Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway
From: wrf@mab.ecse.rpi.edu (Wm Randolph Franklin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: dialing with switchhook
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0131m10@vector.dallas.tx.us>
Date: 10 Apr 89 20:48:56 GMT
Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US
Reply-To: franklin@turing.cs.rpi.edu
Lines: 7
Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us
X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 131, message 10 of 11

In the 60s pay phones were designed with mercury switches on the hook so
that  if you tried  to dial with  the hook  the  splashing mercury would
defeat you.  Otherwise you  could make local  calls for a nickel instead
of a dime, or some such thing.
                                     --------
						   Wm. Randolph Franklin
Paper: ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180