Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: George Pell Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Can This Be True? Message-ID: <5230@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 15 Mar 90 23:34:56 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: George Pell Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 24 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 177, Message 4 of 10 In article <5130@accuvax.nwu.edu> rp@xn.ll.mit.edu (Richard Pavelle) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 169, Message 10 of 10 +I trust all of you readers can keep a secret: My 15 year old son told +me that he and his friends can place calls from pay phones using a +paper clip instead of coins. In addition they can place long-distance +calls the same way instead of using calling cards. I did not believe +the claim until I saw the kids in action. They use the paper clip to +complete a circuit and it requires about five seconds. +Now I ask you readers how can this be? Is telephone technology so poor +that a simple paper clip can allow one to dial around the world? When I was 15 (quite a few years ago) with the older style pay phones like the moderator described in his followup, we used to make calls using a coke cup cut into a strip the width of a dime, inserting it into the dime slot (calls were a dime), and dropping pennies into the quarter slot. You may have had to bang the coin return at the same time, but I don't remember now. geo