Telephone jacks

[fan-of-fans]

Seeing an antique telephone in a shop a while ago with a four prong plug on the line cord, made me wonder. What year did the old four prong telephone jacks change to the modular RJ-11 style we use now?

My house was built in 1976 and has the modular ones that as far as I know of, are original. So I would guess it was some time in the 70s that they started using them. Although the bedrooms each have two telephone jack locations with wires but there was no cover plate/jack installed to them.

 

[ea56]

Sometime about 1975 or 76

is when I first recall the modular telephone jacks first coming into use. This coincided with the “Phone Stores” opening. Before that,you always had to have an installer out to the house whenever you moved or got telephone service. Once the home was wired with the modular jacks the customer just went to the Phone Store, set up their service and picked up their phone(s), and went home and plugged them in to the jacks that had already been activated at the central office. It really was a big step towards utility convenience.

Eddie

 

[yogitunes]

growing up, our house had an outlet on the wall, a cover for the TV antennae plug, and a four prong for the phone....

which I never understood, as we had the square covered boxes mounted the baseboard and the phones wired direct, with a very short cord...dial phones in fact, those seemed to have the four prong plugs....

seems early in the 70's when you had Touch-Tone turned on, the jacks went to the modular ones....

which also seems odd, it was still 4 wires either way, and only two hooked up...

there may have been an adapter for converting a 4prong to a modular plug....

Ralph might know.....

I forget what the sequence was to dial and make your own phone ring....gives new meaning to the call coming from inside the house...

 

[neptunebob]

A movie mistake

In the movie Apollo 13 there is a scene where Mrs. Lovell is speaking with a NASA official on the phone where there is a modular jack on the receiver.  As we know, that didn't exist in 1970.

 

[ea56]

Robert,

I notice this too all the time in movies. Most poeple aren’t as detailed oriented as we are I guess. It always impresses me when they really do get the period details correct in a movie about times past. Shows that they did their homework.

Eddie

 

[wayupnorth]

Growing up, our phone was direct wired to a wall box, so you couldnt wire a phantom phone into it as Ma Bell knew if another phone rang. We had extensions, but only one rang, My mother worked for the phone company and knew these tips. I still keep a landline rotary phone as it always works when power is out. I put jacks in here in '95 when I moved in here. Now all my phones have to be connected to filters so my internet and phone works right.

 

[kb0nes]

There is a Wiki entry for the RJ (Registered Jack) that details its history.

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

Our 1965 house we moved into in 1977 was all originally 4 pin jacks. Had a handful of the 4-pin to RJ11 adapters as all the phones installed had the new crimp on ends. Slowly one by one all the old 4-pin jacks have been excised from the house.

The interesting thing with this house is it was wired with 25 pair loose bundled wire (with only 2 pair used as usual). I suppose that was normal in the day. At a point when I started transmitting 100 watts+ RF on 1.8-30Mhz I had issues with telephone interference. I ended up stripping the ends of all the other pairs in the basement and grounding them to largely eliminate the noise. I replaced the old carbon static block too as it was the likely rectification point. The new gas discharge impulse suppressor is way better anyhow.

I looked back on Instagram and it appears I removed the final 4-pin jack back in 2016. Still looking for the Bell system address so I can return their jack to them.

 

[blackstone]

"Black Boxes" to get free long-distance calls

Slightly off the original topic, but still within the same time period:

When I was in college at UMass, class of '75, phones were hardwired into the dorm walls. Some students added so-called "black boxes", which allowed the reception of long-distance calls, without the caller being charged. This is back in the days of expensive long-distance phone calls.

The "black boxes" worked like this: a student would pre-arrange for someone to call in long-distance; when the student's phone started ringing, he would flip a switch and pick up the receiver, and talk as long as he wanted. What the switch did was to trick the phone company into thinking that the student's phone was just ringing, without being picked up. Thus, no phone call was completed, as far as Ma Bell knew.

When I moved into a room at the beginning of a new semester, I was wondering why I was not receiving any phone calls, since I was trying to sell some old textbooks. The student from the previous semester had removed his "black box", but did not properly rewire the inside of the phone.

