AT&T Archives: Now You Can Dial
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2011
- See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com/archives
The goal of this film was to aid in reducing customer dialing irregularities by demonstrating the correct way to use the dial telephone. It documents the shift between operator-based connections (which were on the way out) and having to dial the phone and make the connection yourself.
The dial telephone was new at this point, although the two-letter, 5-number system was still commonplace. This film even has to explain what a ringing and busy signal sound like!
This film opens with the demonstrator pointing out the importance of correctly using the dial telephone. Correct dialing techniques are demonstrated, with an emphasis placed on the following:
1. Be sure of the right number
2. Wait for the dial tone
3. Refer to the number while dialing
4. Turn the dial until the finger hits the finger stop
5. Avoid confusing the letter "O" with the "0"
6. The difference between ringing and busy signals
One by one, the conventions described in this film that aren't already gone may disappear imminently - for instance: with voicemail the norm, when is the last time you got a busy signal on a call?
Susann Shaw, the demonstrator in this film, was a popular fashion model throughout the 1940s and 1950s, making frequent appearances in the pages of Vogue.
Produced by Charles E. Skinner Productions
Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ 
Наука
I remember all of this. I was about 5 when the home dialing system started, I hated it. My Aunt was an operator at the time and I would ask for her when someone else said, "Number please." The new system cut her out of the loop and I couldn't talk to her any time I wanted. Oh for reference - I'll be 68 in two months.
You grew up in a better time. 🤗
You're way too young to be against progress.
@@nyceyes New York city 👀
Shoulda dialed 0
I’m on my mobile phone watching this informative video on how to use a dial telephone.
What’s amazing is the tones used for dial tone, ring, busy, etc haven’t changed at all. Polished up a bit. But the same structure all these years later.
Yeah...
I love this old archive stuff... incredible tech.
Wow, does that bring back memories! When dial service first came to East Aurora, NY, I was in fifth or sixth grade (~1956 or '57). A phone company rep came to each classroom and gave a lesson on dialing. We each got to practice on just a dial in a little round cardboard box. We had to demonstrate that we could dial a phone number properly. I remember being criticized for doing it wrong but never was told what was wrong or how to correct my technique. I survived, though!
🎻
this is very educational, I've always wanted to know how to dial on a rotary phone. stuff like this gives me better insight into the development of technology over time (especially stuff we now take for granted). very nostalgic, I like it.
Vintage
When it first came out, we had to learn how to do it.
Man, I knew early mobile phones were big, but the one @ 4:22 is insane.
They were callled "Deskstands"
the boom box of telephones. you have to carry it on your shoulders. 😄
This is the SECOND generation if this type of film. The first version was in black and white and demonstrated an older version of dial phones
I remember the two letters and 5 numbers. It changed in our community to all numbers in around 1966. The two letters were an abbreviation of the exchange name Eg Murray Hill would be MUrray hill or MU. A fifth number was added in the early fifties and a number such as RUssell 8-7621 would now be known as 7(R) 8(U) 8- 7621 or 788-7621.
My great grandmas parents building had a party line, I love asking my grandpa about it! Especially since my great great grandpa worked for
Western Electric! I grew up with a house phone and still have one, but it’s very different now than it was back then. I remember asking my grandpa about when the phone swapped to a dial tone and when he had he experienced the party line, he said it was an awesome experience, he also found it funny 😂
The dial tone back then sounds a lot happier than it does now.
I miss rotary phones. I grew up with one.
The "step by step switch" made this possible. Pretty fascinating piece of equipment.
I would say that Panel is more interesting, and Crossbar coming in just behind panel.
I love these videos, thank you for posting them! I remember those old dial phones being built like tanks, unlike the fragile ones today.
Star trek
western electric built phones with 40 years life expectancy.
@@thomaschristopher8593 That's amazing, really. They didn't even know how phone technology would change over time, but built it to last anyway.
At 7:43 "consult your directory", and remember, trees were made to become phone books. Or, wait 35 or 40 years for a smart phone. What's a smart phone you ask? It's a technology designed to keep you working 24 hours a day in the new life of leisure we'll miss in the future!
My area still sends out local phone books. My mother uses it all the time.
Exactly
Watching these while working from home.
Oh for the days when the most complicated new thing in life was having to be taught how to dial a telephone correctly.
What do we do if answering machine comes on
i was born in 70s and still remember this phones..and telephone line was expensive as used car..my father pay 3000 Deutsche marks for a telephone line and it was regular price..back then all the electronic was crazy expensive
I was born long before the first phones appeared, much less dial phones.
@@fjccommish Either this is a joke or your community didn't have one.
