I think that might also have been to thwart scammers who would gain access to a business PBX through a dial in line (can’t really remember, think they were called “disa” lines) and use it to make “long distance” calls . You would have places where there were large numbers of pay phones, like railway terminals, with scammers who would place the call for the buyer and let them talk for ten minutes or so. A lot of charges would pile up before a business might see the bill.
The old switched phone network was never immune to congestion during emergencies; I doubt it could ever offer as many working lines per square mile as modern cellular networks do (except perhaps in Manhattan), and certainly if you count text messages it’s not even close. People used to remember more phone numbers, but (a) there’s nothing stopping you doing that now and (b) when your cellphone is working it remembers a lot more numbers than you ever did. And let’s not forget that payphones were hardly dependable, even if you counted “crusted in human feces” as a usable state.
The difference with the old phone system was that it felt more solid. It didn’t change, its workings were public knowledge (among people interested enough to find out), it was physically present as liveried payphones, etc. You could believe in the phone network as a piece of infrastructure, in a way that’s no longer true, even if the current network is objectively vastly superior.
5 Likes
7 Likes
Funny how a payphone call to a taxi would be just as effective and quicker than remembering one’s Uber username and password, making sure the phone hasn’t been hacked with a skimmer or logger, doing it all while buzzed/scared.
(I am apparently an old because jeez, is a taxi that awful for people that they’d rather have a random? Every city I’ve ever lived in has had a taxi service with the phone number (AREA) 333-3333. Response times are about 10 minutes at most, fares are stable, and central dispatch taxis are logged, so I know the driver isn’t going to follow me into my house or assault me.)
2 Likes
I’ve been declined to be picked up before because i didn’t know the exact address of where i was even though i could give them the cross street (this was in the middle of a hard down pour). I’ve had cab companies not show up when i requested a pick up multiple times, and i’ve been charged astronomic fares for not going terribly far. Cab companies are dead to me 
i would much rather take any other ride share alternative than give business to a taxi.
3 Likes
And if you miss the sounds of the old telephone network, the Evan Doorbell tapes are a gold mine of what the “old days” were like. They sure gave me a lot of insight into some of the sounds I heard over the phone back in the day. I never made it quite to actual phreaking, though; the most adventurous I ever got was to whistle off trunks (yes, I’m blessed/cursed with perfect pitch).
1 Like
Was I the only one bothered by the author’s use of “payphone” in cases where they should’ve used “payphones”?
Mojave Phone Booth
Back in the day, payphones would contribute significantly to overloading circuits during earthquakes since they would all go off-hook at the same time. The system can only handle about 10% of concurrent usage or something like that.
2 Likes
That was ME! I didn’t know you worked at King Soopers! Sorry about the tire dirt on the handset…
I voted yes, but I don’t think I should count - I don’t ‘do’ cellphones. I destroy cheap watches by the bucketful as I wander around, doing my normal day-to-day activities. A cellphone in my hands is like handing it over to one of the lower primates.
I have a rotary phone I keep hooked up because Xcel used to ‘brownout’ our neighborhood to give power to other neighborhoods during power shortages (they eventually got nailed by the state PUC), but when the power is off long enough, battery phones lose their charge. A rotary phone makes its own (small) charge as you crank the dial.
1 Like
Finally lost the old copper pair last month, but if I ever need to make an emergency call with cellular network down, the Bell manhole is only about 30 feet from my window and I have my own test set.
1 Like
I could usual slide into 2600Hz myself easily enough. For dialing I had a 555.
There were a few exchanges in the Montreal area that were sensitive to it. The Mirabel Airport exchange was a special case, really a long distance connection, but local from Montreal to that white elephant (it should have been named the Pierre Trudeau Airport and not Dorval). An exchange or two on the western tip of the island on Montreal were odd for 2600 too.
That was always the hardest for me to remember. I never call myself. These days though, I don’t call anyone else either, so it’s even. People still think it’s odd that I have to look up my phone number in my phone though.
2 Likes
In 1975, in the UK my parents picked up some hacking tricks from other Australians in London. One of them involved repeatedly calling the international number and hanging up. After a certain number of attempts some condition would be triggered which assumed a fault in the circuitry which detected a coin in the system, and it would give you a free call.
Also your story reminds me that the European standard emergency number 112 is too easy to dial while joining cables. Better to have 9s and 0s in there.
1 Like
I had the great pleasure to visit the Schwarzman library in NYC a couple of weeks ago, and while following the audio tour I was bemused by people taking photos in the wooden telephone cubicles near the elevators. It made me feel much, much older than my 44 years!
1 Like
I’ve done that lol. But I give out my own phone a lot so I’ve since remembered it
Good thing that was parents and/or significant other…
I don’t know my parents (current) number. I remember (including area code) the one they had 30 years ago, but not the current numbers. I know my current cell number (because I give it out), and my wife’s (because it my number plus one…and/or because it is also a common contact number). Thats it.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
