea how a rotary phone worked.
One of the dial assemblies popped off in my hand when I picked it up, and looking at the oxidized metal backing plate I was startled to see it was an old part, made in England. Someone had found a huge warehoused cache of surplus mid 20th century era mechanisms and sold them to China to be repurposed into flimsy nostalgia phones.
Not all my phones are rotary but they're all former rentals and have a mechanical bell, whose sound feels much more suitable for opening an electronic conversation.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:46 PM on March 29, 2010
One of the dial assemblies popped off in my hand when I picked it up, and looking at the oxidized metal backing plate I was startled to see it was an old part, made in England. Someone had found a huge warehoused cache of surplus mid 20th century era mechanisms and sold them to China to be repurposed into flimsy nostalgia phones.
Not all my phones are rotary but they're all former rentals and have a mechanical bell, whose sound feels much more suitable for opening an electronic conversation.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:46 PM on March 29, 2010
When I was a kid (early '90s) you still only had to dial the last four digits of a phone number if it was in your local exchange.
What! How early? I tried this as a kid after reading a book about phreaking in 1996, and it sure didn't work then.
posted by invitapriore at 3:06 PM on March 29, 2010
What! How early? I tried this as a kid after reading a book about phreaking in 1996, and it sure didn't work then.
posted by invitapriore at 3:06 PM on March 29, 2010
So when do I get my Web 2.0 newsreel?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:07 PM on March 29, 2010
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:07 PM on March 29, 2010
That and the fact that I can answer it by slamming my palm on the speaker side of the handset, and have it bounce up into my hand, 1970's news-desk style.
This is seriously one of my favorite things to do ever. I think I saw Seinfeld do it in an episode once and my parent's phone took a lot of abuse as a result (good thing those phone are made like rocks). I also enjoy the hook on the back that lts you just lift the whole damn thing and walk around with it.
posted by cyphill at 3:11 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
This is seriously one of my favorite things to do ever. I think I saw Seinfeld do it in an episode once and my parent's phone took a lot of abuse as a result (good thing those phone are made like rocks). I also enjoy the hook on the back that lts you just lift the whole damn thing and walk around with it.
posted by cyphill at 3:11 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Those old black phones are pretty close to un-killable in a way that no consumer products are built now.
It's true. Those things could be swung around and used to bash your friends and siblings really well. Plus they always seemed to survive getting thrown against the wall after extremely infuriating conversations. No cell phone can hang like that.
posted by Liquidwolf at 3:12 PM on March 29, 2010
Western Electric phones are the only phones that don't make me want to throw them at a wall when they ring.
posted by entropicamericana at 3:13 PM on March 29, 2010
posted by entropicamericana at 3:13 PM on March 29, 2010
I work for a company that makes telecoms software (if you live in the Maldives or Seychelles, or any of a number of towns in the US, your calls go through something I help to make) and we still have to test that everything works with pulse-dialled phones. So, sitting in our rack of test equipment is a big, shiny rotary dial phone, with a mechanical bell and everything. Always makes me smile when someone's testing with it.
Working there has made me familiar with a number of bits of completely useless phone system trivia, and I rarely get a chance to trot them out, so I'm going to grab the opportunity now. You know how tapping the hook is called "flash-hooking"? That's because in the days of an operator connecting every call manually, lifting the hook caused the light for your line to switch on at the switchboard, alerting the operator that you wanted to make a call. So tapping the hook made the light flash.
That's also why, in old movies, when someone's been cut off they frequently rattle the hook and go "operator? OPERATOR!" They're trying to flash the light rapidly and grab the operator's attention. Even though I'm young enough never to have used anything other than an automatic exchange (and even though helping to make automatic exchanges is what puts food in my mouth), it still makes me a little sad that we've lost that little human connection.
posted by ZsigE at 3:34 PM on March 29, 2010 [10 favorites]
Working there has made me familiar with a number of bits of completely useless phone system trivia, and I rarely get a chance to trot them out, so I'm going to grab the opportunity now. You know how tapping the hook is called "flash-hooking"? That's because in the days of an operator connecting every call manually, lifting the hook caused the light for your line to switch on at the switchboard, alerting the operator that you wanted to make a call. So tapping the hook made the light flash.
