atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Exchanges?

In Chicago in the 50's, we gave "central" our number, but the first dial exchanges ANDover, PROspect, CAThedral etc. were assigned 3 letters and 4 numbers. Our phone was PROspect 3549, later PR-63549, then 776=3549, then 312 and now, I guess 773-776-3549 if we still had it.

In Northern Ohio Telephone company, we had descriptive names line ELmwood 2,3 and 4, CYpress, HOward. In grade school, I had no idea what name 483 had.

If you have time to kill https://www.ourwebhome.com/TENP/MaBell.pdf

Carl

Here, it was LORaine2587

I'll never forget the black rotary dial phone in my grandmother's house in Greenville, NC. Her number was PLaza8-2445 (758-2445) and PL8-2445 was actually stamped on the number card by the installer when her first and only one was installed in her den. When she had a second set installed in her bedroom in the 70s, it had the traditional seven-digit number stamped and it pissed her off!

The only phone I ever encountered with old exchange tags as a kid was my Grandfathers phone in Redlands California. A GTE location.
His single phone, A Stromberg Carlson 1443, the heaviest and loudest phone I have ever encountered, was PYramid 2-5907

I still have the phone but sadly the number card has disappeared.

Where I grew up the 2 adjacent cities were served by a single Mountain Bell CO. Originally both cities used the same prefix 726 and I seem to recall at the time if you were calling locally you just had to dial the 4 digit number. Then very early in the 70s they added a prefix for Sun Valley and everyone in Sun Valley kept their 4 digit number but changed to a 622 prefix. 4 digit calling ended then but was replaced by 5 digit and you could dial "2" + the 4 digit number and get someone in either 726 or 622 because duplicate numbers were not assigned in each prefix. Then eventually the 5 number dialing was eliminated by the mid 70s and you had to dial all 7 digits. Around 1978/1979 we finally got TT dialing which seemed late in comparison to other places.
we also had some other interesting things there like the CO being served by single dish microwave with 2 hops to an AT&T long lines TD-2 site about 75 miles away. And many of the Mountain Bell trunks that served the city of Sun Valley actually looped through the basement of the Sun Valley Lodge which housed the PBX system for the resort but allowed for PBX lines to be provided easily to the off property condominiums and private homes within the city limits.

When I was a Kid in St pete / GTE our number and my grandmothers number was DI5 xxxx later changed to 345 xxxx

had to learn how to count the long and short rings, and to had learn ring with a crank
tom

Our manual exchanges had a Letter at the end of the number. You
would give the operator Fairmont 4882 R. (our old number) I think they used M also. It was something to do which party you were.

When I was 17 and working at a gas station after school, I griped to my future Father In Law (who worked the graveyard shift at the Riverside Exchange downtown Dallas) that I could not call Kay on the no dial phone that was in the front area of the station. The real phone was locked up after 6 O clock.
I really thought I was somebody when he showed me how to dial with the Hook switch.

LOL. Back in the days of prepay in Chicago and Postpay in Ohio, you could unscrew the receiver and ground it to the frame of the payphone to get dial tone. (prepay) or shout into the receiver to get the called party to hear you.

I'd tell you about the 20 PPS dial that beat toll restrictors, but that got me into some minor trouble. In 1970's money, I had to pay $25 restitution. My friends weren't so lucky.

Carl

In the Pittsburgh area and all the suburbs, there was always 2 letters and 5 digits. To this day, there are phone rooms in the downtown area with the old COurt, ATlantic, FReemont, CHurchill, EMmerson and on and on written on the walls. Those were the days when a Bell Telephone SXS PBX was in those rooms and every PBX craftsperson had to know from what exchange the PBX was working. Most all worked out of the 7th Avenue CO which had, at the time, 10 exchanges. You had to know your exchange to get to the proper floor to talk with THAT floor's switchman. Your "punishment" for not getting to the proper floor and exchange was to wait on "ignore" for an hour or more while the switchman drank his coffee, read the paper and ate his snack. If you REALLY screwed up, you got to listen (notice I did not write "talk") to every exchange's switchman until you got the correct one. Occasionally, when they wanted to "teach one a lesson" they would connect you to a frameman who would take all your information make you wait for an hour and then, quite purposely, drop the call. Ah....the "Good Old Days."

In rural areas, up until the 70s, there was two letter and 3 digit dialing. Most all were independent as the Bell system was all 2 letters and 5 digits. The rural Bell areas had multi party ringing. My aunt and uncle had 4 shorts and 3 longs for ringing.

Rcaman