Thread: something for you oldies

Build it into an Ericofon Cobra and I'll take three!

Originally Posted by BradC

Build it into an Ericofon Cobra and I'll take three!

The Homicide phone!

Yes. Also the phone we had in the house we lived in when I was born.

I was well into adult life before i saw a push button phone, and many of the phones from my childhood did not even have a rotary dial - some you just lifted the phone and waited for a response from the exchange and told the operator the number you wanted (Roma (Q) in the 1960s) or gave the crank on the side a few brisk turns to get the exchange, after listening to make sure nobody else was on the party line (here, 1970s).

As a youngster I can remember we had two phones - one in the house at the end of the drive, the other was in my dad's workshop at the start of the drive.

The line came to the radio repair workshop first and then on to the house, with a "light" switch beside the one in the workshop to make the change between the two phones.

Both phones were rectangular wooden boxes on the wall, with the microphones on arms and heavy ear-pieces that you held to your ear. No writing shelf.

Our 'number consisted of two digits, the local exchange had about fifty subscibers and two lines to the city. The lady switch operator was only on duty part of the day and ran the P.O. as well.

These 'stories' about the evolution of phones reminds me of similar changes in navigation.

Len Beadell used to sit up all night measuring bearings and angles to stars in order to calculate the latitude and longitude of his position.
We now have GPS which gives instant position fixes and more!

Our house phone on the wall looks like that.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

These 'stories' about the evolution of phones reminds me of similar changes in navigation.

Len Beadell used to sit up all night measuring bearings and angles to stars in order to calculate the latitude and longitude of his position.
We now have GPS which gives instant position fixes and more!

Great respect for Mr Len Beadell. One of a kind.
I remember when GPS was first introduced. I was working as a land surveyor at the time. GPS was initially an American military system. When it was introduced to the public it had a built in error, which was fairly substantial to my mind. This was to stop terrorist and other unsavoury characters using it for nefarious purposes! I could get a more accurate fix using a theodolite than the then extant GPS system. Albeit it took a bit of time and using tables and a hand calculator. I had a Casio FX scientific unit at the time. Anyway the accuracy of the GPS system has much improved over the years with the "safety" error removed.
Anyway this book is great reading..if you like this sort of thing. If you are a budding Len Beadle you will find it highly interesting. If you want to learn about GPS, well you are out of luck as it predates all of that.