french dial cards

[Etienne]

Scans of french dial cards, 1927-1980's
1 square = 0,5 cm.
First card, as far as I know, is the first PTT standard type (since 1927)

Second card is later, but for the same old style dial.

[countryman]

I found this one on an unidentified test set. Do you have any idea about it, except that it must be from the named region?
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=22641.msg227879#msg227879

[Etienne]

Post-war cards, for clear plastic fingerwheels.

First ones are printed on aluminium. Also existed on card. Later, the second side bare no numbers- cf 3rd picture.
Last ones are for S63, rotary and keypad. 2nd side also without numbers.

Could anyone make a scan of the early "Lille-Tourcoing" dial cards?

[Etienne]

WOW! Thank you, Coutryman! You were faster than my question!
Lille, Tourcoing and Roubaix are very close from another. I suppose it was to switch directly to the named exchanges.
http://jean.godi.free.fr/histoire/periode2enfrance.htm
http://jean.godi.free.fr/histoire/r6.htm
"1932: mise en service de l'agglomération Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing en R6N1."
"1932: The urban area Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing is equipped with R6N1"
R6N1 was a hybrid of Rotary and Strowger exchange, french patent 1926, designed for medium-sized cities.
In fact, first Lille-Boitelle, 12.XI.1932, as an experiment. This could explain why this particular card was designed. As to what it is doing on such a handset, I really have no idea.

[countryman]

Here's the original scan. The picture above was "photoshopped" (improved) a little for reproduction.
Possibly the handset was put together for personal use as a test set, or as a show piece already. I don't know. One of my more mysterious items.

[Etienne]

I found this one today. It was hidden behind a cheap ugly inkjet repro.
For SNCF (french national railway company) phones.
Printed on one side only.

[Etienne]

Found this today, printed in black and red on one side only.
The phone it was on is quite uncommon and not made for the PTT but is definitely french and made prior to 1963 (all metal with bakelite handset). Could find no date in it, not even on the capacitor (which was melted!), and am not sure if the dial is original or not (rather bulky, industrial phone, but nickel dial...). Will make pictures of the phone in a few days, and open a topic for it.
The card (partially) tells the (old) number of the Speaking Clock: 84.00 (36.99 from 1991 to 2022 when the service was discontinued).
This number was valid from February 14th, 1933 to September 17th, 1991. It was the first speaking clock in the world.
The complete number was ODEon 84.00 (033.84.00 after 1963) in Paris and had various prefixes elsewhere, but always ended with 84.00.
Troubleshooting is "19". After 1953 it seems "19" was to call abroad.

[AL_as_needed]

This may not be quite to place to ask this question, but seeing this interesting French dial cards brought it to mind:

I am familiar with the US system of organization behind ten digit dialing, early use of exchange names, and area codes etc.

Was the same logic used in European systems? Such as with the speaking clock number; 033.84.00. Is 033 the exchange and so on?

[FABphones]

In the UK, the speaking clock was 123 (TIM).
'At the third beep, the time, sponsored by Accurist will be 9,45, and ten seconds precisely.
Beep beep beeeep.

Lots of info and photos here:
https://telephonesuk.org.uk/speaking-clock/#:~:text=The%20BT%20Speaking%20Clock%20has%20been%20ticking%2024%2Dhours%20a,named%20Timeline%20during%20the%201990's.

[countryman]

France had at least two major changes of the numbering plan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_France#History

Today 10-digit numbers are used. All digits must be dialed also when calling inside the same area (closed numbering plan).

[Etienne]

Was the same logic used in European systems? Such as with the speaking clock number; 033.84.00. Is 033 the exchange and so on?

033 is the exchange, 033 = ODEon. But this was valid only in Paris. The clock was located in the Paris Observatory.
The actual (but disappearing with POTS) number system in France with 10 digits:
Example: 04 73 95 12 34
04 : south-east zone (01 Paris region, 02 north-west, 03 north-east, 05 south-west)
73 : Puy-de-Dôme (département)
95 : Arlanc exchange

But there were some exceptions. There used to be - maybe still is - some numbers in Nantes with area codes from the neighbouring département (Vendée).

[countryman]

That system raises questions.
The number of subscribers for each exchange is limited to 10,000 (four digits plus possible 0000)
The number of subscribers in each département is limited to 1 million (six digits).
What is the use of the zone code, while each département has its own number anyway?
Why was this system chosen in 1996, compared to an open numbering plan as used in most other countries?