Here’s how the 99% invisible blog begins explaining telephone switching systems: If you are an undertaker in 1878 Kansas City, and you learn that your competitor’s wife works as a telephone switchboard operator and has been diverting business calls meant for you to her husband, you have three potential courses of action: (1) Contact the […]
Tag: telephone
How to telephone from every room in a residence
There is a way you can telephone from every room in a residence, explains the May 1905 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine: https://books.google.com/books?id=oN8DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA491&pg=PA502#v=onepage&q&f=false
Phoning during a thunderstorm – Unrecommended
“Is it dangerous to make a landline phone call during a thunderstorm?” It can be. Background is provided by Emeritus Professor Mat Darveniza, AO, FTSE, BE, PhD, DEng, Hon DSc (Eng), FIEAust (Hon), FIEEE (life), FTSE, LIVA, from the University of Queensland Australia – who is a leading authority on lightning strikes. In Australia alone […]
How to dial a rotary telephone
This 1950 video instructs the public on how to dial a rotary telephone. Before many years had passed, most of the public became fully adept at dialing rotary telephone dials. Rotary dials eventually were replaced, almost entirely, with “touch tone” systems, in which one presses buttons rather than dialing a dial. Were rotary dials to […]