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Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

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Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#91

Post by dale_glass »

pavlov wrote: post #87
bambax wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not immune to this. Internet points or "karma" on this very website work the same way.

Absolutely. But the coveted big number, an ever-accumulating ledger balance, is a different kind of valuable number than the small number, which generally represents a distance to the origin of the number cult. Lower is better because it’s closer to the source. Elon Musk has the biggest big numbers of them all. But that doesn’t mean he could acquire every kind of valuable small number that exists. He can definitely b…

> But he can’t buy himself a low Erdős number for example.

Why not? With that much money I'm sure he can spend enough to convince somebody with a low number to "collaborate" with him in some capacity. Even if it's spell checking the English text or something.

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#92

Post by fsckboy »

jonjacky wrote: post #70

From 1963: the all digit dialing protest song, "Let's All Call Up AT & T and Protest to the President March" by Allan Sherman. Lyrics: https://mojim.com/usy129446x2x37.htm Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCFLanFgUPI (and many others)

Allan Sherman also wrote Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er50h8W8vWg

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#93

Post by DemocracyFTW2 »

Symbiote wrote: post #85
zw123456 wrote: post #63

One other fun fact about numbering, the most frequently dialed exchanges, those for big cities would use the lowest numbers, e.g. downtown would be 223 for the exchange and big cities area codes 212 and so on. The reason was not for the convenience of the dialer, remember it was rotary dial way back when a lot of those first got assigned, it was because the signaling was in band so the longer it took for the dialing…

That also explains why European emergency numbers are often 11X, including 112 which is the universal emergency number in the EU and the GSM standard (so it will work on your mobile phone too). It doesn't explain Britain using 999 or Australia using 000.

Maybe the thinking was that you can easily slip with your finger or mindlessly dial something, then accidentally dialing a 1 or 2 is much more likely than doing the same with 9 or 0 which needs ten times the pulses (and the time) needed for a 1. Having grown up with rotary phones, that would make sense to me.

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#94

Post by jazzyjackson »

bambax wrote: post #81

The article seems to imply that in the US the names were arbitrary and just served as mnemonics? In France it worked in the same way, but the names referred to actual places: either the name of the town when it was small enough, or a district / neighborhood for larger cities. So your number would be "Trocadéro-12-45" or "Lourmel-78-98" for instance; and, starting in 1928, you could dial it in directly on your phone w…

"Murray Hill" is a neighborhood in manhattan as mentioned in the article, I found a source with some more examples [0]:

"For example, in a 1932 Manhattan phone directory, you can see the numbers listed by exchange. CH-elsea. ST-uyvesant. This was before direct dial, so there was no need to figure out what CH or ST converted to as numbers on your rotary dial; you’d simply ask the operator to connect you. Once people dialed directly, the first two letters became the first two numbers of the exchange. In that 1932 phone book, the number for the store Bergdorf Goodman, located near the Plaza Hotel, is given as Plaza 3-7300. That translates to 753-7300, which is still the store’s phone number today."

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/04/07/a...

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#95

Post by dotancohen »

dredmorbius wrote: post #59

A reminder that both direct-dial long-distance https://yewtu.be/watch?v=C7YM9Sz9wxo > (1936) and direct-dial calling https://yewtu.be/watch?v=uaQm30DDHL8 > (1951) were once novel technologies which needed to be introduced and taught to the public.

Was television in many homes in 1936? Or even 1951? How were these messages broadcast?

For matter of comparison, my country did not get its first television broadcasting station until 1967.

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#96

Post by Angostura »

DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #93
Symbiote wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also explains why European emergency numbers are often 11X, including 112 which is the universal emergency number in the EU and the GSM standard (so it will work on your mobile phone too). It doesn't explain Britain using 999 or Australia using 000.

Maybe the thinking was that you can easily slip with your finger or mindlessly dial something, then accidentally dialing a 1 or 2 is much more likely than doing the same with 9 or 0 which needs ten times the pulses (and the time) needed for a 1. Having grown up with rotary phones, that would make sense to me.