That's also why, in old movies, when someone's been cut off they frequently rattle the hook and go "operator? OPERATOR!" They're trying to flash the light rapidly and grab the operator's attention. Even though I'm young enough never to have used anything other than an automatic exchange (and even though helping to make automatic exchanges is what puts food in my mouth), it still makes me a little sad that we've lost that little human connection.
posted by ZsigE at 3:34 PM on March 29, 2010 [10 favorites]
> Seattle persons, please note. Pics of a recent visit to the Museum of Communications, which includes working iterations of each stage of the development of the physical apparatus of telephone exchanges
I remember talking to Tube about coordinating a meetup there, but last I checked they were only open on Tuesdays?
Also, from the photo set, I find it multiple levels of awesome that one of the guys that works there also drives a Delorean.
posted by mrzarquon at 3:36 PM on March 29, 2010
I remember talking to Tube about coordinating a meetup there, but last I checked they were only open on Tuesdays?
Also, from the photo set, I find it multiple levels of awesome that one of the guys that works there also drives a Delorean.
posted by mrzarquon at 3:36 PM on March 29, 2010
Touch tone phone systems tend to be backward compatible with the old pulse dialing system, so you can dial a touch tone phone by tapping the hook at that same rate, counting the clicks.
This was very handy in college -- there were, around campus, phones that were hooked up to the campus phonesystem, and something in the phone wouldn't let "9" be dialed first, to prevent off-campus calls. Lifting the receiver, hitting the hook 9 times (sometimes it took a few tries) until you got a new dialtone let you sneak calls through. There was one notable one in a student area that could only receive calls (no dial whatsoever) that I was often commissioned to manually dial calls for urgent compatriots. Only once did I use my skills to dial a long-distance call in this manner, and it was an urgent situation, so I can still say I used my skills for good.
As for kids today: my daughter knows how to use a dial phone, if only because, back when I had a POTS phone system in the house I was also making good money selling Trimline phones on eBay, and my daughter regularly helped me test them.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:00 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
This was very handy in college -- there were, around campus, phones that were hooked up to the campus phonesystem, and something in the phone wouldn't let "9" be dialed first, to prevent off-campus calls. Lifting the receiver, hitting the hook 9 times (sometimes it took a few tries) until you got a new dialtone let you sneak calls through. There was one notable one in a student area that could only receive calls (no dial whatsoever) that I was often commissioned to manually dial calls for urgent compatriots. Only once did I use my skills to dial a long-distance call in this manner, and it was an urgent situation, so I can still say I used my skills for good.
As for kids today: my daughter knows how to use a dial phone, if only because, back when I had a POTS phone system in the house I was also making good money selling Trimline phones on eBay, and my daughter regularly helped me test them.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:00 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I still have a rotary wall phone down at the bar in my basement... it just seems right.
I was thinking the other day how we had the same phone in our house from 1963 until 1984 when we moved to Florida. From 1984 until today I've had 18 phones (by rough count) that all died at some point. Make of that what you will.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 4:04 PM on March 29, 2010
I was thinking the other day how we had the same phone in our house from 1963 until 1984 when we moved to Florida. From 1984 until today I've had 18 phones (by rough count) that all died at some point. Make of that what you will.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 4:04 PM on March 29, 2010
I wish we had a date for that video.
I grew up with rotary phones. And I do remember my exchange, although I won't list it since I sometimes use it for part of passwords and security codes. It's useful and easy to remember as far as number/letter combos go.
posted by immlass at 4:05 PM on March 29, 2010
I grew up with rotary phones. And I do remember my exchange, although I won't list it since I sometimes use it for part of passwords and security codes. It's useful and easy to remember as far as number/letter combos go.
posted by immlass at 4:05 PM on March 29, 2010
Fans of this post may also enjoy Century 21 Calling, where Bell Telephone unveils the phone technology of the future at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. (No luck finding the MST3K version online, but it's great.)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:11 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:11 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Is that dial tone more high-pitched than it is now?
