Back when this aired on Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon and other cable networks would often blast bursts of DTMF tones during commercial breaks. Decades later I would find out what these were for: like Mr. Wizard explains with the telephone, the cable network tones served a switching function. It would alert the equipment at the cable company to switch in local advertisements if such advertisements were available. A different set of tones would instruct the equipment to switch back to the cable network programming.
I knew a man (Bob Bittner) who ran a few small radio stations in Boston and southern Maine. In the '90s when the cost of computer automation was still exorbitant, he put together a bank of videotape decks that played 8-hour VHS tapes in sequence. These held the stereo hi-fi audio track that would get broadcast over the air. He called in remotely from home and punched some codes into the phone to cue up certain playback decks at certain times. It was basically a one-man operation.
I’ve been a Mr. Wizard fan since I was a young boy (74 now). I still have a mid-1950s edition of Mr. Wizard’s Science Secrets. I do miss the format when he spent the entire half hour exploring a single subject. He was truly the Mr. Rogers of science.
During WW2, Don Herbert (Mr. WIzard) was a B-24 Liberator pilot who flew 56 combat missions over Europe. He retired as a captain and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for exceptional bravery in aerial combat.
This is actually a cool bit of insight into how phone phreaking worked, too. Since everything running on phone wires was listening for specific tones, you could trick any phone (even payphones) into all kinds of neat tricks just by reproducing those sounds. The world's first computer hackers started with landline phones.
What was fun is watching those old switches inside our central offices rotate around. They were replaced by small relays and then by ESS a electronic switching system. It was quite an adventure working for the Bell System.
Aritul It’s called DTMF, Dual Tone Multi Frequency, dialing. During the transition from rotary dials to push button, it took extra equipment in the central office to interpret the tones into numbers, buffer them, then feed them as pulses to the old step-by-step and crossbar switches. That’s why you had to pay an upcharge for tone dialing those days. Once the network fully converted to ESS or electronic switching systems, the situation is reversed. Now it takes extra equipment to deal with the few remaining rotary dial instruments left out there. Trivia: in the old days you could “dial” a number by rapidly tapping the hook switch on the phone, since that is what the dial actually did. (From a circa 1969 Bell System alumnus.)
Back before cell phones your landline was connected by cable pairs to the central office. In the CO the pair was connected to individual office equipment. When you picked up the phone and dialed you would be connected to switching equipment which set up a connection to outgoing circuits that go to the central office of the person your calling. Rotary dial phones existed because the electromechanical switching equipment was limited to how fast it could set up the connections.
I was born in 1986. Rotary phones were pretty much gone. However my grandparents were still useing theirs up until 1994. I lived with them in 1991/1992 as a small child. I remember ( grandma I don't know how to use this) they had to show me. Moved out in 1992. Went back to live with them in 1994. I remember 1st thing said to my sister and I. ( hey kids grandma and grampa have a phone you can push buttons on now) so even tho I'm not that old I have my grandparents to thank for knowing how to use a rotary phone
I went through the exact same thing except I was born in 1996. I have always lived with my grandparents and I remember them using a rotary phone all the way up until like 2003. My grandparents were never into new technology so they were still using a rotary phone until they finally got touch tone phone in 2003. I remember while they still had a rotary phone, they taught me how to use it. Fun times!
In 1986, rotary dial phones were mostly gone, but they were making el-cheapo push button phones that were not touch tone. They were pulse dial. They could ONLY do pulse dial. (More expensive phones had a switch to select between pulse dial and touch tones). You'd push the buttons for the number you were dialing and when you finished you'd still hear "click click click (pause) click click click click (pause) click click..." as it continued pulsing out the number you already finished dialing. These were the kind of phones you'd get for free with a one-year subscription to Sports Illustrated or for opening a checking account. They were keypad-in-handset style and often didn't even come with a base, you just put them on a flat surface to hang them up. And the cord was usually permanently attached at the phone end. Cheap, cheap, cheap, did I mention cheap? Someone ought to go find one of these phones in a thrift store (assuming that they all haven't hit the landfill by now) and send it to bigclive for a tear-down.
I could play "Row row row your boat" on our Touch Tone phone circa 1977! I let the circuit time out to "reorder" before. Dang I was a not too shabby 12 year old if I may so myself.
Imagine how transformative this was when it was invented. The only way you could talk to other people before the telephone was to physically meet them. Or send them a telegraph if you could afford it.
The telegraph wasn't interactive like a phone. People would go to a telegraph office and have an operator send a message. The operator on the receiving end would transcribe the message onto paper and a courier would deliver it to the recipient. It was like mail but faster.
I used to do this trick with the pay phones, when I was in high school...There was a number you dialed that would make the pay phones ring by themselves...I forget how to do it now....It was a certain three numbers at the beginning, and the last four numbers where whatever the last four numbers of the phone you were using.....
