Does anyone remember this payphone trick? [Telecom]
Phluge
I appreciate the response to my earlier question -- this looks like a great
newsgroup.
Whenever I meet a telecommunications techie I ask them about this old
trick --I have yet to find anyone else who ever used it:
Somewhere around 1953 when I was a teen, you could get all the free payphone
calling you wanted from a phonebooth by using a booby-pin. The mouth and
earpieces of the always-black plastic (bakelite?) handset were a filled-in
circle of perforations-- you spread the bobby-pin, poked one end into a
center hole in the mouthpiece, the other end into one of the perimeter
mouthpiece holes, then touched the other end of bobby-pin to exposed metal
on the phone body. It would usually produce a small spark, and then you got
the dial-tone, made your call. All of the booths near the teen hangouts had
bobby-pins lined up ready to go.
I always wondered why AT&T allowed that to work, and why(?) the
coin-collector or service man wasn't wise to this openly used rip-off but
did not even take the bobby-pins away.
I would love to hear from someone who used to service these and get some
feedback on that crazy phenomenon.
Thanks, pflu
danny burstein
>I appreciate the response to my earlier question -- this looks like a great
>newsgroup.
>Whenever I meet a telecommunications techie I ask them about this old
>trick --I have yet to find anyone else who ever used it:
>Somewhere around 1953 when I was a teen, you could get all the free payphone
>calling you wanted from a phonebooth by using a booby-pin.
[snip]
The most common pay phones, until the 1970s, were "ground start". What
this meant was that the phone was de-energized, so to speak, and
there was no dial tone in it, until...
... until the "hot" wire in the phone cable was shorted to ground.
This signalled the central office to activate the wires and
send a dial tone across.
The official way this occurred was when the pay phone detected
a coin falling through it and toggled an electrical switch.
There were, as many people soon discovered, other ways to
initiate that ground connection... Or so I've heard.
In the 1970s, as "dial tone first" systems were implemented
(primarily to enable calls to 911 without pre-paying) various
tweaks were added. And of course, as privately owned payphones
came into common use, and as more and more "intelligence"
and processing was placed in the phone, the world moved on.
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Carl Navarro
<phl...@yafarthoo.com> wrote:
>I appreciate the response to my earlier question -- this looks like a great
>newsgroup.
>
>Whenever I meet a telecommunications techie I ask them about this old
>trick --I have yet to find anyone else who ever used it:
>
>Somewhere around 1953 when I was a teen, you could get all the free payphone
>calling you wanted from a phonebooth by using a booby-pin. The mouth and
>earpieces of the always-black plastic (bakelite?) handset were a filled-in
>circle of perforations-- you spread the bobby-pin, poked one end into a
>center hole in the mouthpiece, the other end into one of the perimeter
>mouthpiece holes, then touched the other end of bobby-pin to exposed metal
>on the phone body. It would usually produce a small spark, and then you got
>the dial-tone, made your call. All of the booths near the teen hangouts had
>bobby-pins lined up ready to go.
>
>I always wondered why AT&T allowed that to work, and why(?) the
>coin-collector or service man wasn't wise to this openly used rip-off but
>did not even take the bobby-pins away.
Geeze, we just used to unscrew the receiver and ground it. Bell
system payphones were ground start, so grounding the receiver put a
ground on your side of the set and drew dial tone. Problem was the
operator could tell if the coins didn't refund, so she got an idea
that you didn't use a coin in the first place. Then they started
using armored cords and epoxy on the handset parts.
BTW it was MUCH later when I played with payphones. Of course in my
small town, we had postpay, so you could shout through the receiver
PICK ME UP AT XXX and it worked just as weill.
Carl
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
> The most common pay phones, until the 1970s, were "ground start". What
> this meant was that the phone was de-energized, so to speak, and
> there was no dial tone in it, until...
>
> ... until the "hot" wire in the phone cable was shorted to ground.
>
> This signalled the central office to activate the wires and
> send a dial tone across.
>
> The official way this occurred was when the pay phone detected
> a coin falling through it and toggled an electrical switch.
In rural areas there was a dial-tone-first "post pay" design that
worked a bit differently. One listened for dial tone then dialed the
number. Upon actually reaching the desired party (not a busy or no
answer), one would then put in a dime or two nickels to allow the
transmitter to function. These pay phones were simpler all way
around--the phone was simpler since it didn't have a deposit holder--
the coins just dropped straight through. The CO gear was simpler,
too.
As an aside I noticed that all the payphones in my village have been
removed; the last ones in front of the convenience store were just
pulled out.
At one time a few square blocks of the village center had pay phone
at:
1) In front of convenience store (pair).
2) in front of the drugstore (booth)
3) in front of pizza shop
4) inside lobby of bar
5) outside of bar
6) inside nice restaurant
7) semi-public inside coffeeshop.
One pay phone remains at the train station, but I think it is
essentially subsidized by the railroad to serve as an emergency
telephone. It appears various railroads are doing that. The phone co
will install a payphone anywhere, but the property owner must
guarantee a minimum revenue or they must make up the difference. I
would guess that the cost of a stardard public pay phone is less than
the cost of a dedicated 'lift-receiver for help' phone directly
connected to a 911 center, and of course more flexible for public use.
Not everyone, even today, has a cellphone, and even for those that do
the batteries run out, the phones get lost, the pay-as-you-go contract
is not kept up, etc.
Koos van den Hout
> Whenever I meet a telecommunications techie I ask them about this old
> trick --I have yet to find anyone else who ever used it:
> Somewhere around 1953 when I was a teen, you could get all the free payphone
> calling you wanted from a phonebooth by using a booby-pin. The mouth and
> earpieces of the always-black plastic (bakelite?) handset were a filled-in
> circle of perforations-- you spread the bobby-pin, poked one end into a
> center hole in the mouthpiece, the other end into one of the perimeter
> mouthpiece holes, then touched the other end of bobby-pin to exposed metal
> on the phone body.
This trick was beautifully used in the movie WarGames(1983)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/
Showing it in the movie must have put an end to the last payphones where it
worked.
Koos
--
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ko...@kzdoos.xs4all.nl or RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5 -?)
Visit the site about books with reviews /\\
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noo...@yahoo.com
> Somewhere around 1953 when I was a teen, you could get all the free
I did this in the late 80's early 90's at my junior high to get picked
up from sports after school. Paper Clip in center hole of the phones
mouth piece and there was a tiny indent on the metal of the old pay
phone. Must of been an older pay phone. Worked every single time I
needed it.
edta...@citcom.net
ran from the water cooler to the pay phone area. To get a dial tone
just poke it through the hole in the center of the handset
mouthpiece. The hole was worn from much use.
***** Moderator's Note *****
At certain colleges, during the 1960's, there was a special use of the Vice-President's name:
Spiro -> Blue Box
T. -> Bridged "T" Rectifier
Agnew -> Black Box
The "T" in the above list was used to modify a payphone connection so
that the 'coin collect' battery would arrive at the pay phone as 'coin
return' polarity. It was obviated by the fraud-latch in the 'Fortress'
phones which replaced the 200 series.
Bill Horne
Moderator
HAncock4
> In the college dorm in the 50s there was a wire with a nail on the end
> ran from the water cooler to the pay phone area. To get a dial tone
> just poke it through the hole in the center of the handset
> mouthpiece. The hole was worn from much use.
apparently they pay for it to be available as a backup emergency phone.
PA Grade 11
was an Italian thing. LOL. Soon the police caught on and we didn't
do it anymore.