# In the 60s, how did the phone company know your phone records? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236 "2010-07-19T16:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/1 "2010-07-19T16:33:42Z")
Back in the 60s, before digital computers, etc…, how did the phone company keep track of your phone cals in order to bill you? I can’t imagine that the operators would log a long distance call onto a sheet and then send it to central billing, or anything like that, so I am curious how that kind of stuff happened? Thanks, hh ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/2 "2010-07-19T16:47:05Z")
The 1960s were not “before digital computers,” so I’m going to go ahead and ask: do you mean “in the 1960s,” or “before digital computers”? ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/3 "2010-07-19T22:22:35Z")
Expand your imagination then, that’s exactly what happened. Prior to the AXE local calls were also manual and entered on call cards that were held at the exchange. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/4 "2010-07-19T22:27:31Z")
_British Post Office Telephones system_ With an automatic exchange, there was a meter with your number associated with it. It clocked up units used; this varied with the type of call [local, trunk] and the time of day [cheap, peak, standard rate]. Periodically the meter photographer came along and took a photograph of the meters with a special hooded camera, and the bills were prepared from that. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/5 "2010-07-20T18:53:52Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > The 1960s were not “before digital computers,” so I’m going to go ahead and ask: do you mean “in the 1960s,” or “before digital computers”? 60s. hh ---
**Author:** ![Saratoga\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Saratoga\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saratoga_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/6 "2010-07-20T20:44:44Z")
Telephone central offices in the 1960’s used electro-mechanical switches that both routed the telephone call and fed recording devices. Among recording mediums used in the US were punch cards and paper tape reels (think of a magnetic tape reel but made out of paper, with holes punched in it to represent data). ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-60s-how-did-the-phone-company-know-your-phone-records/547236/7 "2010-07-20T20:52:23Z")
Wiki article on automatic message accounting w/image of tape punching machine: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic\_Message\_Accounting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Message_Accounting)