7:04 Those of you with a party line may lift you telephone to listen for the dial tone and hear conversation or ringing signal. This means that another party on your line is using the telephone. When this occurs, EAVESDROP! LOL
lol i do this all the time with landlines now
Our party line [during WW2 ] were German couldn't evesdrop
My grandparents had a party line.
Each house had a combination of long and short rings.
That is crazy that this was just back in the 40s, not long ago at all.
MA2-9970: in the old Bell System, that most likely would've been a payphone or a test line.
Paystation probably
When did the now ubiquous 555 prefix come in? the one which every movie uses.
This link explains the 555 prefix, and what it was used for. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number)
Eight hundred thirty two
@@gorillaau 🦍
To put this in context:
"Hey Sarah, this is Andy Taylor would you get me Ellen at the drugstore". (Been that way in Mayberry for over 60 years in 1960)
Dial comes to Mayberry. Look up the number in a book or Rolodex yourself. Listen for dialtone (sometimes that took awhile) Dial the number carefully which you can see took awhile.
2011: "Hey Siri get me Ellen at the Drugstore"
Getting Ellen at the Drugstore...
Wow what'll they think of next?!?
I used to bypass the dial by depressing the hookswitch the proper number of times. This worked because the dial going around caused an interruption in the signal and was called, "Dial Pulse".
I just found out my uncle was VP of AT&T Bell in the 80s and 90s. I feel unusually awesome.
Which Bell System affiliate was he with?
Which baby bell was he with? AT&T proper broke up in 1984.
Before the 1980s, Area Codes had either a 1 or 0, as that was required for the mechanical switches. Prior to electronic switching
I love how they act like dialing wrong numbers is some kind of crime and is the worst thing you could ever do to someone
+natedoggcata Well, an ill timed wrong number call can be really annoying. The last one came when I was right in the middle of something important and being interrupted for a wrong dialer was inconvenient.
+natedoggcata I did a simple 6 month survey of my "wrong number" dials in the 1980s when dial-displays were finally available. It turned out that 80% or more were telco switching failures. I could see the number I punched in was correct but the telco had blundered and connected me with another number. That still happens today.
Don't believe this comment!
@@at90percent seventies
This is AMAZING! When do they plan on introducing it?
Right about 200 years after WWIII
Ma Bell will come to town next Thursday. See you then!
Love all this old stuff, just love it!
OK, Gramps. 👴
@@luisreyes1963 How would know what age I am? ... I was not around then ... my point is I love the nostalgia of those times... and it's the foundation of the tech we have today.
here is a phone to dream about, i was goofing around and found this. a western electric desk telephone over on ebay . it has bluetooth in it, makes calls the ringer starts when a call comes in and yes it has DIAL TONE! if you were to search it just use three words ' western electric bluetooth ' oh and a patphone was converted to bluetooth too!
@@Become_A_Paid_Electronics_Tech Fantastic... I will check it out on EBay... appreciated.
thanks for sharing these historic videos shows how far we have come. kids today should watch this so they can be greatful they didn't have to go through it. Smartphones today kids don't understand how it works nor do they care.
🍖📻
@@missbleach8767 Today's kids are simply stupid in every way of the word. They wouldn't know to make a simple call using this old technology.
Gawdamighty, an actual phone directory, pencil and paper. Remember, failure to bring your finger to the finger stop might cause you reach a wrong number. And don't forget to pull you finger out of the dialing hole. Going from "Hello Central, give me Effie Mae on Maple Street" and going to dialing must have been as traumatic as going from the three pedal Model T Ford transmission to a gas pedal, brake and clutch with a gearshift on the Model A Ford for a lot of the old-timers.
I remember those little blue books. I wonder if the phone company still gives them out. I haven't seen a phone book in years.
When I was a repairman for Bell of Pa.Philly cops always wanted to know if you had any "Deskstands" on your truck?circa 1962.
And they arrived in the red cars!
thanks for sharing this is actually pretty awesome. keep these videos coming.
Thirty years after I stopped using a dial phone, I’m just now learning that thing is called a “finger stop.”
She dialed the same number three times messing around with numbers and that finger-stop she’s obsessed with. The poor guy getting all those calls must have gone crazy, as if this new technology wasn’t already maddening enough.
Who’s being inconvenient now? Sassy prankster
She also said she was going to remove her finger, but it was still attached! 😀
Is it possible to get more information on this for historical purposes? When it was released? Where? How? How common was its showing? Its a great example of history for teachers.
I can't wait until this is rolled out in my area! This will make my phone calls so much easier!
Four
When it was rolled out, it did make calling easier. There were no more jammed lines.
"PE 6 - 5000", one of the most
famous phone numbers ㅡ
Glenn Miller fans will know 😊
And - fun fact - this number
really existed: It was the one
of his parents-in-law!
