ashepps@pyrnj.pyramid.com (Anton C Shepps) (11/30/89)
[Moderator's Note: We've run this story before, at least a couple times,
but it is always fun to repeat now and then; especially since so many new
readers in recent months probably have not seen it before. PT]
The stuff one finds when looking through old disk files!
AN UNUSUAL TELEPHONE SERVICE CALL
This story was related by Pat Routledge of Winnepeg, ONT about an unusual
telephone service call he handled while living in England.
It is common practice in England to signal a telephone subscriber by
signaling with 90 volts across one side of the two wire circuit and
ground (earth in England). When the subscriber answers the phone, it
switches to the two wire circuit for the conversation.
This method allows two parties on the same line to be signalled
without disturbing each other.
This particular subscriber, an elderly lady with several pets called
to say that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and
that on the few occations when it did manage to ring her dog always
barked first. Torn between curiosity to see this psychic dog and a
realization that standard service techniques might not suffice in this
case, Pat proceeded to the scene. Climbing a nearby telephone pole
and hooking in his test set, he dialed the subscriber's house. The
phone didn't ring. He tried again. The dog barked loudly, followed
by a ringing telephone.
Climbing down from the pole, Pat found:
a. Dog was tied to the telephone system's ground post via an iron chain
and collar.
b. Dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current.
c. After several jolts, the dog was urinating on ground and barking.
d. Wet ground now conducted and phone rang.
Which goes to prove that some grounding problems can be passed on.
This anecdote excerpted from Syn-Aud-Con Newsletter, Vol4, No 3, April 1977.
Anton Shepps - ashepps@telesci.uucp - "Get back to work, you!" -M.Groening -
[Moderator's Note: Thank you, Anton, for thinking of us and digging
out this oldie-but-goodie. Speaking of party line phones, the system
where the bells in each phone on the line had different impedances was fun
to defeat. Many an old biddie, with nothing better to do than spy on her
party-line neighbor knew just what to do: set the phone inside a galvanized
washtub or similar. When the other party got a call, their phone would ring,
but your phone would have (ordinarily) a barely audible 'click' due to the
deliberate impedance mismatch. With the phone sitting on something designed
to make noise, the click was loud enough the old biddy could be out on
the back porch and hear the rattle....and coming running in quickly and
silently lift the receiver and listen to the others talk. No one could
ever keep secrets from their party-line neighbor. PT]tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) (12/04/89)
This story about the dog providing ringing indication is an old one, and I have heard it so many times in so many different settings (although it is always an old lady!) that I feel it is apocryphal and has attained the status of telephone legend. About 10 years ago when travelling the South, Midwest and Eastern USA doing field service for Teltone, I ran across this story, and made it habit to ask old "tip and ringers" if they had heard this. No matter where I asked, someone knew of an old story from "over in the next county" where this happended. Sometimes the story involved a dog chained to a drop wire that was used as a "runner"...the insulation had worn away so that the line was noisey and the dog would yelp when the phone rang. My favorite is a variation of the British story. Seems and old telephone man was doing some maintenance "up in the holler" and talked to a subscriber whose phone didn't ring any longer, but they had a dog with ESP who could tell when someone was calling them. The dog was chained to the ground lead (party line with ground connected ringer) and the ground wire was broken off before it reached the ground. The poor old hound provided a resistive path for the 90 volts, and let out a howl whenever someone called. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP
Dave Fiske <davef@brspyr1.brs.com> (12/05/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0543m07@chinacat.lonestar.org>, telesci!ashepps@ pyrnj.pyramid.com (Anton C Shepps) writes: < Climbing down from the pole, Pat found: < a. Dog was tied to the telephone system's ground post via an iron chain < and collar. < b. Dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current. < c. After several jolts, the dog was urinating on ground and barking. < d. Wet ground now conducted and phone rang. Gee. Might this be a solution for the person who wanted to be able to "see" (via lamps) the phone ringing from any room in the house? Provided you could see the dog's pen from all relevant rooms, just watch for the dog urinating, then dash and pick up the phone! I'm sure it would impress visitors, too. "CROOK ROBS 16 BANKS -- Dave Fiske (davef@brspyr1.BRS.COM) WITH A CUCUMBER" Home: David_A_Fiske@cup.portal.com Headline from Weekly World News CIS: 75415,163 GEnie: davef