# The Telephone -- Old School **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639 "2011-04-25T12:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/21 "2011-04-25T17:49:46Z")
A lady I know had a table top phone with the lift off speaker part, that hung from a brass lever with a fork shape, and the base with a microphone trumpet, all made of black telephone stuff. (What was that stuff?) It had woven thread covered stiff wire attached to the phone connector on the baseboard. (with an opposite adapter like the ones that put your RS232 on your antique home phone lines.) It had no dial. You could answer incoming calls, and talk fine, but you could not dial on it. This was original Western Electric equipment from about 1920 to 1930. Beautiful. Went well with her livingroom decor. Tris P.S. You should have seen her record player! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/22 "2011-04-25T17:55:16Z")
I think that “telephone stuff” was Bakelite. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/23 "2011-04-25T18:01:32Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Did you ever unscrew the speaker/microphone covers from the old rotary phone handset just to see what was in there? Of course you did. 🙂 I did, but that’s because I was looking for bugs. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/24 "2011-04-25T18:10:05Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > A lady I know had a table top phone with the lift off speaker part, that hung from a brass lever with a fork shape, and the base with a microphone trumpet, all made of black telephone stuff. I want to say that’s a princess phone, but Google disagrees with me on that term. I tried to find a picture of what I think you’re talking about but I can’t find one. In the late 80s-mid 90s there was a glut of novelty phones. I had one that looked like a baby grand piano. You dialed by playing the keyboard. My call answering password was written by Tchaikovsky. Some friends had a duck phone. Its eyes would glow green when there was an incoming call. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/25 "2011-04-25T18:13:21Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Did you ever unscrew the speaker/microphone covers from the old rotary phone handset just to see what was in there? Of course you did. 🙂 Of course, when you took that round piece out, the person on the other end couldn’t hear you. That was great for listening in on the neighbors’ calls. We bought our house from the family that built it in 1942. It still had a leased, black, dial desk phone. When the phone company came out to install ours, they had to rewire the whole house. I wanted to keep the old phone, but the installer said he had to turn it in (HA!) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/26 "2011-04-25T18:14:09Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I want to say that’s a princess phone, but Google disagrees with me on that term. I tried to find a picture of what I think you’re talking about but I can’t find one. I think **Triskadecamus** is describing a [candlestick phone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Candlestick_phone.JPG). The one in the picture has a dial but it was also available without the dial. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/27 "2011-04-25T18:21:59Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > > [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > > > …There was pornographic wall paper in the upstairs bedroom… > > What?😕 Must be a Canadian thing. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/28 "2011-04-25T18:25:37Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think **Triskadecamus** is describing a [candlestick phone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Candlestick_phone.JPG). The one in the picture has a dial but it was also available without the dial. That is so not what I was thinking. But that’s probably what he’s talking about. The one I’m thinking of is a more traditional handset/base configuration, but the handset is all sorts of fancy. I remember seeing them in _Hogan’s Heros_ and other period pieces. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/29 "2011-04-25T18:25:42Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Did you ever unscrew the speaker/microphone covers from the old rotary phone handset just to see what was in there? Of course you did. 🙂 My mother unscrewed the microphone cover to clean my vomit out of it. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/30 "2011-04-25T18:29:58Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > My mother unscrewed the microphone cover to clean my vomit out of it. I’m not sure I want to know what kind of conversation you were having. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/31 "2011-04-25T18:38:37Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m not sure I want to know what kind of conversation you were having. I don’t recall. All I remember is that I suddenly got sick while talking on it. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/32 "2011-04-25T18:46:42Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > …There was pornographic wall paper in the upstairs bedroom and my mother didn’t want to be alone with my toddler brother when the guy came over and had to go into the master bedroom. :eek: Did you really think that you could just throw something like that out there with no further information and we’d just accept it? I assume that your mother felt that it would be improper for her to show a gentleman into the pornographic bedroom while she was essentially alone, or maybe she was afraid the wallpaper would drive him mad with lust, endangering her. I understand why she’d want to avoid that situation. What I don’t understand is why there was PORNOGRAPHIC WALLPAPER IN THE BEDROOM? It doesn’t sound like your mother was some sort of libertine, so why would they have something like that, especially with young children in the house? Where would they even buy something like that? Was it really truly pornographic or was it something like cherubs frolicking naked, which perhaps was considered pornographic in those times? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/33 "2011-04-25T18:54:10Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Where would they even buy something like that? Home Depot. In the back room. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/34 "2011-04-25T19:50:10Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Must be a Canadian thing. 😛 What, don’t you Americans have pornographic wall paper on your bedrooms? You folks sure are Puritan. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/35 "2011-04-25T20:04:52Z")
“Hello Sarah? Get me Mt. Pilot.” ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/36 "2011-04-25T20:16:37Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > What, don’t you Americans have pornographic wall paper on your bedrooms? You folks sure are Puritan. Well, I know that Canadian hotels don’t have it in their bedrooms, unless they have special non-pornographic suites for American guests. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/37 "2011-04-25T22:16:04Z")
We had one standard-issue black wall-mount rotary phone my entire childhood. I remember being impressed as hell when I found out a friend had a phone in his basement. The one technology I would not want to do without is caller ID. How about in old movies or TV shows, when someone is speaking on the phone and they become disconnected, and then they repeatedly and rapidly tap the ‘hang-up cradle’ in an effort to get the connection back. Has that _ever_ worked? mmm ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/38 "2011-04-25T22:30:12Z")
Anybody else use those 10-10 numbers that got cheaper long-distance rates? ---
**Author:** ![longPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@longPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longPath)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/39 "2011-04-25T22:43:41Z")
I have a friend in another city who still has panic attacks when I phone because: **OMG! you’re calling lond distance? This must be costing you a fortune!!!** also, I still have a baby blue Princess set with a light-up dial. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639/40 "2011-04-25T22:43:51Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Anybody else use those 10-10 numbers that got cheaper long-distance rates? I never used the 10-10 numbers but I did use prepaid calling cards that my parents would buy cheaply from Costco. You have to dial a toll-free number first and then the number you wish to call. My mother worked for the telephone company, so she took advantage of the company discount to get phone jacks installed throughout the house (including the bathrooms) and we had extension phones everywhere before this was common. And these were the old-fashioned line-powered phones. At one point, we had so many phones that the ringtone sounded really weak. At this point, there’s only two of them in the house, but they still have two landline numbers (although one rolls over to the main 45-year-old number), DSL and two cell phones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-telephone-old-school/579639.md?page=3)