There are videos on RUclips of kids being asked to use a rotary phone. They don't know how to do it. They ask "How do you dial?" My parents never had rotary phones, but my grandparents did. I can remember staying with my grandparents and calling my mother on a rotary phone. I also remember getting sent to the principal's office in grammar school and I could recognize when I heard my number being dialed on a rotary phone so they could call my mother to tell her I did something naughty.
I am 13 and I’ve known how to use a dial phone since I was about 7
Sixty thousand six hundred eleven
This is awesome :D I hope I get that giant size one when it get rolled out here :)
That sound brings back memories!
🐷
@@missbleach8767 🤣
Those splicers up on that platform, We were doing it the same way in 1980's and 90's when I was telephone linesmen in the US Air Force. And installing those cables did not change much ether. And some base CO's were still using some of that old telephone switching equipment.
I remember when you shared your line with others. It was called a party line.
Cool. When is this new dial service coming to my neighborhood?
I remember when dial calling started and later when area codes and you could call long distance without an operator. I also remember zip codes introduction.
Unfortunately, I do too.
it 's so cool to see and remember dial phones. I remember how you could skip the first 2 numbers and still get through if the call was close by.
Same here and I'm only 52.... my uncle's place was 82511.
@@salaing64 sixty four
Before we got DDD & 7 digit numbers, we could dial either 5 digits or the full 7. After we got DDD only 7 would work.
cool cant wait to upgrade to dial
Wow finally I can get rid of this iPhone there’s no need for this phone when the dial phone is out
@commoname9 I'm 18 years old. The housephones I remember in my life were all push-button telephones (and I remember when my aunt bought our first cordless house phone, it was brand new at the time, we were all excited).
so much has changed since whenever this was made
I'm enjoying this antiquated film on my smartphone in HD via High-speed Wi-Fi Internet.
Ah, yes- the ol' phone number with two letters and five numbers... back in the good old days when you could tell which area someone lived or a business was located, by their prefix. Kinda miss that still.
There isn't much to miss
Indian head test pattern
@@LMB222 two hundred twenty two
💿
"PE 6 - 5000", one of the most
famous phone numbers ㅡ
Glenn Miller fans will know 😊
And - fun fact - this number
really existed: It was the one
of his parents-in-law!
I have blue trimline rotary dial phone around here, I should dig it out. I wonder if my exchange still supports pulse dialing
Those old dial phones will still work on a modern system.
Hello kitty
I just tried it on my line. It's a VoIP over cable system. BTW, only 1 of my 3 home phones could even pulse dial.
this video is amazing! lol
my kids need to watch this and learn how to call their mama.
I love this video and would like to share it. Is there a copyright on it?
I highly doubt it
"O" and Zero!!
I remember when the first phones were around. They were amazing. Then the dial phones came - terrific. Now they're all gone.
She's rather intent on not causing inconvenience. So much it becomes slightly passive aggressive.
TMO well, you are a passive aggresive culture
Yeah, she sure knows how to condescend.
That was the style of the 50s woman, was it?
Etiquette of the time, but it also seems like this is geared towards people who do not adapt to technology well and may not realize they are inconveniencing people... or giving them adequate time to reach their telephones. People using operator service would be accustomed to reaching an operator right away and waiting while the connection was made.
"Inconvenience and delay"
years to come
Dial? What is this sorcery??
Nice; I'm more curious about the equipment they're showing doing the overhead lines - they seem to show something spinning around the wire at 0:41-0:42 - what's that?
I can’t remember actual name of the device, but its function is to wrap a stranded steel cable around the telephone cable for support.
@@davidcarson4421 Actually, it wraps a wire around the cable AND steel support cable. That support cable is called a "messenger wire".
It's wrapping a wire around the cable and a support steel cable, which is called a "messenger wire".
My 1960 Rotary still worked until about 10 years ago. Not sure if it can be used with the modern lines now.
⏰
here is a phone to dream about, i was goofing around and found this. a western electric desk telephone over on ebay . it has bluetooth in it, makes calls the ringer starts when a call comes in and yes it has DIAL TONE! if you were to search it just use three words ' western electric bluetooth ' oh and a patphone was converted to bluetooth too!
western electric telephones were built with an expected lifetime of 40 years.
I dont recall party lines or having to waitmor being able to eavesdrop but many my age do
Before 911 existed... I love watching these ancient films
I can remember when 911 was still 4104.
911 is because the phone company fired all their operators in the 80s, so the counties had to hire their own and charge you a tax. Yes at 2:00 she is a LIAR!
British Telecom did it too and put in 999 before our 911. 411 was a toll charge assistant operator vs the "O" which had been free, then it too became a robot.
@@salaing64 I still remember when the Highway Patrol was ZEnith 1-2000.
