Old Number Cards

[cihensley@aol.com]

I thought you might be interested in this C practice that describes old number cards. Paul f - sent to you separately for the library.

Chuck

[Babybearjs]

very historic! I never knew they used individual numbers and letters... kind of like a reader board!  neat!

[cihensley@aol.com]

Yes. I obtained one of the number card holders into which you could insert the numbers a few months ago. I purchased it from Doug Rose. It is in mint shape.

Chuck

[GG]

Ahh, the long-lost benefits of having the telco operating as a unified and regulated public utility!  Try telling anyone from the "smart"phone generation, that telco employees used to mark the telephone numbers on the telephones, and you will probably be met with a puzzled stare.  Then tell them that was part of the full employment economy, along with having live people answer calls at corporate switchboards, and skilled workers manufacturing stuff, and a whole range of other jobs that don't exist today, and the puzzled stare might turn into something like the wish to turn back the clock and live in a world where people made physical things with their hands. 

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Presumably the appearance of those insert-digits dial labels could be simulated using a laser printer, with black background and white borders and numerals. 

Notice that Bell differentiated between Panel and Step-by-step (Strowger), in the numbering formats.  The former being "metropolitan" format with exchange names, and the latter being five-digit numbers.  And the exchange names in manual areas being spelled in all-caps rather than two large letters followed by smaller letters and a digit, and the numbers on payphones being printed in larger typeface. 

All these subtleties worked out by Bell Labs using the latest techniques for scientific measurement of human interface variables in a manner that one wishes had become universal.  It would not surprise me if Apple's obsessiveness with every detail of their user interface, ultimately had its cultural roots in the fact that both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started our as phone phreaks and thereby picked up some of the Bell System corporate culture about that stuff. 

[teka-bb]

Thanks, Chuck.

Very interesting document.

[Doug Rose]

Yes. I obtained one of the number card holders into which you could insert the numbers a few months ago. I purchased it from Doug Rose. It is in mint shape.

Chuck

These dial card sleeves are very cool, I think I have another hanging around .......somewhere.