Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!telecom-request From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: More Even More on Selective Ringing Message-ID: Date: 30 Mar 91 09:55:00 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 41 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 256, Message 6 of 10 David Lesher writes: > While I have not dug too deeply into this aspect, one advantage of at > least the two party Bell method was ANI. While the trick with the > tapped ringer coil added some noise, it DID allow the CO to figure if > Mr. Tip or Ms. Ring was calling Fargo without a "numberpleeze." So how in the hell did that actually work? I remember that before party lines were abolished in metro areas in the state, the sure-fire way to tell that a friend had a party line when using his phone was by the "tick-kunk" that came immediately after dialing and just before the originating register dropped. Those of us with private lines had no such noise. We all knew that sound had something to do with identifying the tip or ring party, but to this day no one has ever explained what was going on. But going back a little further we find four-party lines. The instant giveaway there was the dialing of any toll call. An operator would come on the line and ask, "Your number please?" Also, participants on a four-party line would find that the phone would ring when the call wasn't for them. It was only to be answered if it was "ring-ring" or "ring" -- depending on the phone number. That little scheme worked like this: The key was the third digit from the end. A 0-4 would be a single ring while 5-9 would indicate double ring. An example was that one friend had the number 296-8122 (single ring) and another 296-4894 (double ring). This pattern even carried over after four-party and even two-party lines were history. Well into the sixties, customers served out of the #1 crossbar offices had double rings if the phone number was of the right type. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: IBT has long since grandfathered party line service. If you had it thirty years ago and kept it, you can still have it, but they quit offering it sometime around 1960. If you move, or ask to change your number, that's it! Off the party line you go! PAT]