Party lines

[5415551212]

How may subscribers could a party line support?
I have seen some old advertising about 2 party and 4 party lines. What was the maximum number of phones (or subscribers) a Central office could support on a party line?

[poplar1]

In a local battery system, with 5-bar hand generators, up to 40 parties on a 50-mile long line.
Page 263 of Western Electric Catalog #9, 1935, in TCI Library (telephonecollectors.info)

[Stormcrash]

How may subscribers could a party line support?
I have seen some old advertising about 2 party and 4 party lines. What was the maximum number of phones (or subscribers) a Central office could support on a party line?

The North Electric CX-100 at the Connections Museum in Seattle supports up to 10 parties on a single party line. It does this via a coded ringing scheme with 10 different ring cadences.

[5415551212]

Wow thanks, yeah I thought I remembered lines that had more than 4.

[poplar1]

Fayetteville, GA, had a Western Electric Community Dial Office with 10-party lines. Only 5 cadences were needed since half the parties had ringers wired tip to ground, and the other 5 had ringers wired ring to ground.

This was a "terminal per line" office. The last digit determined which party code was sent. The first 6 digits were the same for all 10 parties on the same line. Subscribers heard up to 5 cadences: 4 for the parties with ringers wired to the same side of the line + their own cadence.