It varied by the phone company. For GTE/Contel in this area, it was 311 plus the 7 digit number, you'd get a strange sounding dialtone, you pushed the hookswitch once and then hung up and it will ring the phone back. It was intended for testing purposes.
Last time I saw one was on a shelf at a Good Will in 1997 for $2. And that was 23 years ago. Perhaps an elderly person still has one in the closet or a box in the basement
Christopher Ritchie Anything from about 3V to 12V would do for a demo like this. The really old wood, wall mounted “coffee grinder” (magneto) phones had two large 1.5V dry cell batteries in series to provide talk voltage. The central office supplies 48VDC for “talk battery”. The ringing voltage is about 90VAC at 20Hz.
Well residential land lines are going away but business landlines are around and will be for a while. 20 years ago people who had a little extra money oh maybe I'll get a cell phone. Now days people with a little extra money oh I might keep my land line in the house. Now days the ritzy $200/ night hotels are the ones left with phones in the rooms. Likely used to press 0 to call the front desk. 20+ years ago the cheap $35/$40 night motels had phones in the rooms. Now days they don't because even people walking into a $39.99/ night motel will most likely have a cell phone. They still have a few land lines available that they can gives to you to plug in if you ask them for it BUT of course next to nobody does anymore. Last time I saw a phone in a motel room 2014
The 7 seas motel is a cheap motel I've stayed at periodically they have 8 landlines they've kept behind the counter. Just in case somebody asks for one. Still phone jacks in the rooms were the phones use too be. But out of over 20 rooms 8 phones were kept to give if requested. Not sure who still request them. My guess is foreign people who's cell phone might not work in the U.S. and people who just got out of jail and haven paid thier phone bill.
I remember I stayed at this $185/ week motel in 2009. Still landlines free incoming and local calls and 800 numbers. $3 will be tacked onto your bill for each long distance call you make. So buy a calling card. I didn't have a cell phone until 2011. 2013 And 2014 cheap motels had the same set up. By the time I stayed at one agian in 2016 ( including the 7 seas) land lines in the rooms had disappeared.
Crazy because I originally typed in "why do I hear that strange sound when I dial" in the search bar and nothing came up explaining what I wanted to hear then I typed in "how do telephones work" and this video gave me the exact answer to the first question.. But completely doesn't even answer the second question. Weird. I'm also three edibles in so
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Back when this aired on Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon and other cable networks would often blast bursts of DTMF tones during commercial breaks. Decades later I would find out what these were for: like Mr. Wizard explains with the telephone, the cable network tones served a switching function. It would alert the equipment at the cable company to switch in local advertisements if such advertisements were available. A different set of tones would instruct the equipment to switch back to the cable network programming.
I knew a man (Bob Bittner) who ran a few small radio stations in Boston and southern Maine. In the '90s when the cost of computer automation was still exorbitant, he put together a bank of videotape decks that played 8-hour VHS tapes in sequence. These held the stereo hi-fi audio track that would get broadcast over the air. He called in remotely from home and punched some codes into the phone to cue up certain playback decks at certain times. It was basically a one-man operation.
I’ve been a Mr. Wizard fan since I was a young boy (74 now). I still have a mid-1950s edition of Mr. Wizard’s Science Secrets. I do miss the format when he spent the entire half hour exploring a single subject. He was truly the Mr. Rogers of science.
I like him too, too.
During WW2, Don Herbert (Mr. WIzard) was a B-24 Liberator pilot who flew 56 combat missions over Europe. He retired as a captain and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for exceptional bravery in aerial combat.
Mr. Lucky. Mr. Brassbahls.
I wish he was still alive today. He seems like such a cool guy, yet super smart, so you could learn something new everyday.
That's exactly how I feel!
This is actually a cool bit of insight into how phone phreaking worked, too. Since everything running on phone wires was listening for specific tones, you could trick any phone (even payphones) into all kinds of neat tricks just by reproducing those sounds.
The world's first computer hackers started with landline phones.
And never again pay for a service that would be dirt cheap... if it weren't run by a bunch of profiteering gluttons!
Hack the planet!
What was fun is watching those old switches inside our central offices rotate around. They were replaced by small relays and then by ESS a electronic switching system. It was quite an adventure working for the Bell System.
400 billion telephones? That seems a lot even for 2015! :)
2020
@EEE Kokar yea basically. Wtf 😆
I believe the tone dialing system is known as DTMF or Dual Tone Multi Frequency
Dialing, and replaced the old pulse dialing setup many years ago.
The frequency variations per row and column on the touch tone phone is interesting. Learn something new every day.
