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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)

#101

Post by dotancohen »

toast0 wrote: post #90
jmull wrote: post #12

My mother explained this to me (in the '70s or '80s) when I was complaining about them changing or phone number... they took the first three digits of our seven digit number for something. Her number used to be "Tuxedo" (TX) something, something, something. I don't know if she joined the "Anti-Digit Dialing League" that the article mentions, but I could tell she liked she old number. Her point was that they'd changed…

There's plans for eventual expansion, [1], although I wouldn't bet on any of the current plans to be the one that's eventually chosen. Current growth levels seem to give us capacity until beyond 2050. [2] Number expansion does regularly happen around the world; it's not fun, but it's part of life. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan_... [2] https://www.nationalnanpa.com/reports/October_202…

We'll all be on IPv6 by then!

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

#102

Post by bambax »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #94
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 d…

Oh ok, so it seems it was the same. I re-read the article and still find it unclear on this point, but your comment is much more explicit. Thanks!

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

#103

Post by jazzyjackson »

dotancohen wrote: post #95
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.

I can only go by Back to the Future, in 1955 marty's middle class ancestors are proud of their color TV, and scoff when marty says he's got 2 of em, "Nobody has two television sets."

1936 would have been the earliest TV broadcasts ever - the Berlin Olympics ! According to wiki the only viewers would have been in locations set up around the city just for the event.

So now I am quite keen to find out what context these videos were meant to be watched

EDIT: oh, it's in OPs link: "This short subject newsreel was shown in movie theaters the week before a town's or region's telephone exchange was to be converted to dial service. "

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

#104

Post by bambax »

pavlov wrote: post #98
dale_glass wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 gra…

> nobody remembers or cares 30 years later how it actually went down

Or, nobody remembers why the number is valuable. That was the problem with my grandmother; when she told the story to us, telephone numbers had looong ceased to be significant (or indeed, hard to get) so the fact that yours was small or big didn't mean anything, and it sounded so strange to us that one would cherish it.

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

#105

Post by blitzar »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #99
Ekaros wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> Do rotary phones in Australia flow backwards? xP

They rotate the same direction as water circles when you flush a toilet.

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

#106

Post by eloisant »

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…

Great explaination, I'm just a bit disappointed you didn't use "Asnières-22" in your examples :)

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

#107

Post by omnibrain »

dotancohen wrote: post #95
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.

I suppose in cinemas. Before the feature. Like the news at the time with the Newsreel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsreel

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

#108

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#109

Post by buran77 »

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.

Musk managed to buy the low low "number" of co-founder [0] of Tesla. So in my opinion if something is arbitrary it can be bought with enough money.

[0] https://www.cnet.com/culture/tesla-motors-founders-now-there...

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

#110

Post by eythian »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #99
Ekaros wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

They do in NZ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial#/media/File:New_Ze...

This wasn't a problem until direct international dialing became a thing, and then all of a sudden pulse converters had to be installed.

The emergency number there is 111.

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