larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (10/14/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0443m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > However, while we're on the subject of turkeys, the "card dialer" > deserves at least an honorable mention. The touch tone model, while a > little spiffier than its rotary counterpart, seemed to be a journey to > the absurd. The effort in locating the correct card, inserting it into > the slot, then letting it dial was more effort than dialing the number > in the first place. Programming the cards (by punching out the little > holes) was an exercise in complexity. And then of course, you couldn't > reprogram the cards; they were discarded, meaning that you had to > depend on telco for an endless supply. The cards were not free. There was something even worse than the card dialers - a dialer imported from Germany that the Bell System briefly offered during the early 1960's. This dialer was called "Telerapid", and it had a capacity of 50 numbers. The programming was done by using a special wrench to remove a toothed-wheel having something like 125 teeth; there was one toothed-wheel per stored number. Using a special tool, teeth were cut out to leave only those teeth which corresponded to dial pulse line opens. This meant that cutting the toothed wheel also determined the interdigital timing interval! The operation of this dialer was totally mechanical and was actuated by selecting the desired number using a slider arm, and then pushing a lever; the toothed wheel therefore made a complete revolution in about 12 seconds. The first electronic dialer was the "Rapidial", and was offered during the early 1960's. Rapidial used a a writing tape backed by a magnetic tape which scrolled behind a window. The window would allow just one number to appear between two lines, and dialing was initiated by pressing a start bar. The dialing was stored through magnetic recording of a tone on the magnetic tape. A movable head operated by a motor scanned cross the magnetic tape to extract the digit pulses. The Rapidial contained a built-in rotary dial used solely for encoding pulses on new number entries. Rapidial was the size of a small Sherman Tank. :-) Actually, Rapidial was indeed HUGE, and occupied the surface area and volume of almost FOUR 500-type telephone sets! A few years later year came Son of Rapidial, more commonly known as Magicall. The Magicall dialer worked on the same principle was Rapidial, but it was considerably smaller. Making the small size possible was an external power supply and an external programming dial. Magicall had a small motor which rapidly moved the number tape in response to an UP/DOWN key. Even with this motorized drive, going from one end of a 1,000 number tape to the other took half a minute or more; it was really faster to look up the number in a book! The tape was "pre-alphabetized" and divided into sections of the alphabet whose size was determined by some joker's best guess as to the probability frequency distribution of the first letter of names. I don't remember how many numbers Rapidial could store, but Magicall came in two sizes: 400 and 1,000 numbers. The card dialer telephones were clever, but relatively useless. They came in both rotary and touch-tone versions, in addition to both single-line and 5-line keyset models. The Western Electric Touchamatic [tm] telephone ushered in the era of all-electronic repertory dialers and dialer/telephones. Compared to today's repertory dialer functions as implemented through integrated circuits and ESS or EPABX speedcalling, the above electromechanical dialers are extremely crude. I must confess, however, that in the past I had both Magicall dialers and card dialer telephones in different offices, and I felt pretty smug and state-of-the-art at the time while using them! :-) Times change, though, and now I have repertory dialing features out the wazoo. In my Grand Island office I have this fancy Northern Telecom SL-1 telephone with: (1) last-number re-dial; (2) "hot key" dedicated dialer key for a single number; (3) personal extension speed-dialing list; and (4) SL-1 system-wide speed-dialing list. And the damnest thing is that in the four months since we installed the SL-1, I don't have one single number programmed in my speed-dialing list! <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"
FLINTON@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Fred E.J. Linton) (10/17/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0449m01@vector.dallas.tx.us>, kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes: > > A few years later year came Son of Rapidial, more commonly > known as Magicall. > Ah, yes, the Magicall! I picked one of these up at the New Haven Boulevard flea market a few (ten?) years ago, only to learn that the thing needs a power supply (P/S) and a dialer unit (D/U) (all I got was the box with the four-inch-broad tape ribbon and R/PB head). Has anyone any suggestions regarding the voltages and current ratings that missing power should produce, and which voltage is applied where in the tape box? Alternatively, can anyone suggest a source for either P/S or D/U? Respond directly, and I can supply relevant part numbers w/o boring everyone else. Many thanks! -- Fred ARPA/Internet: FLINTON@eagle.Wesleyan.EDU Bitnet: FLINTON%eagle@WESLEYAN[.bitnet] from uucp: ...!{research, mtune!arpa, uunet}!eagle.Wesleyan.EDU!FLinton on ATT-Mail: !fejlinton Tel.: + 1 203 776 2210 (home) OR + 1 203 347 9411 xt 2249 (work) Telex: <USA> + 15 122 3413 FEJLINTON CompuServe ID: 72037,1054 F-Net (guest): linton@inria.inria.fr OR ...!inria.inria.fr!linton