The day that began touch-tone dialing

Tribune Review (suburban Pittsburgh, PA) ^ | 18 November 2013 | By Adam Smeltz

[Vigilanteman]

50 Years ago today . . .

Long before smartphones and text messages made the world instantly available with a split-second tap, reaching out to touch someone could take a full 10 seconds.

That was just to dial a number, ticked out one deliberate digit at a time, on a mechanical wheel owned by the phone company.

Monday marks 50 years since the United States began saying goodbye to the classic rotary phone, replaced by touch-tone services that slashed dialing time and foreshadowed a digital revolution that keeps reshuffling everyday communication.

The push-buttons became an especially big deal in Western Pennsylvania, where Carnegie and Greensburg were first in the country to see complete rollouts of the optional upgrade in November 1963.

Bell Telephone Co. customers could pay $1.50 a month for the pleasure and convenience of touch-tone, according to newspaper reports at the time.

“All of the many things we can do by phone — without interacting with a human — got an awful lot easier with the touch-tone,” said Jon Peha, a professor in engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “The introduction allowed you to interact with automated systems on the other end in an easy way.”

Although the pound and star keys would not appear until 1968, the first 10-button sets largely resembled the keypads used on billions of mobile and other phones worldwide. The Tribune-Review described the touch-tone approach as “space-age telephony” of “missile-like speed and musical tones” when Greensburg phone users tested the technology in early 1961.

[Mister Da]

Actually, there was a time before the rotary that we had voice dialing: Pick up phone & tell the operator who to call.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yes...those folks who have a single ring sure get a lot of calls.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I remember being disappointed as a kid that I could never win those radio station “10th. caller” contests because my dad was too thrifty to spring for the buck fifty.

Was surprised to see that I phone I bought recently still offers pulse dialing “for Canada only”. Still got it up there, eh?

[lacrew]

We used the ringback feature as and intercom in our house.

[Fido969]

Long before smartphones and text messages made the world instantly available with a split-second tap, reaching out to touch someone could take a full 10 seconds.

That was just to dial a number, ticked out one deliberate digit at a time, on a mechanical wheel owned by the phone company.

Oh, the hugh-mantaee!

[Conspiracy Guy]

I tapped out messages on a hollow tree with a rock after trees became available and got hollow. It was much better than tapping out a message on a big rock with a small rock. Both methods were wireless and free of charge.

[Age of Reason]

you could actually dial back then without the dial....just push the or holder up and down

You should still be able to dial that way.

(I have a rotary phone from the 1930s I can still make calls with)

[pax_et_bonum]

I never told you before, but I hollowed out that tree for you.

Was gonna make a canoe but I thought, “You know, it would be really nice of me to let CG have this to use as a communication device.”

[Chickensoup]

I LOVE THE SOUND OF A DIALED PHONE.

[Squeako]

2867

[Celtic Conservative]

And, oddly enough on this fiftieth anniversary AT&T is seeking approval to discontinue offering landline service in some markets. 70% of households don't have landline service according to AT&T. I just dumped mine approx. 6 months ago...they finally built a cell tower in My very rural area. Now I have 5 bars I don't need ma bell no more. I do remember using the cradle button to pulse-dial home on the rotary phone from the summer camp I worked at in college. They always had a dial lock on the damn thing because it was the only phone in camp that had long distance and dialed out (other than the pay phones). I don't think they caught on.

CC

[Dr. Sivana]

I remember being disappointed as a kid that I could never win those radio station “10th. caller” contests because my dad was too thrifty to spring for the buck fifty.

I got around that. I had to be the first caller when the "Captain Fantastic" whistle sounded (1975). I dialed the whole number, except the last digit, which I half dialed. When I heard the whistle, I let go and was on WPOP-1410-AM in Hartford, CT!

Anyone remember those handheld touch tone simulators for use on dial phones to access MCI/Sprint/SBS Skyline in the pre-and early post-AT&T breakup days?

[Gaffer]

You’re probably right. All it should take is a 60/40 contract break if they still allow regular dialing without tones. I haven’t tried it in years, though.

[Celtic Conservative]

Did you ever use the automated collect call system to leave a message for your parents? for example your parents got a call that went like this: "you have a collect call from (pickmeupatthemall). will you accept the charges?" and then your parents would hang up and then go pick you up at the mall.

CC

[Vigilanteman]

I vaguely remember when we kids "discovered" the tricks to pulse dialing. Don't ever recall doing the subtractive technique, but we did do the hangup technique a number of times.

Then there was the 11911 technique. Dial that number and your phone rang back. Never could figure out why. But it was awfully handy when you wanted to call someone to dinner and you knew they were near an extension.

We didn't even have extensions until 1969 or so when my parents bought a rural house from a guy who worked for the phone company.

[zeugma]

Your post reminds me of an email list I used to be a part of called "Telecom Digest". It has been around since 1981, one of the longest running email lists on the planet. Sadly, I didn't join the list until 1985 or so. Occasionally someone would post something to the list to provide historical context to things. I remember reading a really long email about exactly what it took to place a phone call in 1940. It was fascinating. One of the reasons it was so expensive to make phone calls back in the day, was because it was very resource intenseive. They didn't have electronic switches to route calls hither and yon.

Obviously, this pre-dates 'touch-tone' dialing, also called 'true-tone' by AT&T using DTMF, or even 'rotary' dialing.

The process would begin like this, you'd pick up your phone reciever, and hit the cradle a few times. This would cause a light on the central switchboard blink, which would get the operator's attention. You'd tell the operator that you wanted to place a long distance call to, say PEnnsylvania 6-5000. You'd hang up and wait for the call to be completed. The operator would then begin the process of building, by way of patch boards a physical cable that connected the caller to the called party. He/she would ring the next operator down the line and they would build that cable. Once completed, the operator would ring you back, and you'd pick up the phone and start talking.

Hard to believe, these days given how easy it is to make a phone call to just about anywhere on the planet.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

I wonder does rotary dial phones still work on land lines?

Last time I tried it it did...

Regards,
GtG

[lacrew]

Good idea, but we never thought of that.

A few years ago, I saw a story on the Phonephreaks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking

Sort of the ancestors of modern hackers. They had all kinds of work-arounds.

[Conspiracy Guy]

It was not long before lightning hit it and burned it down. I grilled a mastodon on the fire and we feasted for days. Now i had fire. Next time I needed fire I took a tree branch and wandered for days looking for a thunderstorm. Like most ancient people I was sick of living so long ago. So I gathered my family and we went in search of a better life. After a week of walking we found a Zippo, a cell phone and an Neanderthal express credit card. 2 days later we found a Walmart super store. Our lives have changed.

[Ditto]

And we got it first here in SW Pennsylvania, the place where other significant inventions debuted, including penicillin,...

Not penicillin. Maybe you are thinking about the Salk Polio Vaccine.