editor@chinet.chi.il.us (Alex Zell) (04/07/90)
The Watcher <watcher@darkside.com> says: "I do remember some archaic mention to the effect that 211 was once used for something, but it escapes me now." I don't know how far back "archaic" goes, but can't be much before the Judge Green Disaster that 211 was used to call the Long Distance Operator. It may be that it disappeared with the advent of direct LD dialing. However, if it is "archaic" one wants, I am happy to oblige on another topic that has been addressed in recent notes. In 1939 in New York City in a phone booth at an outdoor parking lot I would see the attendant make his calls by sticking a pin into the phone cable and touching the pin with a wire attached to a grounded pipe. Alex Zell editor@chinet.chi.il.us Pictou Island, NS [Moderator's Note: Here in Chicago, 211 called the long distance operator in the pre-direct dial days, and was in use even after DDD started for several years handling person-to-person, collect and credit card calls. It was replaced by zero plus, then eventually by double zero plus, which is what we have now. 811 was 'priority long distance' during the Second World War; and it was 'Hotel/Other PBX long distance service' from 1946 until 1975 when it was discontinued. 511, 711 and 911 were used by subscribers with automatic dialing to call the operator on manual exchanges (not yet cut to dial) in the 1946-51 time period; then again in that capacity in certain suburbs which did not 'go dial' until the late fifties or early sixties. PT]