Aritul It’s called DTMF, Dual Tone Multi Frequency, dialing. During the transition from rotary dials to push button, it took extra equipment in the central office to interpret the tones into numbers, buffer them, then feed them as pulses to the old step-by-step and crossbar switches. That’s why you had to pay an upcharge for tone dialing those days. Once the network fully converted to ESS or electronic switching systems, the situation is reversed. Now it takes extra equipment to deal with the few remaining rotary dial instruments left out there. Trivia: in the old days you could “dial” a number by rapidly tapping the hook switch on the phone, since that is what the dial actually did. (From a circa 1969 Bell System alumnus.)
@@LandNfan Thank you, Norman!
@@LandNfan Cool info Norman, thank you for that.
Back before cell phones your landline was connected by cable pairs to the central office. In the CO the pair was connected to individual office equipment. When you picked up the phone and dialed you would be connected to switching equipment which set up a connection to outgoing circuits that go to the central office of the person your calling. Rotary dial phones existed because the electromechanical switching equipment was limited to how fast it could set up the connections.
so I'm waiting for the bit where 'how a telephone works' is explained
He explained it clearly enough
He explained it, you're just to dumb to understand.
@@TheBull06 don't ever call me dumb or any person dumb that's an insult
I'm jus able to understand things more than other people
@@stephensnell1379 he wasnt talking to you dumb ass
@@OGxGoku go to hell!
I was born in 1986. Rotary phones were pretty much gone. However my grandparents were still useing theirs up until 1994. I lived with them in 1991/1992 as a small child. I remember ( grandma I don't know how to use this) they had to show me. Moved out in 1992. Went back to live with them in 1994. I remember 1st thing said to my sister and I. ( hey kids grandma and grampa have a phone you can push buttons on now) so even tho I'm not that old I have my grandparents to thank for knowing how to use a rotary phone
I went through the exact same thing except I was born in 1996. I have always lived with my grandparents and I remember them using a rotary phone all the way up until like 2003. My grandparents were never into new technology so they were still using a rotary phone until they finally got touch tone phone in 2003. I remember while they still had a rotary phone, they taught me how to use it. Fun times!
In 1986, rotary dial phones were mostly gone, but they were making el-cheapo push button phones that were not touch tone. They were pulse dial. They could ONLY do pulse dial. (More expensive phones had a switch to select between pulse dial and touch tones). You'd push the buttons for the number you were dialing and when you finished you'd still hear "click click click (pause) click click click click (pause) click click..." as it continued pulsing out the number you already finished dialing.
These were the kind of phones you'd get for free with a one-year subscription to Sports Illustrated or for opening a checking account. They were keypad-in-handset style and often didn't even come with a base, you just put them on a flat surface to hang them up. And the cord was usually permanently attached at the phone end. Cheap, cheap, cheap, did I mention cheap? Someone ought to go find one of these phones in a thrift store (assuming that they all haven't hit the landfill by now) and send it to bigclive for a tear-down.
I love how stacy uses the rotary phone to spin the numbers and lightwood flashes.
Mr. Wizard was a phreak. Stick it to Ma Bell!
He shoulda brought out a Blue Box!
@@1000huzzahs Maybe he was too...
... cheep. 😂
What year did this episode originally air? I remember watching this show on Nickelodeon when I was a kid.
"Now watch this" Pulls out captain crunch whistle
I could play "Row row row your boat" on our Touch Tone phone circa 1977! I let the circuit time out to "reorder" before. Dang I was a not too shabby 12 year old if I may so myself.
Imagine how transformative this was when it was invented. The only way you could talk to other people before the telephone was to physically meet them. Or send them a telegraph if you could afford it.
The telegraph wasn't interactive like a phone. People would go to a telegraph office and have an operator send a message. The operator on the receiving end would transcribe the message onto paper and a courier would deliver it to the recipient. It was like mail but faster.
Man, I am an older dude but I didn't even know this. Wild! Thank you!
So are number produce by sound or by length?
The tone.
damn i just learned something
Amazing that was.
cleared a lot of doubts . thanks
did he say 400 BILLION telephones?
Great video!
The telephone is one of the greatest invention along with television.
I used to do this trick with the pay phones, when I was in high school...There was a number you dialed that would make the pay phones ring by themselves...I forget how to do it now....It was a certain three numbers at the beginning, and the last four numbers where whatever the last four numbers of the phone you were using.....
I used to dial 990 and the last 4 digits of the pay phone number. At the bowling alley I would get them all ringing and drive people nuts.
998
It varied by the phone company. For GTE/Contel in this area, it was 311 plus the 7 digit number, you'd get a strange sounding dialtone, you pushed the hookswitch once and then hung up and it will ring the phone back. It was intended for testing purposes.
