June 09, 2007

Telephone exchanges There was an "Anti digit dialing association," back around 1964, which positioned itself against the eradication of what were called telephone exchanges. Telephone exchanges were the earliest versions of phone numbers. Named telephone exchanges were introduced in the 1930's and 1940's when 5 digits were no longer sufficient for the number of subscribers. They became mandatory in the 1950's when 7-digit dialing was instituted throughout (most of) the United States. It was believed that a word plus 5 digits would be easier to remember than would 7 digits.
posted by goofyfoot 17 years ago
  • The link is an old, nice archive for phone-phreaking geeks of an earlier era.
  • It makes me feel old to realize I know what the exchange for the house I grew up in was. (PArkwest, in Houston.)
  • When I was a kid in the 70s we still had a party line and we still only had to dial the last 5 numbers of the phone number. Of course now my parents still can't get anything faster than dial up internet. So I guess rural America is still decades behind...
  • Let us not forget Transylvania 6-5000. Abra-ca-pocus!
  • Where I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the 60s, our number was STate-8 and my father worked at a DUnkirk-5... here's a semi-complete list of old LA-area exchanges
  • So, what's the better song: Pennsylvania-6500 or 867-5309?
  • the B-52's "6060-842", c'mon, TUM.
  • First, you can't mention Transylvania 6-5000 without mentioning one very good reason to love Geena Davis. Second, I grew up at CLearbrook 5. Third, 634-5789.
  • ZOMG NERDGASM. No, really. My scalp is all tingly. I remember my grandma's exchange name and number - which I won't relate because it was street name plus the street number. Though, they probably switched to digits long before I was born and I only saw references to it because almost everyone in my family is a pack rat.
    Tom Walls, Fri, 31 Jan 1997 ... By the PEnnsylvania6-5000 is still in use at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. If you dial the number you will hear the Glen Miller tune in the background as the phone mail menu is recited. As you probably know, the Pennsylvania comes from Penn (i.e., Pennsylvania) Station, which is across the street and was named in turn for the Pennsylvania Railroad. This was the number Glen Miller gave his wife to reach him during his first big gig in New York. The hotel has been bought and sold several times since Miller's day and had many name changes, but has retained the immortal phone number.
    Holy shit. Anyone want to test that? I'm so stealing this for MeFi.
  • My grandma has had the same 7-digit phone number since the invention of 7-digit phone numbers. I've never known any other person who could claim that.
  • My mom's had the same number since 1960. Pretty good!
  • Then there is the practice of converting entire phone numbers into letters... I once had a home phone number (in the post-STate 78 prefix) that spelled out PUNS-PEN. It's the ONLY reason I miss living in that area.
  • As far as I know (being relatively young), we didn't have those type of exchanges in NZ. But I do remember that phone numbers were only five digits up until about 1987, when two more were added to the front. In 1985 we lived in a tiny town where phone numbers were only 3 digits; ours was 447. The number of phones dictated the number of digits, I guess. I have no clue how such a system worked if you wanted to call from somewhere like Auckland, which was 7 digits, to Clyde, which was 3.
  • By the PEnnsylvania6-5000 is still in use at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. If you dial the number you will hear the Glen Miller tune in the background as the phone mail menu is recited. And how do you dial that? Do you spell out PENNSYLVANIA?
  • Prob unrelated - it used to be possible with analog phones/exchanges to tap out the desired numer on the cradle. This was a bit of a pain, and quite error prone, but it was a good way to get past blocks on outgoing calls, etc. I managed it a few times from pay phones when abroad, but you really needed to reserve the kiosk to yourself.
  • numer being either number or nummer (a lot of my phone experience was in germany/austria)
  • In the '50s, our number was 763M, and you called it by talking to an operator. It was also a party line, but luckily our neighbor didn't use the phone much, which I did since I was a teen-ager. It was apparently one of the most outdated systems in the US, since Porterville, CA (population maybe 10,000), and Boston MA were the first two to get new 7-digit, musical dialing plus area code a year or two after I had moved away. If you don't get the "musical" refernce, at the time you'd dial the number and then the digital notes for the numbers would sound in your ear while the connection was made.
  • it used to be possible with analog phones/exchanges to tap out the desired numer on the cradle. You can still do this if you have a pulse-dial phone line. The old telephone exchanges used quick bursts of on-hook and off-hook to signal the digits. For '9' you would have to go on-hook/off-hook nine times. But if you made these bursts too long or too short, they would get ignored and you would have to start over.
  • Oh, so in the movies where you see people on the old phones jiggle the phone and yell, "Hello! Operator!", that's what they were doing. I get it now.
  • I still remember as a wee lassie when the phone company still owned your actual phone, and you got whatever color phone he had on the truck.
  • TUM: didn't think you were that old! Yes, the color was usually black, and the connection was hard wired - no phone jacks. If you wanted an extension phone, you paid extra each month.
  • 'allo? 'allo? 'allo? buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • I recall the dawn of liberation, when there were friendly, neighborhood phone stores wherein we could buy our very own "modern" telephones instead of renting the old ones. Even "Princess" phones! Imagine the luxury of keypad numbers alight in the dark!
  • Lara, You just used the PE and then the number... Wendell...I also had an STate prefix when I was a kid.....
  • the telephone exchange joke add 40 divide by 8...guess you had to be there
  • What's a PE?
  • PE...the first two letters in Pennsylvania ...
  • When i was in grade school, we had a short class where they taught us how to use a telephone. I dutifully copied everything down like my teacher told us to. Years later, the notebook was found by my (much) younger sister, who had a great laugh at my expense: Sister: You wait for dial tone, see? HAW! HAW!
  • But wouldn't you need an area code if not in the correct one? So it would be (Area code) PE65000?
  • Only losers with no imagination wait for dial tone.
  • What's next, jaywalking? Good grief.
  • My mom's had the same number since 1960. Pretty good! When I was living in St. Pete's, Jack Kerouac was still listed in the phone book. Also good.
  • Still there as of 2002, if anybody wants to give him a call. Very Long Distance Charges apply.
  • Thanks to this thread, I have an endless stream of songs featuring phone numbers running nonstop throuh my head, including a pizza shop ad jingle from when I was a kid. Thank you very fucking much, Monkeyfilter™! "Nine six seven; Eleven, eleven!
  • "Phone Pizza Pizza, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
  • I've been trying to figure out what the exchange up in Ithaca that started with 27 stood for. When I was in college, I knew the guy who's phone number was 277-4653. Really. Just dial "asshole" - ironically, the personality matched the number.
  • At the university where I work, we leave the first two digits off for an internal call. So it gets to be a habit to remember just the last 5 digints of a phone number. Makes for more than my fair share of wrong numbers outside of work.