Yes. According to Wikipedia: "Before modern electronic telephone switching systems came into use, dial tones were usually generated by electromechanical means; in the United States, the standard "city" dial tone consisted of a 600 Hz tone amplitude-modulated at 120 Hz. ... The modern dial tone varies between countries, being a "buzz" of two interfering tones (350 Hz and 440 Hz, as defined in the Precise Tone Plan) in the NANP (most of North America), and a constant single tone (425 Hz) in most of Europe."
posted by knave at 4:16 PM on March 29, 2010
Yes. According to Wikipedia: "Before modern electronic telephone switching systems came into use, dial tones were usually generated by electromechanical means; in the United States, the standard "city" dial tone consisted of a 600 Hz tone amplitude-modulated at 120 Hz. ... The modern dial tone varies between countries, being a "buzz" of two interfering tones (350 Hz and 440 Hz, as defined in the Precise Tone Plan) in the NANP (most of North America), and a constant single tone (425 Hz) in most of Europe."
posted by knave at 4:16 PM on March 29, 2010
That click is the literal sound of the phone hanging up.
Back in the day you could make free phone calls from hotels this way.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:33 PM on March 29, 2010
Back in the day you could make free phone calls from hotels this way.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:33 PM on March 29, 2010
My dad uses the built-in oldschool phone ring sound as his iPhone ringtone - I've teased him more than once that he got the most advanced phone to date and figured out how to make it sound like a Western Electric rotary phone from 1962.
posted by DecemberBoy at 4:42 PM on March 29, 2010
posted by DecemberBoy at 4:42 PM on March 29, 2010
> (No luck finding the MST3K version online, but it's great.)
Here you go (and it opens with the monorail, which I just road this weekend I was visiting in Seattle, along with the lightrail).
posted by mrzarquon at 4:42 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Here you go (and it opens with the monorail, which I just road this weekend I was visiting in Seattle, along with the lightrail).
posted by mrzarquon at 4:42 PM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
I've got a big black Bakelite 30s rotary phone. I always feel like I need to have better dictation and speak slower when I use it.
posted by The Whelk at 5:33 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 5:33 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
Here you go (and it opens with the monorail, which I just road this weekend I was visiting in Seattle, along with the lightrail).
Oh god, that is one of my favorite pieces of MST3K ever.
"And then you can go back to your DRINKING AND PILL-POPPING!"
posted by The Whelk at 5:34 PM on March 29, 2010
Oh god, that is one of my favorite pieces of MST3K ever.
"And then you can go back to your DRINKING AND PILL-POPPING!"
posted by The Whelk at 5:34 PM on March 29, 2010
Not only do we have a wall-mounted rotary phone in the kitchen, the phone line that runs along our basement ceiling from the outside connection has a couple of clamps with tags on them from the original installation - in 1934 by New England Tel. and Tel. Co. The tags have warnings that removing the clamps might interfere with our telephone service. I've never removed those clamps - I'd hate to think I wouldn't be able to dial the Internet anymore.
posted by adamg at 6:22 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by adamg at 6:22 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Not all my phones are rotary but they're all former rentals and have a mechanical bell, whose sound feels much more suitable for opening an electronic conversation.
I used to have a touch tone former rental. It was amazingly durable, like all those phones. Haven't a clue what happened to it over the course of many years, roommates and moves, but wouldn't be surprised if it were still in use somewhere. I miss the bell, too, but it was pretty loud, and there's no easy way to silence it except by just unplugging it.
posted by krinklyfig at 7:02 PM on March 29, 2010
I used to have a touch tone former rental. It was amazingly durable, like all those phones. Haven't a clue what happened to it over the course of many years, roommates and moves, but wouldn't be surprised if it were still in use somewhere. I miss the bell, too, but it was pretty loud, and there's no easy way to silence it except by just unplugging it.
posted by krinklyfig at 7:02 PM on March 29, 2010
I was thinking the other day how we had the same phone in our house from 1963 until 1984 when we moved to Florida. From 1984 until today I've had 18 phones (by rough count) that all died at some point. Make of that what you will.