Always liked watching this show with my kids.
this was more about DTMF than phones but still cool
Great Idea. Where you find old phones? I need phones to an idea I have for my videos.
I want a rotary cell phone...Man, that would be soooooo coooool.....
Last time I saw one was on a shelf at a Good Will in 1997 for $2. And that was 23 years ago. Perhaps an elderly person still has one in the closet or a box in the basement
Rotary phones are WAY cool! I collect them!
Early cordless Phones used to have flash and pulse setting
this is amazing
How many volts is the battery?
Christopher Ritchie Anything from about 3V to 12V would do for a demo like this. The really old wood, wall mounted “coffee grinder” (magneto) phones had two large 1.5V dry cell batteries in series to provide talk voltage. The central office supplies 48VDC for “talk battery”. The ringing voltage is about 90VAC at 20Hz.
Rotory phones are cool!
I love old phones especially rotary.
Btw. My last name is waters too ✌️😁
@@DanburyDK Cool! I collect them!
Duel Tone Multi-Frequency dialing (DTMF).
So, I guess it’s code. Did the engineers know that you could combine 2 numbers?
Also a fun way to censor your swears when talking over the phone. lol
Great idea.😂😂
I love to talk on the phone in the 60s 70s 80s 90s 2000s and today
The telephone was invented by the Italian Antonio Meucci not Graham Bell as most people would believe!
Sadly the landline is going away because of cell phones back in the day the landline phone / pay phones was the cell phone
Boomer
Well residential land lines are going away but business landlines are around and will be for a while. 20 years ago people who had a little extra money oh maybe I'll get a cell phone. Now days people with a little extra money oh I might keep my land line in the house. Now days the ritzy $200/ night hotels are the ones left with phones in the rooms. Likely used to press 0 to call the front desk. 20+ years ago the cheap $35/$40 night motels had phones in the rooms. Now days they don't because even people walking into a $39.99/ night motel will most likely have a cell phone. They still have a few land lines available that they can gives to you to plug in if you ask them for it BUT of course next to nobody does anymore. Last time I saw a phone in a motel room 2014
The 7 seas motel is a cheap motel I've stayed at periodically they have 8 landlines they've kept behind the counter. Just in case somebody asks for one. Still phone jacks in the rooms were the phones use too be. But out of over 20 rooms 8 phones were kept to give if requested. Not sure who still request them. My guess is foreign people who's cell phone might not work in the U.S. and people who just got out of jail and haven paid thier phone bill.
I remember I stayed at this $185/ week motel in 2009. Still landlines free incoming and local calls and 800 numbers. $3 will be tacked onto your bill for each long distance call you make. So buy a calling card. I didn't have a cell phone until 2011. 2013 And 2014 cheap motels had the same set up. By the time I stayed at one agian in 2016 ( including the 7 seas) land lines in the rooms had disappeared.
Wow. Learned a lot!
I know right! Hahaha I'm genuinely excited right now about it.
Crazy because I originally typed in "why do I hear that strange sound when I dial" in the search bar and nothing came up explaining what I wanted to hear then I typed in "how do telephones work" and this video gave me the exact answer to the first question.. But completely doesn't even answer the second question. Weird. I'm also three edibles in so
I find it odd this was on Nickelodeon because I think it’s better suited for PBS
Towlie must have learned how to use the keys to make funkytown from watching mr. Wizard😘
I cud do Mary had without the triple 6 , f' that bs
Cartesian Co ordinate
oooo telephones :)
Leaned something new.
I used to play Hot Cross Buns on our telephone.
lol someone needs to make a mix tape of her pressing the numbers starting at 2:20. It would be good beats.
i thought of that too , hehe
lol we should be friends
Little Angel Fan Page wiered O.o
That kid's name is stacy?
Gen Z would still be hella confused by this! 😂
Rex Poblete It’s Confusing Me Now
Nice vid
"A touch telephone"
Capón Matón that has new meaning now
Yes
400 B?????
Mary had a little lamb
Nice
I was 1 year old in this time
blocking phone calls in Philadelphia
I had a friend whose touch tone number played the tune to the Civil Rights anthem "We-Shall-Ov-er-co-o-ome" Fittingly, she was pro-Civil Rights.
☎️
So confusing
now days it's all out of band signaling.
Hey Sonny, do you like seeing films about gladiators.....?
👍
“Little Lamb” = 666 😂
Must be a Freemason song. Lol.
2:25 ALLAHU AKBAR!!!
Not sure if girl...
666 666 666 ... Oh gross
Sweet girl
😲
wow is is so old
I bet Mr. Wizard's hair smelled like olives.
Am I the only person in 2020???
Ok then...
Cant believe I just sat and watched that tripe
andy thompson
That kid looks so bored