gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) (08/10/89)
Someone earlier mentioned "farmer's lines." Well, I looked it up in a 1925 Western Electric handbook I have, and it explained that most magneto sets are equipped with a button. When the button is up, winding the generator causes all the phones on the circuit to ring, thus permitting one subscriber to call another through coded rings. When the button is down however, none of the subcriber phones ring, and a flag drops on the exchange. As to manual exchanges, such as the privately-run 4 digit systems that are run privately, how do they go about getting any long-distance service at all? They aren't direct-dialable for obvious reasons (only 4 digits), but will AT&T run long-distance trunks to their switchboard? Or do they have to pay them to bring the trunks in? I would think that AT&T would gladly bring in trunks to any switchboard, no matter how old, if they're going to generate revenue. Does anyone know just how the policy works? I can just imagine it now. The AT&T operator looks up the routing on her terminal, presses the ST key to make it ring, and as she does so, an old magneto drop is thrown somewhere in Iowa. :-) -G