Has anyone ever “tapped” a phone # on a pay phone?
That is, instead of depositing your dime (as it was back then), “tapping” the number out with the switch hook. So, to make it simple, if your phone # was “312,” you’d tap it thus: three quick taps (pause) one tap (pause) two quick taps.
You could do this back in the old pulse days–at least in some areas.
Anyone else heard of this?
BTW, a “0” was 10 quick taps.
Ayuh. That’s why you saw the now-outdated rapid tapping of the cradle in old movies when a call was cut off; tap it 10 times and you outta get the operator, who in theory could give you a hand.
Ah, for the days of pulse dialing. It was indeed possible to dial out with those; the movie theater where I worked had a pulse phone (in 1990, no less) with the dial locked out so you couldn’t dial your buddies while at work. Creative flipping, though, opened a world of communication.
It is supposedly possible to do. It takes a lot of practice. I have tried it and have gotten wrong numbers all the time. But it goes to show you can do it. Trying to do it right is what is hard.
One of the phones in the house has a semi-broken “6” button…I usually “tap” it in…
(now how Mundane-And-Pointless was that?)
Wow, what a coincidence! My husband was just talking about this very thing last Saturday. He said he saw one of his co-workers do it to dial another department’s extention.
I have nothing more to add. I just think it’s cool 
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Why not just dial? Oh, if you can’t do that, call the operator, ask them to dial for ya.