Those # and * buttons

[Cole]

As a kid that used to play with telephones I was always curious what those two buttons were for. Since my interest in phones has rekindled I decided to see what their origin was. From what I can tell when they were originally added, they didn't have a specific use, but were for future functionality. I would assume this had to do with computers, since the computer age was on the horizon.

I found it funny the names the Bell Technicians had for these, the * was the "sextile" and # was the "octothorpe". We always just called them star or pound. When I asked my dad what they were he said the # looked like a railroad track! Today I squirm when my generation calls the # button the hashtag. Uh, no it's been around far longer than Twitter and Facebook, guys!

Another thing that's a little funny with the name "sextile" in mind is that some of my GE push button phones use a five pointed star for the sextile button which isn't technically correct, they should have used a six sided star. 

[twocvbloke]

Here in the UK, the # has always been known as the Hash key, given that for us £ is the Pound symbol...

[Jim Stettler]

As a kid that used to play with telephones I was always curious what those two buttons were for. Since my interest in phones has rekindled I decided to see what their origin was. From what I can tell when they were originally added, they didn't have a specific use, but were for future functionality.

They were for enhanced service. Such as voicemail and speed dialing. things like that. These were services based at the CO .

They were used in voice menu systems. The early systems would accept pulse with *, # being 010 and 011. I used to test my phones buy dialing into the different menus.
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The first 12 button sets used with features was at the MAYO clinic on their voicemail system. The star button was a hollow star.
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The TT phones started around 1964 with 10 button sets.
In  kindegarten 1966/67.I used a green Teletrainer set with a 500 and 1500 set (10 button) .  I have heard that they did some of the 1964 10 button field trial tests here.
Jim

[Owain]

Here in the UK, the # has always been known as the Hash key, given that for us £ is the Pound symbol...

Although I remember a BT training film (possibly starring John Cleese, he did quite a lot of corporate work) where # was called 'gate'.

[ka1axy]

Ah! The octothorpe...presented without comment, but two articles from fairly reputable sources with citations. Sounds like a good research topic...

https://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-oct1.htm
https://medium.com/chris-messina/octothorpe-origin-e44060ab4f92

[Stormcrash]

I'd have to look more into if there were plans for computer use but I know they were at least partly intended for use with advanced calling features in the upcoming Digital Central Office systems like the 1ESS, things like call waiting/forwarding speed calling etc. Once the ESS switches started coming online the keys started to be included on the phones for when those features went live

As a side note there's some intersting notes on Wikipedia that the GPO called the symbol the "square at least for their Viewdata videotex service and that it ended up in Unicode where it gets used as a stand in for number sign/pound symbol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewdata

[Robert Gift]

Years ago (1976?) when exploring a 10-button desk phone, I discovered square openings in the metal plate beneathe dial cover.
The two levers which the plastic buttons were to move were already present.
With a wood dowel, I pressed the levers and heard the future [*] and [#] tones for the firstime. 
Our 761 prefix in (303) did not respond to the new tones.