Questions about how phones used to work

[DoubtingStephen]

KSR-37s or 33s?

Neither, the ultra-modern Model 40 series with actual CRT displays and high speed line printers. Oh, and the model 43 series too.

 

[alfaniner]

I remember when exchanges began with two letters instead of numbers.

 

[Rob Lister]

I also did this when I was too lazy (or busy, yeah, yeah, that's it) to walk upstairs but wanted to talk to somebody up there...

"You have dialed a party on your own line. Please hang up and allow sufficient time for the called party to answer, then pick up the receiver and talk."

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Neither, the ultra-modern Model 40 series with actual CRT displays and high speed line printers. Oh, and the model 43 series too.

Funny. From your avatar, I thought you were older than me.

 

[Jeff Corey]

When I was a kid, our number was only 4 digits. None of newfangled letter things. When we moved to NY in 1966, our number was HAmilton 1-8816.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Okay, for the purposes of this scenario, it's sometime before, say, 1980. There's no caller ID, voice mail, call waiting, three-way calling, or anything fancy like that.

Person A calls Person B, but B doesn't pick up. While B's phone is ringing, Person C also tries to call B. These are both direct-dialed local calls within the same city.

My questions are:

1.) Am I correct in thinking that C will get a busy signal, and that it's the same busy signal she'd get if B were actually on the phone?


2.) Would there be any way to tell from A, B, or C's phone records that this did or didn't happen?

Suppose B is missing or dead, and C tells the police "I tried to call him at such-and-such a time, and the line was busy." Can they look at B's phone records and see whether he made or received any calls around that time? Or, if A says "I tried to call him and there was no answer," could they look at A's phone records and confirm that?


3.) Suppose A knows that B isn't going to pick up the phone, knows that C is going to call, and wants C to think that B is on the phone with someone else. If A doesn't know exactly when C's going to call, could he just call B and let the phone ring for a couple of hours? (Assume B lives alone and doesn't have any neighbors close enough to hear his phone ringing all night.)

Gee, something I can actually intelligently comment on . I worked in a Ma Bell mechanical switching
office in the 70’s ..

I see that the question has been answered correctly at least once, but maybe I can elaborate .

1. Yes & yes. When a called phone was busy, the calling phone was connected to what was essentially
a noise maker. It would be the same no matter how the called phone was being used at the time.
Or even if the called phone was not working in some way . It would depend if the line was open or shorted out in some way ..
If it was shorted ( wet cables could cause this ) you would get a busy .
If the line was open ( cut ) you would still get a ring in a lot of cases ..
As someone else mentioned earlier, there was a ‘ fast ‘ busy signal that you heard if there was no, free
equipment to switch the call through at the time. Such a signal is still used in some switching systems today.

2. No .. As explained earlier, there was no call by call record except for long distance, prior to computer
controlled ( Ma Bell called it ESS .. Electronic Switching Systems ) switching …

3.Yes . When you called someone, a ringing machine was attached to the called phone. The calling phone
was attached to a noise maker, not the actual ringing machine …
I remember how people used to be confused by this when the called party would answer the phone before the caller
heard the ringing noise. The caller might say “ I didn’t even hear it ring ! ‘ and the called person would say
“ Well it rang here.. “.. They were convinced something magical was going on.

There was a time when you could call the operator and get them to check and see if the phone was really
busy or if there was a problem with the called line . You could even sometimes get them to break in and
tell the person an ‘ emergency ‘ call was trying to get through..

Another bit of trivia when Ma Bell was pretty much ‘ the only phone company in town ..:

My job title as a technician in the central office was ‘ Switchman ‘.. When I told people I
was a switchman without any other qualifying information, they usually assumed I worked for
the railroad..
Anyway, this was a traditional male job at that time, as were many others such as lineman, frameman
& etc. When women began to be accepted into these positions they changed the title to Switching Equipment Technician ..

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Diogenes:

Finally an expert who actually knows this stuff.

I'll go home now.

 

[Kaylee]

2. No .. As explained earlier, there was no call by call record except for long distance, prior to computer
controlled ( Ma Bell called it ESS .. Electronic Switching Systems ) switching …

So I guess people use to be charged a flat rate to be able to make unlimited local calls?

I know that at least starting in the '80s most people were charged a flat rate and also an additional rate (7 or 9 cents something like that) for each local phone call made. In NYC you can still get billed that way if you like instead of getting one of the package plans.

3.

<snip>

There was a time when you could call the operator and get them to check and see if the phone was really
busy or if there was a problem with the called line . You could even sometimes get them to break in and
tell the person an ‘ emergency ‘ call was trying to get through..

I never did this, but I thought you could still do that. If you can't, why not?

 

[Kaylee]

Okay, for the purposes of this scenario, it's sometime before, say, 1980. There's no caller ID, voice mail, call waiting, three-way calling, or anything fancy like that.

Person A calls Person B, but B doesn't pick up. While B's phone is ringing, Person C also tries to call B. These are both direct-dialed local calls within the same city.

My questions are:

Are you writing a mystery set back in the '70s?

 

[Steven Howard]

Thanks again to everybody who replied, especially DS and Diogenes.

Are you writing a mystery set back in the '70s?

The 1950s, actually, but yeah it's for a story.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

So I guess people use to be charged a flat rate to be able to make unlimited local calls?

I know that at least starting in the '80s most people were charged a flat rate and also an additional rate (7 or 9 cents something like that) for each local phone call made. In NYC you can still get billed that way if you like instead of getting one of the package plans.

They had what was called ' metered ' service .. They could hook you up to a counter that just counted your calls.. It didn't count until the other end picked up the phone...

I never did this, but I thought you could still do that. If you can't, why not?

It may be possible in some areas, but now it has a lot to do with different phone companies in the same general service area.

The person you get when you dial ' 0 ' may not have access to the other company's network ..

Before the AT&T break-up, this was not the case..

 

[Skeptical Greg]

This reminds me of a ridiculous ( with todays technology ) scenario that still shows up on contemporary TV and movies sometimes ... Where they try to keep the person on the phone while they trace the call ..

This was certainly true before electronic switching .. We actually had to trace the call switch by switch through the office - sometimes between floors in a building - and if the call was from another exchange - we had to take it as far as we could - then call the other office for the the rest .. It could take a long time..

In the case of annoyance calls - we could put a special clip on the customers phone circuit, that would keep the call path held up, after the caller hung up...


Of course it took a while for all the systems to get converted over to electronic switching, but once in place, there was an instant record of both numbers..


With cell phones it does take some time to get a fix on a location, but they can narrow it down instantly to the cell area the phone is located, as well as show the path it took through different cells if it was moving...

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Thanks again to everybody who replied, especially DS and Diogenes.


The 1950s, actually, but yeah it's for a story.

Hey ! I want to be listed as a technical consultant in your book !

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

T

<< SNIP >>

With cell phones it does take some time to get a fix on a location, but they can narrow it down instantly to the cell area the phone is located, as well as show the path it took through different cells if it was moving...

In recent years all cell phoes sold in North America have some form of GPS built in. The primary justification is for locating 911 calls. However it can be used by the police to get a more accurate location than simple cell tower triangulation. I'm not 100% certain how widely this is used and a few minutes of Googling did not really tell me. It may actually be in wide use but not publicized.