Old Party Lines.
I remember my childhood phone number in rural
Savoy, Massachusetts as 2r3, or “two, ring three”. There were several other
people on this party line who could listen in on our conversations, as could
we, listen to their conversations. This is what Wikipedia says about it.
“Although various systems were implemented, one
that limited the number of coded rings but established a uniform and readily
understood format, was to first give the subscriber number as individual
digits, which could be from one to four digits long per exchangem separated
by the instructional word "ring" followed by the two digits of the
ring code where the first digit indicated the number of long rings, followed by
the second digit indicating the number of short rings. Thus spoken, for
example, as "nine, three; ring two, two" to mean subscriber No. 93
with ringing code 2 long and 2 short, and written as "93R22", (and if
outside the given exchange, then the exchange would be asked for by name before
the requested number and ringing code, e.g. "Rockridge nine, three; ring
one, two" i.e. "(On the) Rockridge (exchange), (subscriber No.) nine,
three; ring one long, and two short," and written as “Rockridge 93R12”.
(The two examples cited in this paragraph are taken directly from usage in the
1935 American film Party Wire. Whilst this practice was common, it
was not ubiquitous, since despite giving a standard configuration for terse,
easily interpreted numbers with their respective ring codes, its chief
functional drawback was with the first ring always being long and the second
always being short, which limited the number of brief and thus practical
ringing combinations that could be used on single multiparty subscriber
numbers.”
About telephone operators and switchboards:
“Each of the phones in a particular locale would
be connected by wire to a central exchange. The owner of a telephone would call
the exchange, and a switchboard operator would answer. The caller would give
the operator the name of the person he or she wanted to speak with, and the
operator would plug a patch cord into that person’s socket on the switchboard,
connecting the two. Long-distance calls would require the local exchange to
patch the call through to more distant exchanges, again through a series of cables.
Later, as the exchanges added more and more customers, phones were assigned
numbers, and callers could request to be connected that way.
Some early telephone operators worked at small,
rural exchanges, their switchboards located in the local railroad station or
the back of a general store. In cities, massive switchboards could have long
rows of operators packed elbow to elbow”.
Our Bell Telephone operator and representative in
Savoy, MA was “Kitty” Allen, an irascible old Yankee spinster, who routed calls
using an old plug-in switchboard. She
also handled the phone bills. You had
better not try to make a call after about 9 PM if you didn’t want to be exposed
to Kitty’s colorful language.
Some references:
https://www.numberbarn.com/blog/phone-history-party-lines/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony)
https://www.history.com/news/rise-fall-telephone-switchboard-operators
Ray Gruszecki
September 10, 2022
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