larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (09/17/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0379m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia. edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes: > FYI, I don't know if this has been discussed already, but Strowger's > original system did NOT use a telephone dial. It used three telegraph > keys, and could only accommodate 999 phones. > ... > The original strowger phones worked on a five wire system. One for talk, > three for the keys, and a ground return. The first dial telephones in the Strowger system appeared in 1896, and were installed in Augusta, GA. However, these telephones still used four wires plus a ground return, and the dial was substantially different from what we know today. The two-wire (without a ground reference) telephone with dial as we know it today was not invented until 1907. Most of the development work on the rotary dial which eventually led to the 2-wire system was performed by Keith (also of plunger switch fame) in collaboration with the Erickson brothers, all of whom were awarded various patents in this area between 1895 and 1908. > By the way, here's an interesting fact about the somewhat later Strowger > telephone dials. They had 11 finger-holes. You had the usual 10 numerical > holes, and then one marked "Long Distance." In actually, this extra hole > did NOT send out 11 pulses as one might suspect. It sent out only 10, the > same as dialing 0. Why did they have it? The researchers feared that the > public would not be able to grasp the concept of using 0 both as a digit and > as a way to call the operator! There were indeed some strange (and incorrect) perceptions about what the public could and could not cope with. Strange as it may seem, between 1895 and 1915 there was some SERIOUS opposition to automatic telephone switching - especially on the part of the Bell System! An interesting quote from the 1913 AT&T Annual Report underscores this feeling: "We have designed, and manufactured, and installed all kinds of switchboards - automatic, semiautomatic, and manual - and we have exhaustively studied the practical workings of every type of switchboard in use. ... As yet it has not been demonstrated that the automatic system would give as good and dependable services as we now render to the public [using operators with manual switchboards] ..." An interesting quote from the historical Hershey book (which I mentioned in a recent article) makes reference to dials and the public: "In the early days of Strowger Automatic it was realized that a four digit number was about the most that a subscriber could carry in his head, so the telephone offices were designated by a single letter. The manual opposition [i.e., people in favor of retaining operators] immediately cried to high heaven that the public did not have intelligence enough to dial one letter followed by four digits." "The literacy of the dear public must have greatly improved in the last twenty years. Now they are expected to dial the first three letters of an exchange name, disregard the remaining letters, and then dial the required four digits. Verily it maketh a difference whose ox is being gored." Another interesting piece of trivia is that dial tone did not come into general use until the late 1920's. Before the use of dial tone, subscribers picked up the telephone and simply waited a few seconds before dialing. <> 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?"