How Do Telephones Work? (Mr. Wizard)

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 18 июн 2013
  • Mr. Wizard explains how telephones work! Subscribe now for more science, nature and technology clips from the 1980's Nickelodeon show, Mr. Wizard's World, every week on #WizardWednesdays.
    SUBSCRIBE HERE: bit.ly/mrwizard
  • НаукаНаука

Комментарии • 136

  • @LandNfan
    @LandNfan 4 года назад +45

    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.

  • @bitwize
    @bitwize Год назад +11

    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.

  • @mosipd
    @mosipd 4 года назад +31

    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.

    • @jamespfitz
      @jamespfitz 7 месяцев назад

      Mr. Lucky. Mr. Brassbahls.

  • @Tolman18
    @Tolman18 9 лет назад +40

    I wish he was still alive today. He seems like such a cool guy, yet super smart, so you could learn something new everyday.

  • @Jaimas
    @Jaimas 4 года назад +23

    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.

    • @bitwize
      @bitwize Год назад

      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!

  • @alexconingham
    @alexconingham 8 лет назад +41

    400 billion telephones? That seems a lot even for 2015! :)

    • @edward2364
      @edward2364 3 года назад

      2020

    • @Linteria
      @Linteria 3 года назад

      @EEE Kokar yea basically. Wtf 😆

  • @Tippex56544
    @Tippex56544 7 лет назад +139

    so I'm waiting for the bit where 'how a telephone works' is explained

    • @stephensnell1379
      @stephensnell1379 6 лет назад +6

      He explained it clearly enough

    • @TheBull06
      @TheBull06 3 года назад +1

      He explained it, you're just to dumb to understand.

    • @stephensnell1379
      @stephensnell1379 3 года назад +1

      @@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

    • @OGxGoku
      @OGxGoku 3 года назад +3

      @@stephensnell1379 he wasnt talking to you dumb ass

    • @stephensnell1379
      @stephensnell1379 3 года назад +1

      @@OGxGoku go to hell!

  • @briang.7206
    @briang.7206 2 года назад +3

    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.

  • @garydunn3037
    @garydunn3037 10 лет назад +6

    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.

  • @Aritul
    @Aritul 11 лет назад +10

    The frequency variations per row and column on the touch tone phone is interesting. Learn something new every day.

    • @LandNfan
      @LandNfan 4 года назад +6

      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.)

    • @Aritul
      @Aritul 4 года назад

      @@LandNfan Thank you, Norman!

    • @thebrinx9632
      @thebrinx9632 Год назад

      @@LandNfan Cool info Norman, thank you for that.

  • @calbob750
    @calbob750 2 года назад +3

    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.

  • @BaronAmerican
    @BaronAmerican 4 года назад +8

    Mr. Wizard was a phreak. Stick it to Ma Bell!

    • @1000huzzahs
      @1000huzzahs 3 года назад +1

      He shoulda brought out a Blue Box!

    • @NortelGeek
      @NortelGeek 3 года назад

      @@1000huzzahs Maybe he was too...
      ... cheep. 😂

  • @jakellavore4319
    @jakellavore4319 7 лет назад +2

    I love how stacy uses the rotary phone to spin the numbers and lightwood flashes.

  • @carlgharis7948
    @carlgharis7948 3 года назад +3

    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

    • @professional.commentator
      @professional.commentator 2 года назад

      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!

    • @brianleeper5737
      @brianleeper5737 Год назад

      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.

  • @socket_416
    @socket_416 3 года назад +2

    "Now watch this" Pulls out captain crunch whistle

  • @QuantumBraced
    @QuantumBraced 2 года назад +3

    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.

    • @wizardsuth
      @wizardsuth 7 месяцев назад +1

      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.

  • @JS-jr2ux
    @JS-jr2ux 9 лет назад +9

    damn i just learned something

  • @marvinwhittaker
    @marvinwhittaker 6 месяцев назад

    The telephone is one of the greatest invention along with television.