The UK originally considered using 111, but there were problems in that on windy days, trees etc brushing the lines could generate momentary disconnections = a pulse = digit 1. So false calls.

999 was choosen because it was easy to find the number 9 on the dial in the dark.

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#97

Post by Ekaros »

Symbiote wrote: post #85
zw123456 wrote: post #63

One other fun fact about numbering, the most frequently dialed exchanges, those for big cities would use the lowest numbers, e.g. downtown would be 223 for the exchange and big cities area codes 212 and so on. The reason was not for the convenience of the dialer, remember it was rotary dial way back when a lot of those first got assigned, it was because the signaling was in band so the longer it took for the dialing…

That also explains why European emergency numbers are often 11X, including 112 which is the universal emergency number in the EU and the GSM standard (so it will work on your mobile phone too). It doesn't explain Britain using 999 or Australia using 000.

000 makes lot of sense to me. It is the last digit available, so it can be quickly dialled.

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#98

Post by pavlov »

dale_glass wrote: post #91
pavlov wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. But the coveted big number, an ever-accumulating ledger balance, is a different kind of valuable number than the small number, which generally represents a distance to the origin of the number cult. Lower is better because it’s closer to the source. Elon Musk has the biggest big numbers of them all. But that doesn’t mean he could acquire every kind of valuable small number that exists. He can definitely b…

> But he can’t buy himself a low Erdős number for example. Why not? With that much money I'm sure he can spend enough to convince somebody with a low number to "collaborate" with him in some capacity. Even if it's spell checking the English text or something.

It's true, academic institutions are quite good at selling their prestige to donors (honorary titles, etc.)

So probably he could do this most easily by donating a pile of money to an institution who employs someone with a suitably low number, who then paper-collaborates with the rich donor.

Nobody loses face in such a coordinated sell-out. The mathematician did it because it got the math department a $100 million grant. The rich guy is now a recognized patron of the noble science. The university administrators are pleased that they can direct their fundraising efforts elsewhere.

And eventually the rich guy's son gets to use this as a talking point to highlight how he's probably inherited some of the family genius: "My father was actually quite an accomplished mathematician too" — nobody remembers or cares 30 years later how it actually went down.

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#99

Post by jazzyjackson »

Ekaros wrote: post #97
Symbiote wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also explains why European emergency numbers are often 11X, including 112 which is the universal emergency number in the EU and the GSM standard (so it will work on your mobile phone too). It doesn't explain Britain using 999 or Australia using 000.

000 makes lot of sense to me. It is the last digit available, so it can be quickly dialled.

Whether 0 comes before 1 or after 9 has been the matter of some debate!

But by the time typewriters started cementing the order of things, 0 came last, and on all the rotary phones I see on google images, 0 would take the longest to dial.

Do rotary phones in Australia flow backwards? xP

see also: https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/76446/why-is-the-0-ne...

Re: Why did old phone numbers start with letters? (2015)

#100

Post by richrichardsson »

Symbiote wrote: post #85
zw123456 wrote: post #63

One other fun fact about numbering, the most frequently dialed exchanges, those for big cities would use the lowest numbers, e.g. downtown would be 223 for the exchange and big cities area codes 212 and so on. The reason was not for the convenience of the dialer, remember it was rotary dial way back when a lot of those first got assigned, it was because the signaling was in band so the longer it took for the dialing…

That also explains why European emergency numbers are often 11X, including 112 which is the universal emergency number in the EU and the GSM standard (so it will work on your mobile phone too). It doesn't explain Britain using 999 or Australia using 000.

My understanding of 999 was in order to stop accidental signalling of the intent to dial the emergency number by way of noise on the line being intepreted as dial click, which this article on BBC news seems to corroborate [1].

Having said that, that doesn't really then line up with 112 for mainland European countries, unless that is a relatively modern occurrence and they historically had different emergency numbers?

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/hist...

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