 

[cornutt]

In 1973 we moved into a newly-built apartment complex in Chattanooga, TN, that was wired with RJ11 jacks. There was a box in my bedroom that was just blanked off. One day I opened it and found phone wires. I went to Radio Shack and bought an RJ11 jack and wired it in myself. Then, when my parents were out, I'd go get the phone from their bedroom and bring it to my bedroom. A few years later, we moved to a house that had been built around 1968. It also had RJ11 jacks, but when I looked at them closely, I realized that they were adapters plugged into the old four-pin jacks.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

When we moved in the our COOP back in 1968, we had multiple phone outlets, all four prong. The building was completed in 1965. Each room had a least 3 jacks. The wall phone in the kitchen was hard wired to the wall outlet. When my folks switched to touch tone in the mid 70's I remember the jacks where changed over to RJ11's. Oddly the kitchen phone remained the same (WE 554), but a new plate was installed in the back making it modular and thus compatible with with the new modular wall jack. The other phones were swapped out. Two 500 sets for 2500's and a dial Trimline for a TT Trimline. After many years of throw away phones, I've switched back to 2500's and the kitchen phone will once again be a 554.

 

[justjunque]

Louis

Nice phone choices!
We have Western Electric phones in almost every room.
The kitchen wall phone is a 2554, which I have a couple of, but I do have a couple of different color modular 554s for some variety.
I grew up with an ivory 554. To me, that was just what a kitchen phone should be.
In the bedrooms and computer room, we have 500s.
We have to use converters, in order to be able to dial out, because our phone service doesn't support pulse dialing.
I have a small collection of touch tone Trimlines, in various colors, but I don't currently have any of them in use.
In our basement, there's an original, red, hardwired 554. Can't dial out on that one, but it's a beauty!

Barry

 

[wayupnorth]

I have no idea what their numbers are, but I have 2 Bell desk rotary phones, one avocado and one black my mother got when she was at the phone company. I have an orange trimline wall model in my kitchen with a very loud bell, white rotary dial in my garage. All have to use filters for internet but all work when the power goes out but on regular landline.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Most likely they're "500" sets Tim.

 

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Thanks Barry. While 2500's can still be had cheap at thrift stores, 500 sets have gotten exceedingly rare. I recently found a nice TT Trimline from Bell Systems in harvest gold for, I kid you not, $1.50.

 

[wayupnorth]

Yes, that is the exact green phone and it too can ring loud. The orange Trimline is touchtone and the white garage wall one is dial. I never got any phones, when I was working at the phone company, but got all the jacks and wiring I needed when I redid this place. In the past few years our landline service has started with NE Telephone, to AT&t, to Verizon, to Lucent, to FairPoint and now Consolidated. Who will they sell to next year?

 

[dartman]

Radio phone contests...

I was given a old 4 line rotary black business phone in the late seventies and wired it probably with a adapter to my rooms phone jack. I used that phone to win many, many record albums from my favorite rock station, a trip to the US festival in 83 etc. We didn't have touchtone service at first and they wanted extra to activate it so we stayed with rotary dial till they finally rolled it out for all customers. I used to dial all of the contest number but one digit, wait about 30 seconds after they said to call in and dial the last number. I used to get about 2 or three albums a month that way plus the concert trip. They had my name and info on file and I'd go in once a month and pick up my albums, they all knew me by name at the station. The extra lines used the extra wires if you signed up for them.

 

[justjunque]

Louis:
Granted, I don't hit the thrift stores as often as I'd like to, but I never see any older phones at our stores.
Maybe the occasional foreign-made feature phone or something.
That Trimline was a great find! I had a gold one in my room as a teen, and still keep my eyes open for one in that color.

Tim:
The same thing happened here. Probably just about everywhere, actually.
We now have our landline phone service as part of a bundle with our cable and internet.
I'm getting fed up with our cable company though. With the high rates, and cutting channels that we like.
We would drop them if there was a viable alternative, but they pretty much hold all the cards; and they know it.

Barry

 

[askolover]

I don't remember if I've shared this funny little story or not so here goes...

 

A couple of years ago on Christmas, my niece and her husband along with their two young daughters, came down and were staying with my parents.  I went down to have supper with them one evening.  While we were eating, one of the girls pointed to the wall and said, "What is that?"  She had never seen a wall phone.  Cell phones have always been a part of their lives.  I felt so old!

 

[twintubdexter]

Greg

Your comment really hits home. Today's young people (for me that's anyone 50 and under) are consumed with technology and that's perfectly acceptable. Show most kids a phonograph record or a phone with a dial and they'll have no idea what they are. Frankly, this oldster likes clinging to things from my past that make me feel comfortable. I like wall phones.

 

Grew up with one of these on the kitchen wall. Just the picture brings back lots of good memories.

[this post was last edited: 11/15/2018-16:18]