  • @Dennis-er8xc
    @Dennis-er8xc 6 лет назад +4

    Amazing that was.

  • @inquisitiverakib5844
    @inquisitiverakib5844 2 года назад

    cleared a lot of doubts . thanks

  • @tymdesign5014
    @tymdesign5014 6 лет назад

    Great Idea. Where you find old phones? I need phones to an idea I have for my videos.

  • @cciccone61
    @cciccone61 3 года назад

    Always liked watching this show with my kids.

  • @SuperSuchties
    @SuperSuchties Год назад

    this is amazing

  • @karenroy9045
    @karenroy9045 Год назад

    Great video!

  • @incarnadinelifestyle
    @incarnadinelifestyle 11 месяцев назад

    Man, I am an older dude but I didn't even know this. Wild! Thank you!

  • @TheOldOakSyndicate
    @TheOldOakSyndicate 7 лет назад +8

    I want a rotary cell phone...Man, that would be soooooo coooool.....

    • @carlgharis7948
      @carlgharis7948 3 года назад

      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

    • @dgwaters
      @dgwaters Год назад

      Rotary phones are WAY cool! I collect them!

  • @Blahbevava
    @Blahbevava 3 года назад +1

    Also a fun way to censor your swears when talking over the phone. lol

    • @marjla
      @marjla 3 года назад

      Great idea.😂😂

  • @TheOldOakSyndicate
    @TheOldOakSyndicate 7 лет назад +3

    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.....

    • @cleatrampler
      @cleatrampler 7 лет назад +2

      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.

    • @superalexthedog
      @superalexthedog 3 года назад

      998

    • @brianleeper5737
      @brianleeper5737 Год назад

      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.

  • @modex20
    @modex20 5 лет назад +1

    this was more about DTMF than phones but still cool

  • @Clevelandsteamer324
    @Clevelandsteamer324 19 дней назад

    Early cordless Phones used to have flash and pulse setting

  • @sssttt6533
    @sssttt6533 9 лет назад

    Nice vid

  • @jhrvta
    @jhrvta 8 лет назад

    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.

  • @RomanEsposito-su3zm
    @RomanEsposito-su3zm 4 месяца назад

    The telephone was invented by the Italian Antonio Meucci not Graham Bell as most people would believe!

  • @dgwaters
    @dgwaters 11 лет назад +8

    Rotory phones are cool!

    • @DanburyDK
      @DanburyDK 3 года назад +1

      I love old phones especially rotary.
      Btw. My last name is waters too ✌️😁

    • @dgwaters
      @dgwaters 3 года назад +1

      @@DanburyDK Cool! I collect them!

  • @MissStalker
    @MissStalker 8 лет назад +2

    Wow. Learned a lot!

    • @tenacious645
      @tenacious645 8 лет назад

      I know right! Hahaha I'm genuinely excited right now about it.

  • @caponmaton6921
    @caponmaton6921 9 лет назад +10

    "A touch telephone"

  • @keegancan
    @keegancan Год назад

    So, I guess it’s code. Did the engineers know that you could combine 2 numbers?

  • @jasonthewiczman5442
    @jasonthewiczman5442 8 лет назад +5

    Sadly the landline is going away because of cell phones back in the day the landline phone / pay phones was the cell phone

    • @Deku_38580
      @Deku_38580 4 года назад

      Boomer

    • @carlgharis7948
      @carlgharis7948 3 года назад +1

      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

    • @carlgharis7948
      @carlgharis7948 3 года назад

      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.

    • @carlgharis7948
      @carlgharis7948 3 года назад

      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.

  • @jaycobsj_mylittlepony
    @jaycobsj_mylittlepony 2 года назад +1

    oooo telephones :)

  • @johneastmond9092
    @johneastmond9092 Год назад

    Duel Tone Multi-Frequency dialing (DTMF).

  • @LinkRocks
    @LinkRocks 6 лет назад

    I used to play Hot Cross Buns on our telephone.

