Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: Tom Talpey <tmt@osf.org>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Can This Be True?
Message-ID: <5363@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 90 04:20:56 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: TELECOM Digest
Lines: 21
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 185, Message 1 of 9


> 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.

Circa 1970 with pay phones in Rochester, NY, this was possible. By
placing a thumbtack in the dial's fingerhook, a completed circuit with
the metal cage of the mouthpiece would nicely obtain a dialtone. In
retrospect I assume this would be a loop or ground start, depending on
the phone's configuration. What was interesting about it was that, as
observed, the phone was completely unrestricted at this point. Where I
went to school, it was common to find thumbtacks up behind the coin
slots. Not that _I_ ever used them for such purposes.


Tom Talpey
tmt@osf.org