Tornado alien
itll be nice if in the future entering a certain sequence of "digits", etc on the internet can pull up,wanted information
Thankfully, we have DNS so we don't have to dial 192.168.242.18 ... Think how fun _that'd_ be!
Close your eyes and listen -- she did all the recordings used by the Bell/Lucent switching equipment from the 1950's until the 1990's.
I want that big dial !
That dialtone is amazing.
*EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
With this technique my job life started and it ended with "Voice over IP" (head is still smoking).
I want that giant phone!
neato sirs!
We have eight digit numbers here in Australia these days to call with in the state. Our numbers including area code is 10 digits here in Australia.
I'm old enough to remember when Australia had 6 digit numbers. And my phone number grew to 7 and then 8 numbers. If I'm not concentrating, I still recite my phone number with six digits. My dad remembers phones without dials.
In many parts of Canada we have 10 digit local dialing. My city has 3 area codes.
Why do they hate the word "zero"?
+RonJohn63 Telcos destroyed our numeracy with their instance on Oh! ;)
"O" was for operator, though it could be used as zero, too.
Lisa67 These days we have become the operator.
The Internet of Voice!
Hey lady! If the "number" after 9 is an "oh", can I substitute it for the "MNO" to speed things up?! And another thing, how does the phone know that when I dial "O" (as in "MNO"), that I want "O" and not M or N? Just askin ... ;)
Its actually dialling the number. Say if you wanted to call
1-800-smart you would actually pick the number asigned to that letter, it would be 1-800-76278
There was NO "O" on the dial,just the "0" dummy!
"Let the phone ring for a minute or at least about 10 rings to give the person time to answer"
yes, you can! it's called "Old School Dialer" - have one on my Galaxy! (-;
But how do you send a hashtag?
You had to wait about 17 more years for that ... ;-)
I also dont recall the short number, letter mixes
+Sean Newhouse Ain't no-body have time for 10 rings these days.
They were in suburban Philly phone books until 1983. There is a construction company in Philly that kept putting their DE 3 number on their new dump trucks into the early 2000s.
When I was young, even into my teens in the '70s, it was VERY popular to still see the phone numbers as CEdar 7-4426 or whatever. I was amazed when I went to India, and they did all the phone numbers like 2882985907 ... no letters, no punctuation, nothing, just a string of numbers. I think it's easier for the brain to break it down into shorter bits in order to remember.
you can add this to your bellsouth package for 10 bucks a month its pretty nice! they can also provide free internet for no money down.
When I started as an Installer for Bell of Pa. [ 1957] they had recently stopped installing 2 piece phones [Bell box on the wall]
George Chism With only an ear piece to lift up? We had one of those in an old house but it was disconnected before dial came in.
It's weird how the word Dial is still used today even though no one has a Rotary Phone anywhere in America and probably most of the world. Maybe not as common but you will still hear some people still use the word Dial when referring to calling someone on the phone.
I still use my rotary phone, it was the first phone I had in my room.
@@mark6715b here is a phone to dream about, i was goofing around and found this. a western electric desk telephone over on ebay . it has bluetooth in it, makes calls the ringer starts when a call comes in and yes it has DIAL TONE! if you were to search it just use three words ' western electric bluetooth ' oh and a patphone was converted to bluetooth too!
Can I get a rotary dial for my Android Smart phone?
Yep, in Google Play.
December 15, 2021
You can't do this. Back in my day we had to talk to people instead of calling them. What's next? Taking away our letters. Only when man gets to the moon.
We will NEVER get to the Moon!
Duck
wait... what year was this?
1953 or something
why do I feel like there is two versions of this?
There's another older one very similar called 'I have to dial my own phone?'
Instead of someone saying in a pleasant voice "Number Please" you'll get this droning steady tone!
🎞️
Thousands of operators standing by the unemployment line .
@4:11 Man phones sure have gotten smaller
Tyler Ellis
the first cell phone was the size of a house.
Can’t get over the “letter O” and “numeral O” distinction. Why can’t it just be “zero”? 😅
Why o not zero?
Technology!
I would presume this video is from the mid 40s, after that the telephone was more or less unchanged for the next 30-40 years as Touch Button phones gradulately replaced dial phones in 70s and 80s.
🕷️
@@missbleach8767 You are one strange bird.
@@bradmyers7109 thank you 😊
1954
@RetroLaydeh42 How old are you? I'm guessing you had a better phone growing up. I am only 26 and i used one in my house. But i guess i lived out in the boonies. haha
Use to kid people that Dial Tone was a new paint color.
Welcome to 1 year ago..
Who thought those ATT Old Fashion phone Lines could Carry HD 4 Streams
Wouldn't they require fiber optic cable, not coaxial copper cable? 📞
I grew up mainly with push-button phones too
Pointers! LOL