I spent a lot of money on my last phone for a business, a cordless analog with a base, and it was not that great when it came down to using it. It was made by AT&T, whatever that means. Very frustrating. Finally got a Panasonic DECT system, and it works pretty well, but all these phones today are just computers with plastic cases. The old Phone Company phones worked on POTS, as mentioned a mechanical and electrical system, so they were pretty simple devices. On top of the simplicity of the circuitry, they housed them in these incredible cases, just plastic and metal, and they are clunky, but you can hold the receiver on your shoulder easily. Unfortunately you can't easily find that sort of thing today (except in many hotel rooms).
posted by krinklyfig at 7:19 PM on March 29, 2010
I spent a lot of money on my last phone for a business, a cordless analog with a base, and it was not that great when it came down to using it. It was made by AT&T, whatever that means. Very frustrating. Finally got a Panasonic DECT system, and it works pretty well, but all these phones today are just computers with plastic cases. The old Phone Company phones worked on POTS, as mentioned a mechanical and electrical system, so they were pretty simple devices. On top of the simplicity of the circuitry, they housed them in these incredible cases, just plastic and metal, and they are clunky, but you can hold the receiver on your shoulder easily. Unfortunately you can't easily find that sort of thing today (except in many hotel rooms).
posted by krinklyfig at 7:19 PM on March 29, 2010
When Mrs. Gofargogo and I were out shopping for a present for a two-year-old, we found all the 'classic' toys that Target is selling. I got excited seeing at the little plastic-rotary phone-creature that I had as a kid and was almost ready to grab it, when a nearby mother told me: "Kids don't like those, they have no idea what it is. Phones don't look like that anymore"
I sighed, put it back on the shelf, and contemplated my mortality. Who knew that Target could be such an existential mindfield.
posted by gofargogo at 8:53 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
I sighed, put it back on the shelf, and contemplated my mortality. Who knew that Target could be such an existential mindfield.
posted by gofargogo at 8:53 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
mrzarquon: I remember talking to Tube about coordinating a meetup there, but last I checked they were only open on Tuesdays?
Also, from the photo set, I find it multiple levels of awesome that one of the guys that works there also drives a Delorean."
Tuesdays, correct. There were about twenty (!) staff-ish volunteers wandering around doing telephony stuff. No one was there at the door when we walked in - it's in a still-used CLEC (check me out with the lingo, yo) and you take the elevator up to the towering top-floor height of 3 and walk in.
We screwed around with the gear by ourselves for about twenty minutes, successfully placing and then connecting a call to the manual switchboard by the door before anyone found us; we were there right at opening time and I think the volunteer staff were all meet-and-greeting each other. The older gentlemen who finally discovered us led us on a thorough tour of both floors. It would have taken about four hours but we were pressed for time and zipped through the last quarter or so in order to keep to a three hour time frame.
The DeLorean belongs to a kid in his mid-twenties who began volunteering there in high school and now has charge of the teletypes. He's our kinda people, and he and I got into a old-skool BBS reminiscence over who had the more older acoustic coupler modem as kids back in the day. I maintain I did, but bow to his superior telephonic geekitude.
He apparently picked up the DeLorean quite some time ago and used it for a number of years as his daily ride, possibly long enough ago that his commute would have included high school, which is truly transcendant.
This young feller and our wizened elder both sported grey uniform shirts with the Musuem of Communications logo on an embroidered patch.
EXTRA SUPER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
posted by mwhybark at 9:24 PM on March 29, 2010
Also, from the photo set, I find it multiple levels of awesome that one of the guys that works there also drives a Delorean."
