[comp.dcom.telecom] The Pound Sign

cca@cs.exeter.ac.uk (Clive Carmock) (05/31/89)

An interesting point has just cropped up.  Does anyone know of the origins
of calling '#' a pound sign?   It seems to be used quite often in automated
telephone systems, where the user is told to follow some code or other with
'the pound key'.   In the UK the '#' symbol is generally called a 'hash'.

I wonder if this confusion over nomenclature caused the REAL pound sign to
be missed from that ASCII character set altogether.  So if I type the pound
sign key on this terminal, it is echoed back as `  !!!

Clive Carmock


[Moderator's Note:  And just about the time you thought the subject of
octothorpes was dead! The return of the living octothorpes. Please see
Volume 8, Issue 190 (12-1-88) for a special issue of the Digest entitled
"All You Ever Wanted To Know About Octothorpes". There is one good use for
the 'tic-tac-toe key', and that is to play the game of the same name. All
you need is a pencil or pen with a very tiny, microscopic point on it.
After each game, use a sponge to wipe the key off so you can play a new
game. PT]

CER2520%ritvax.bitnet@eecs.nwu.edu (C. E. Reid) (06/01/89)

>Does anyone know of the origins of calling '#' a pound sign?

        I can offer an explanation of using the term "pound key" for '#'.  When
I used to work in a warehouse, shipping/receiving packages uses these symbols
to indicate the weight in pounds.  For example, a package weights 100 pounds
can be expressed in one of the following ways:

                "100 pounds"
                "100 lbs."
        or      "100 #"

        Hope this brings a light to this mystery.

                        Curtis