Posted by John Wilson on June 22, 2002 at 05:11:10 from 202.154.130.100 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: Phones: Manual, Tone, Pulse ie Rotary-Dial posted by Harry Miller on June 20, 2002 at 19:32:44:
Yes, you could of course answer any “code ring” party line at a neighbours (if they were on the same line of course, as they often would be if the area was served by one party line). This applied whether the exchange was magneto manual with a ‘hand crank”, or manual common-battery ie you just had to pick up the handset to call the exchange as with an auto phone, or even a code-ringing automatic party line.
But my parents first phone in Wellington, New Zealand (early fifties) was on a four-party automatic line with selective ringing, so that only your phone rang (polarised ringing to either A or B leg of the line). There was a black box by the phone with two buttons to press. Our number was 48-960; the other numbers were 48-660, 48-760 & 48-860. As you would get “Busy” if you dialled one of the other numbers on the line, I think you dialled a special number which rang both bells, hung up, and waited for the ringing to stop when (if) they picked up the phone. The phone was made of heavy black bakelite.
This was on a Rotary exchange made by “Western Electric” (of ITT, not AT&T) in Antwerp, Belgium prewar. The telephone exchange switches were driven by a central row motor via shafts and clutches - quite a sight!
PS: with a party line the line would often be in use, and if you were calling another party line that line would probably be busy anyway when your line was free! So not a good service!