Tuesdays, correct. There were about twenty (!) staff-ish volunteers wandering around doing telephony stuff. No one was there at the door when we walked in - it's in a still-used CLEC (check me out with the lingo, yo) and you take the elevator up to the towering top-floor height of 3 and walk in.
We screwed around with the gear by ourselves for about twenty minutes, successfully placing and then connecting a call to the manual switchboard by the door before anyone found us; we were there right at opening time and I think the volunteer staff were all meet-and-greeting each other. The older gentlemen who finally discovered us led us on a thorough tour of both floors. It would have taken about four hours but we were pressed for time and zipped through the last quarter or so in order to keep to a three hour time frame.
The DeLorean belongs to a kid in his mid-twenties who began volunteering there in high school and now has charge of the teletypes. He's our kinda people, and he and I got into a old-skool BBS reminiscence over who had the more older acoustic coupler modem as kids back in the day. I maintain I did, but bow to his superior telephonic geekitude.
He apparently picked up the DeLorean quite some time ago and used it for a number of years as his daily ride, possibly long enough ago that his commute would have included high school, which is truly transcendant.
This young feller and our wizened elder both sported grey uniform shirts with the Musuem of Communications logo on an embroidered patch.
EXTRA SUPER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
posted by mwhybark at 9:24 PM on March 29, 2010
mwhybark thanks for the link to the Communications Museum. In high school I was best friends with a guy who was an uber phone geek. We chased phone trucks, dumpster-dived at the exchange, and I (sorta) helped him build an exchange in his basement that connected up some neighbors on our block. We even made it on the local TV news. I will visit the museum and see what I can remember from days gone by. 216B. That was the name of the double-ended nut driver tool that worked on Western Electric 'blocks' where the wire came into the house. Huh.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:43 PM on March 29, 2010
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:43 PM on March 29, 2010
By the way, it's an old trick from my busking days, but you can tune your guitar to a dial tone from a phone. 440 Hz is one of the frequencies in the dial tone, and that is right where you want your A string to be.
Go figger...a busker that tunes his axe!
posted by salishsea at 11:07 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Go figger...a busker that tunes his axe!
posted by salishsea at 11:07 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you've ever dialed a rotary phone you already know why NYC was assigned area code 212 back in the late 1940s when area codes were first devised. It is the shortest three digit number to dial on a rotary dial given the area code rules at the time: the first number can't be 1, the second number must be 1 or 0, and the last number can't be 1.
Also, it's another sad fact of life that people growing up today have no idea where the term "dial a phone number" comes from since phones haven't had dials in eons, just like "carbon copying" someone on an email since we don't really use carbon copy paper these days.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:13 AM on March 30, 2010
Also, it's another sad fact of life that people growing up today have no idea where the term "dial a phone number" comes from since phones haven't had dials in eons, just like "carbon copying" someone on an email since we don't really use carbon copy paper these days.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:13 AM on March 30, 2010
I'm a rotary guy at home (with one sad little cordless hidden away for when I have to do battle with voicemail systems), and when I started my job in a 1911 office building, the first thing I did was to ditch the wretched bleepity phone there for a nice sturdy 500 phone, albeit with a sad little cordless hidden away for voicemail battles. I love the weight of it, the presence, and the feeling of it, but at least half of my motivation is that I can't stand freaking electronic ringers.
Everytime a phone blip-bleep-screepity-tweety-zeeps at me, it's like a icepick in my goddamn ear, and a sign of how immunized most people have become to the grating misery of electronic tones (and I say this as an electronic musician, no less). The mechanical bell has a human compatibility to it, and a warmth and richness in the shape of the tones—electronic phones are wiz-bang wonders of this gadget and that, and yet no one bothers to implement an envelope generator on the ringers so that they don't click at the start and end of their obnoxious little bleating beep.
