# "Tapping" phone #'s--not what you think
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 10, 1999, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202 "1999-10-10T18:37:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [October 10, 1999, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202/1 "1999-10-10T18:37:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [October 10, 1999, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202/2 "1999-10-10T18:48:00Z")
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 That’s why you saw the now-outdated rapid tapping of the cradle in old movies when a call was cut off; tap it 10 times and you outta get the operator, who in theory could give you a hand.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.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 11, 1999, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202/3 "1999-10-11T00:55:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Pippy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pippy)
#### Post date: [October 12, 1999, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202/4 "1999-10-12T05:22:00Z")
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?)
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### Author:  [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)
#### Post date: [October 11, 1999, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202/5 "1999-10-11T19:45:00Z")
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
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [October 11, 1999, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tapping-phone-s-not-what-you-think/9202/6 "1999-10-11T22:37:00Z")
Why not just dial? Oh, if you can’t do that, call the operator, ask them to dial for ya.