Number PULEAZE! Part Four:

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Part Four:

 

 

All about vintage telephones up to 1989. Advertisements, humor, history, collections, equipment, restoration/repair, technical questions, resources or just plain memories, it's all here. While emphasis is placed on American telephones, vintage telephones from around the world are also most welcomed.

 

"Hello central???"

 

Part One:

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Part Two:

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<strong>Part Three:</strong>

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I'm a little surprised 911 was only adopted nationally in the late 1960s.

It seems 999 was introduced in 1937 in the UK and seems to have been in use here in Ireland too from that point on and was just rolled out in any area as automatic dialling became widespread.

The pan-European (and often beyond) 112 harmonised number being introduced in 1995 and seems to have some degree of uptake but is very useful if you're abroad as there used to be different emergency numbers in every EU country.

The usual approach is 112 just co-exists with whatever the national emergency number is in any given country, but does not replace it, as to do so would cause confusion. Some countries promote only 112 in advertising, others continue to promote their original national emergency number, but there is no plan to phase anything out, it's just a service that co-exists.

112 will also always override key locks and often operate in mobile phones that don't have accounts or SIM cards.
 
911 was only introduced (allowed in the phone system) 50 years ago--it took over 10 years before it came to our town in suburban St. Louis (Southwestern Bell ILEC) in suburban St. Louis. The US does not have a national phone network (we have local monopolies; regulated at both the state AND national level; largest of which was the Bell system; as opposed to most other countries where the phone company was part of the PTT (post/telephone/telegraph)). Canada has a similar structure as the US as well.

The structure of the phone systems under the North America Numbering Plan (i.e. country code 1) is quite different than the rest of the world, and has filtered down to a lot of why we do things "like we do"...as a for instance, you never know by the number whether you're calling a landline or a mobile when dialing; therefore calling-party-pays is not a "thing" here (too tough to implement with the diversity in phone companies out there).

911 is funded and regulated at the local/state level (so there are still a few very rural areas without 911 still!) I've worked in 911 for the last 15 years, so any questions I'm happy to sound off!
 
 

 

<h1 id="ember805" class="c-article__headline o-headline ember-view">Most Of The Last Remaining Pay Phones In NYC Will Be Ripped Out</h1>
<span id="ember807" class="o-byline ember-view"> By Jen Carlson </span>

<span class="o-published-date__time"> <time datetime="2020-02-28T03:26-05:00"> Feb. 28, 2020 3:26 p.m. </time> </span>

 

While the private, walk-in phone booths of yesteryear have been nearly extinct for well over a decade in New York City, many open-air pay phones have remained, jammed into the concrete sidewalks, coin-operated totems to our analog days. But like the iconic phone booth before them ( of which there are only four left), their days are now numbered.

Along 9th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen there are enough non-booth public pay phones left that some locals have complained, saying they eat up valuable sidewalk space and aren't well-maintained by CityBridge, a consortium that installs, operates, and maintains public communications structures in NYC. Hearing their complaints, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson contacted the commissioner of the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) late last year to facilitate in their removal.

“My office has received numerous community complaints from local residents about these antiquated pay phones, which present public safety and quality of life issues," Johnson said in a statement to Gothamist Friday. "Additionally, they take up sorely needed sidewalk space that could better serve people with disabilities, families with strollers and ease sidewalk congestion.”

 

All in all, thirty will be removed in Hell's Kitchen, along 9th Avenue from West 23rd to 57th Street, by the end of March. After that, DoITT will uproot about 3,000 pay phones all over the city. While they are committed to removing all of their pay phones, not all pay phones are controlled by CityBridge, so you may still see a few out there.

 

This is all part of the planned long goodbye to the aging network of public phones, as CityBridge brings in more revenue-generating LinkNYC kiosks. Some of these Hell's Kitchen pay phones, and the ones taken down after them, will be replaced by those newer machines, which CityBridge also oversees, though there are no immediate plans for their installation.

 

It's worth noting that those remaining booths — all on the Upper West Side — will remain in place, per an agreement, and will continue to be maintained by CityBridge. They also now provide free phone calls. You'll find them on West End Avenue around 66th, 90th, 100th and 101st streets.

 
The White House phone above appears to be a Western Electric B type handset mounting, with an E-1 handset. The ringer and network are located in a subset box. It has no dial as it was used with a PBX.

This style phone had a round base. In 1930 it was restyled to have a more stable oval base. Later versions had updated handsets. They are referred to as models 102 and 202. It was common until the introduction of the 302 in 1939.

Friends of my parents had the oval base version. The man retired from Western Electric, and my mom had worked with him there in the early 50's.
 

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