Posted by Peter H on June 06, 2002 at 14:00:56 from 213.122.68.40 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Roaring Donkey posted by Bob Hollis on June 06, 2002 at 04:54:14:
I took a rotary dial phone set into a modern office a few weeks ago, just to show them. None of the red-hot computer wizards under 25 had a clue how to operate it. When I demonstrated the smooth quiet 'whirr' of the dial they were fascinated. It was a rare moment of superiority for an oldie.
Incidentally, going back to the non-dialling phone used by Capn Flint in PP, from my knowledge of old manual exchanges, when he 'violently joggled the bracket' in fact little would happen on the actual switchboard. The depression of the bracket would cause a flap like an eyelid to come down above the relevant socket. The flap could only drop down and lift up again at a relatively slow speed, so joggling would have the result of 'freezing' it rather than flapping it to gain attention. I have seen this actually happening in an office with a short-tempered manager.
Does anyone know where the exchange for the Beckfoot phone would have been located? Penrith? Kendal?