How did telephone calls work in 1920s?

Question

If I was to live in the 1920s, lets say, 1928, and I wanted to call a friend - how would I do it?

Would I have to speak to an operator, or would I just dial the number and wait for an answer like today? I need details!! :)

Answer 1

In the UK the General Post Office which provided the lines and exchanges only took the decision to install automatic ( Strowger step by step system ) in 1923, and the first "director" exchange of that type to open in London was in 1927 as they took years to manufacture and install in those days.

So in 1928 nearly all exchanges would still be of the "manual" variety manned by operators who patched your call through by using cords and recorded the time and duration on a docket for billing purposes.

In fact due to the vast expense of conversion, and the second world war, following which we were virtually bankrupt and had rationing for years after, many exchanges were still manual up until the sixties, my local one did not become automatic until 1963.

Your `phone would most likely not even have had a dial fitted to it in 1928.

STD to enable customers to dial their own long distance numbers only became fully available in the 1970s, so you still had to dial "0" for the operator to do that for you even if your exchange was an automatic rather than a manual.

So yes, you would have probably at that time have to lift the handset off the hook and wait for an operator to say "number please" then after giving the exchange name and number required you would have to wait to be connected, or advised why you could not be connected at that time.

But at that time mainly only businesses and services would have had a `phone line, due to the cost there were very few lines to private houses, so the public mainly used public phone boxes ( kiosks ), or payphones as they now seem to be known.

http://www.telephonetribute.com/timeline.html

The manual exchanges were of three main types, Magneto, ( pretty basic ), CBS ( Central battery signalling where the power was supplied by a battery of rather large cells at the customers premises ), or CB, ( Central battery ), where the -50V DC power was fed from a central battery in the exchange;

http://strowger-net.telefoonmuseum.com/tel_hist_lasts.html

It`s a lot different these days though;

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/telephone.htm ( Multi-page by the way ).

Nice to see a real land line question in this section by the way.

Regards, Bob.

Answer 2

Both. The dial system was introduced in the 1920s, not sure which year. So before that you would have to speak to an operator because they would have to physically patch the call through(literally unplug the connection and plug it into a different location to connect the lines). When you picked up your phone a light on their switchboard would turn on, then they would connect to your line and ask what number you would like to connect to. And long distance calls would require multiple operators working together to get the calls patched through. Then when the dial system was first introduced the operators still had to patch calls, but you wouldn't have to speak to them since you'd be dialing the number instead of telling them which number to connect to.

Answer 3

1920s Phone

Answer 4

Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone. Discover is used when you find something for the first time that naturally exists.

Answer 5

The first rotary dial telephone was introduced in 1919.