Re: Another evil number

["Kevin A. McGrail" <km...@apache.org>]

Fascinating thread I just stumbled on. Yes, in early parts of the phone 
system, the letters were geographic and referenced the street for where 
the central office was located switching those calls.  For example, in 
Arlington VA, my grandfathers number was 533-9389 which was referred to 
as JE3-9389 and the CO was on Jefferson St.  I'm pretty sure this fell 
apart rapidly as the system grew.

However, you can see this referenced in things like 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jZeTtGeQYg and was a real hotel. It was 
Hotel Penn in NYC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Pennsylvania). 
That hotel was recently closed but until then, you could add the NYC 
area code (212 I believe) and call that number still.  Will be 
interesting to see where the number goes now.

Anyway, we are working on an RBL for these evil numbers tracking.  It's 
going to require a plugin we think but we've been doing a fake RBL in 
KAM.cf for these evil numbers.  If you are calling and confirming the 
numbers are evil and want to help RBL them, ping me off list.

Regards,
KAM

On 6/25/2021 7:21 PM, Grant Taylor wrote:
>
> My understanding is the letters were (the first?) part of the phone 
> switch / exchange name.  The following Wikipedia article supports this 
> and has more details. 

-- 
Kevin A. McGrail
KMcGrail@Apache.org

Member, Apache Software Foundation
Chair Emeritus Apache SpamAssassin Project
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmcgrail - 703.798.0171

Re: Another evil number

["Kevin A. McGrail" <km...@apache.org>]

I think the 80's horror film with Jeff Goldblum was really the final 
nail in the coffin. -KAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Jm1YPQRsM

On 5/3/2022 3:47 PM, Loren Wilton wrote:
> Named toll codes stayed around until the mid to late 1960s. What 
> finished them off was the introduction of DDD - Direct Distance 
> Dialing, or the area code system we are all familiar with. 

-- 
Kevin A. McGrail
KMcGrail@Apache.org

Member, Apache Software Foundation
Chair Emeritus Apache SpamAssassin Project
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmcgrail - 703.798.0171

Re: Another evil number

[Loren Wilton <lw...@earthlink.net>]

> Fascinating thread I just stumbled on. Yes, in early parts of the phone 
> system, the letters were geographic and referenced the street for where 
> the central office was located switching those calls. For example, in 
> Arlington VA, my grandfathers number was 533-9389 which was referred to as 
> JE3-9389 and the CO was on Jefferson St. I'm pretty sure this fell apart 
> rapidly as the system grew.

Whether it referenced the CO or not was a regional thing at best. For 
instance my home number when growing up was YU-71314, where YU was Yukon. 
For the first year or two that we had a phone it was only YU-1314, the 7 
came along later when it became possible to direct dial more than the single 
CO you were attached to. There was absolutely nothing within several 
thousand miles that was named Yukon, Alaska, or anything else cold. The CO 
was on Foothill Blvd, which was a two-lane undivided street.

The main reason fo naming toll areas was memorability. It wasn't easy to 
remember a 7 digit number, but a prefix followed by 3, 4, or 5 digits 
(depending on the era and where you lived) was much easier to remember, or 
at least so Ma Bell thought at the time.

Named toll codes stayed around until the mid to late 1960s. What finished 
them off was the introduction of DDD - Direct Distance Dialing, or the area 
code system we are all familiar with.

        Loren

Re: Another evil number

["Kevin A. McGrail" <km...@apache.org>]

Ahh party lines.  Almost as bad as using my parents' line for a modem and
they would pick it up.  And rotary. You hated anybody with a nine in their
number.

I always wanted to know the history behind how the White House got its own
CO. I figured it was security related since it's 202-456-xxxx which was the
old CO basis.

Best, KAM

On Thu, May 5, 2022, 19:45 @lbutlr <kr...@kreme.com> wrote:

> ...
> I never had to deal with exchanges myself, but I did have to deal with a
> party line.
>
> Do. Not. Recommend.
>
> Especially not when you're 14 and trying to talk to this girl about
> serious topics over the course of several hours...
>

Re: Another evil number

["@lbutlr" <kr...@kreme.com>]

On 2022 May 02, at 22:40, Kevin A. McGrail <km...@apache.org> wrote:
> Fascinating thread I just stumbled on. Yes, in early parts of the phone system, the letters were geographic and referenced the street for where the central office was located switching those calls.  For example, in Arlington VA, my grandfathers number was 533-9389 which was referred to as JE3-9389 and the CO was on Jefferson St.  I'm pretty sure this fell apart rapidly as the system grew.

At least here a lot of time the names for the changed were neighborhood names, or the name of a prominent street in the area, but not necessarily the one the CO was on.

For example, the CO near where I lived when I was about 8yo was located on Pennsylvania Street, but the exchange was named Pearl, because Pearl was the street that had a small commercial district on it and, I think, had once had a streetcar line (before my time).

The University exchange was 871 (UniverSity, I guess?), and most of Denver University's numbers were still in 871- in the 1990s.

The whole history of telephone exchanges is filled with odd little stories, but most of the information about why and where and when has been lost, and quite. A lot of exchanges forgotten.

I tired to do some research on the Denver exchanges around 20-25 years ago, but there really wasn't much there. Phone books would generally list the letters, but not the names, and sometimes the phone books were even divided by exchange first, and then names.

I never had to deal with exchanges myself, but I did have to deal with a party line.

Do. Not. Recommend.

Especially not when you're 14 and trying to talk to this girl about serious topics over the course of several hours...

-- 
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.