  • @RexPoblete
    @RexPoblete 4 года назад +8

    Gen Z would still be hella confused by this! 😂

  • @edgargill7828
    @edgargill7828 2 года назад

    So are number produce by sound or by length?

  • @videoviewerviewer4107
    @videoviewerviewer4107 5 лет назад

    Nice

  • @tedmerr
    @tedmerr Год назад

    did he say 400 BILLION telephones?

  • @bondinvisible
    @bondinvisible 2 года назад

    I find it odd this was on Nickelodeon because I think it’s better suited for PBS

  • @cmritchie04
    @cmritchie04 4 года назад

    How many volts is the battery?

    • @LandNfan
      @LandNfan 4 года назад +1

      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.

  • @wooderdsaunders6801
    @wooderdsaunders6801 4 года назад

    Leaned something new.

  • @AviationTravelMan1
    @AviationTravelMan1 9 лет назад

    Mary had a little lamb

  • @ballapitts06
    @ballapitts06 2 года назад +2

    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

  • @pattibrooks1907
    @pattibrooks1907 4 года назад

    I love to talk on the phone in the 60s 70s 80s 90s 2000s and today

  • @JakeLlavore
    @JakeLlavore 5 лет назад

    ☎️

  • @huntermcknight4176
    @huntermcknight4176 6 лет назад +2

    “Little Lamb” = 666 😂

    • @berzerk2600
      @berzerk2600 Год назад

      Must be a Freemason song. Lol.

  • @rajneeshifollower811
    @rajneeshifollower811 2 года назад

    Cartesian Co ordinate

  • @ranski2x52
    @ranski2x52 7 лет назад

    blocking phone calls in Philadelphia

  • @cliffordmacclain3292
    @cliffordmacclain3292 2 года назад +1

    I cud do Mary had without the triple 6 , f' that bs

  • @somebodysdog1949
    @somebodysdog1949 4 года назад

    I was 1 year old in this time

  • @lovelisa3305
    @lovelisa3305 2 года назад

    👍

  • @TokiKatChannel
    @TokiKatChannel 9 лет назад +3

    That kid's name is stacy?

  • @LINESTELECOMCORDEDTELEPHONES
    @LINESTELECOMCORDEDTELEPHONES 7 лет назад

    india's major online sellers of landline telephones...google search "linestelecom

  • @danielpaivabr
    @danielpaivabr 3 года назад +1

    400 B?????

  • @justinchen2136
    @justinchen2136 7 лет назад +5

    So confusing

  • @Leon612
    @Leon612 10 лет назад

    lol someone needs to make a mix tape of her pressing the numbers starting at 2:20. It would be good beats.

    • @XX-ry3nb
      @XX-ry3nb 10 лет назад

      i thought of that too , hehe
      lol we should be friends

    • @cheesesquare9289
      @cheesesquare9289 10 лет назад

      Little Angel Fan Page wiered O.o

  • @apl175
    @apl175 3 года назад

    now days it's all out of band signaling.

  • @brianarbenz7206
    @brianarbenz7206 4 года назад +1

    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.

  • @AnnaBloom972
    @AnnaBloom972 5 лет назад

    Sweet girl

  • @vortexvideogames935
    @vortexvideogames935 5 лет назад

    I bet Mr. Wizard's hair smelled like olives.

  • @stonemaze9925
    @stonemaze9925 2 года назад

    Hey Sonny, do you like seeing films about gladiators.....?

  • @msain427
    @msain427 2 года назад +1

    666 666 666 ... Oh gross

  • @andyblackpool
    @andyblackpool 7 лет назад

    Cant believe I just sat and watched that tripe

  • @TiberianFiend
    @TiberianFiend 6 лет назад +1

    Not sure if girl...

  • @monika375
    @monika375 3 года назад

    Am I the only person in 2020???
    Ok then...

  • @rushikakalla1927
    @rushikakalla1927 3 года назад

    wow is is so old

  • @stephenalegria4834
    @stephenalegria4834 6 лет назад

    That kid looks so bored