The constant tin ear bug chorus of crappy pop songs blaring out of 3mm speakers on countless cell phones is quite possibly even worse, with everyone's mundane incoming calls a constant reminder of their bad taste, but my niece's generation just look at my bugeyed teeth-gritting response to hearing Justin Bieber as some sort of sign that I'm well and truly past it. It's probably to do with my own music, and how I've spent much of my time honing slow, quiet incoming tides of sound as a palliative against the icepick era, but am I really, really the only one who jumps out of his chair when the damn phones ring?
posted by sonascope at 3:17 AM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]
Everytime a phone blip-bleep-screepity-tweety-zeeps at me, it's like a icepick in my goddamn ear, and a sign of how immunized most people have become to the grating misery of electronic tones (and I say this as an electronic musician, no less). The mechanical bell has a human compatibility to it, and a warmth and richness in the shape of the tones—electronic phones are wiz-bang wonders of this gadget and that, and yet no one bothers to implement an envelope generator on the ringers so that they don't click at the start and end of their obnoxious little bleating beep.
The constant tin ear bug chorus of crappy pop songs blaring out of 3mm speakers on countless cell phones is quite possibly even worse, with everyone's mundane incoming calls a constant reminder of their bad taste, but my niece's generation just look at my bugeyed teeth-gritting response to hearing Justin Bieber as some sort of sign that I'm well and truly past it. It's probably to do with my own music, and how I've spent much of my time honing slow, quiet incoming tides of sound as a palliative against the icepick era, but am I really, really the only one who jumps out of his chair when the damn phones ring?
posted by sonascope at 3:17 AM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]
If you've ever dialed a rotary phone you already know why NYC was assigned area code 212 back in the late 1940s when area codes were first devised.
This is also the reason why New Jersey is 201 (the first possible combination, following the rules)—Bell Labs and the original Volta Laboratory is in Jersey.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:32 AM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
This is also the reason why New Jersey is 201 (the first possible combination, following the rules)—Bell Labs and the original Volta Laboratory is in Jersey.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:32 AM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
For extra credit...What was your exchange's name? Ours was FLeetwood.
Thorzdad, Mine was Yukon 4.
posted by jara1953 at 5:46 AM on March 30, 2010
Thorzdad, Mine was Yukon 4.
posted by jara1953 at 5:46 AM on March 30, 2010
Ours was JEfferson 8
posted by octothorpe at 5:50 AM on March 30, 2010
posted by octothorpe at 5:50 AM on March 30, 2010
That busy signal was a blast from the past. I haven't heard a busy signal in years! Not since everyone got callwaiting and voicemail.
posted by JBennett at 8:05 AM on March 30, 2010
posted by JBennett at 8:05 AM on March 30, 2010
When I was a kid (early '90s) you still only had to dial the last four digits of a phone number if it was in your local exchange.
What! How early? I tried this as a kid after reading a book about phreaking in 1996, and it sure didn't work then.
It depended on where you lived. Some rural areas in the 90's still had crossbar switching equipment at their local central office and it defaulted to letting you dial just the last four for local exchange calls. Especially when everything else in the world was a long distance call.
posted by Kip at 3:36 PM on March 30, 2010
What! How early? I tried this as a kid after reading a book about phreaking in 1996, and it sure didn't work then.
It depended on where you lived. Some rural areas in the 90's still had crossbar switching equipment at their local central office and it defaulted to letting you dial just the last four for local exchange calls. Especially when everything else in the world was a long distance call.
posted by Kip at 3:36 PM on March 30, 2010
Sonascope - I'm with you. I found an old Western Electric at an antique store which worked fine after I rewired it. Every time it rings, it just makes me happy. I realized I hadn't heard an actual bell ring in over a decade.
posted by Noon Under the Trees at 8:03 PM on March 30, 2010
posted by Noon Under the Trees at 8:03 PM on March 30, 2010
Oh, and when my rotary phone rings, it's like an old fire alarm bell from a 1960s elementary school. Makes me jump straight up in the air.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 11:13 AM on March 31, 2010
posted by Ron Thanagar at 11:13 AM on March 31, 2010
« Older Minimum orbit intersection distance | Would you like that with some cancer on the side? Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by hal9k at 1:39 PM on March 29, 2010 [2 favorites]