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Rotary Cellphone

justine-haupt.com

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Re: Rotary Cellphone

#81

Post by flyinghamster »

Angostura wrote: post #75
kees99 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not 111? That would have been even easier to manually-pulse dial.

In the good old days, they looked at 111 at an emergency number but it was rejected because it was too easy for the digit 1 to be tapped out by in high winds by wires rubbing together. That's why the UK went with 999 as something memorable, but slow to dial.

An odd side effect of that was that in New Zealand, where phone dials are arranged 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0 instead of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0, the emergency number was indeed 111, with nine pulses for the 1 digit. British-made exchange equipment was extensively used there, so no modification was needed to make 111 the emergency number.

The reverse dial was a result of the design of early Rotary exchanges built in Antwerp around 1921. Similar Rotary exchanges were installed in Oslo as well in 1914, and Oslo also used the reverse dial (but nowhere else in Norway).

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#82

Post by jfengel »

Waterluvian wrote: post #58
DonHopkins wrote: post #50

The problem with the "retro" telephone ring sound that so many modern phones have built in is that it just doesn't resonate and echo and slowly decay over time like a real phone ring. It would be cool to code up a physical ring simulator that reproduces that sound properly, and responds to the accelerometer, especially when you drop it or hang up on somebody by slamming it down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxXsIQ…

Not being able to slam hang up on someone is a critically missing feature and due to such, I believe the entire smartphone revolution is a failure.

There is, of course, an app for that:

https://download.cnet.com/Slam-the-Phone/3000-20432_4-780789...

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#83

Post by zentiggr »

DonHopkins wrote: post #60
Waterluvian wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being able to slam hang up on someone is a critically missing feature and due to such, I believe the entire smartphone revolution is a failure.

The biggest problem with telephones that still persists even today, is that you can only hang up on somebody once. Anybody who can solve that problem is bound to revolutionize communication as we know it.

Imagine that there was a phone receiver that delivered a zero to nominally painful electric current based on how abruptly the audio from the other speaker cut off... All sorts of reasons that this isn't doable, but the psychological satisfaction of knowing that spam caller just got zapped...

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#84

Post by zentiggr »

DonHopkins wrote: post #60
Waterluvian wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being able to slam hang up on someone is a critically missing feature and due to such, I believe the entire smartphone revolution is a failure.

The biggest problem with telephones that still persists even today, is that you can only hang up on somebody once. Anybody who can solve that problem is bound to revolutionize communication as we know it.

Or the phone company doesn't immediately disconnect the caller, so you could pick the phone back up and slam it down again, at least a couple of more times.

Ahhh...

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#85

Post by cptskippy »

DonHopkins wrote: post #50

The problem with the "retro" telephone ring sound that so many modern phones have built in is that it just doesn't resonate and echo and slowly decay over time like a real phone ring. It would be cool to code up a physical ring simulator that reproduces that sound properly, and responds to the accelerometer, especially when you drop it or hang up on somebody by slamming it down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxXsIQ…

When cellphones first came out, they eschewed classic ringers to sound modern and fresh. As soon as they started offering custom ringtones, I loaded up sounds from a classic TV and Movie sound effects library onto my Nokia. It included a Rotary Phone sound that became my standard ringer up until I started leaving my phone permanently on silent.

I can't find the sound fx library online anymore but it had all sorts of sound effects used in TV and movies from the 50s to today. I've heard the effects in Looney Toons cartoons, classic Scooby Doo, Mission Impossible, and Knight Rider just to name a few.

Unfortunately I didn't think to keep the entire library and so I only have a few sound files from it converted to MP3.

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#86

Post by XaspR8d »

troymc wrote: post #80
DonHopkins wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Knowing that story is a great mnemonic to remember it, even if you have a push button phone!

I grew up in North America (where 911 is the emergency number), so when I moved to Germany and wanted to remember 112, I noticed that it spells out: 1 + 1 = 2

That would foil me if it was my only memory device. A+B=C is true of ~55 (napkin math) different 3-digit numbers. Plus another 40-ish for A×B=C and 50-ish for A-B=C...

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#88

Post by peterleiser »

rbanffy wrote: post #76
Angostura wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the good old days, they looked at 111 at an emergency number but it was rejected because it was too easy for the digit 1 to be tapped out by in high winds by wires rubbing together. That's why the UK went with 999 as something memorable, but slow to dial.

AFAIK they changed it to 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3. Sorry. Someone had to.

Try calling that number on your Android phone. It still "works" on my Essential phone with stock Android 10.

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#89

Post by TrickyRick »

timonoko wrote: post #62

European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.

For someone not familiar with morse or pulse dialing, how does one do that?

Re: Rotary Cellphone

#90

Post by Aardwolf »

timonoko wrote: post #62

European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.

There are so many of them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_nu...

In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's not trivial to remember which one.

The American 911 is more memorable, even in Europe, simply due to it appearing in popular culture so often, I hope that if someone dials that one in Europe it'll also get forwarded to a real emergency line.

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