Manual Phone System

[HowardPgh]

I have a question about the pre-dial manual phone system.
When the caller picked up his phone did he hear anything before the operator would say "Number Please", other than the line noise?
We are accustomed to the dial tone, I wonder what was before that?
Howard

[Weco355aman]

The only thing you would hear would be line noise (induction) or ground noise.
This depends on distance from central office and how many other party's were on the line. Remember in the co op's  they may use fence wire nailed to wood post with out insulators. In the city if they had a electric rail system you would also have all of that
electric noise as well.

[cihensley@aol.com]

You did not listen to line noise very long. Barring an unusual situation, operator were scheduled to meet the predicted call volume. An operator answered in several seconds.

Chuck

[AE_Collector]

There wasn't "Ring Back Tone" either for the longest time. It was added to our larger manual (Common Battery) boards some time before cut over to automatic though. Probably never added to Magneto boards though.

It saved the operators time allowing her to move on and the RBT kept you informed of the call progress.

Terry