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[Alan T]

Here's my homage to dr_spock's clever idea.

I knew where to find the phone because it was in daily use down the road at my mother-in-law's until it died a couple of months ago, after surviving about thirty years in the kitchen atmosphere close to the hob & deep fat fryer.

The Hitchcock film was made in 1954, about when my family got its first telephone, a party line shared with the neighbours. I remember the dials all had letters on as well, about 3 letters per number, so you could dial an exchange's codein big cities, though elsewhere we had to call an operator for other exchanges. I hoped this phone might still have letters, but it didn't.

For example, if one were being attacked with a pair of scissors in London, one might wish to dial "Whitehall 1212" (Scotland Yard), W H I 1212, though "999" would have been better.

Edit: Sorry, Bynx, I should have checked the thread before posting. No corpses (other than the phone) around here just at the moment.

[Bynx]

For an emergency when every second counts I wonder why they chose to use 999 instead of 111 which is a lot quicker to dial.

[Alan T]

Bynx wrote:

For an emergency when every second counts I wonder why they chose to use 999 instead of 111 which is a lot quicker to dial.

Because you can find the 9 easily in the dark, smoke, flame etc.,by placing two fingers against the end stop, providing someone's taught you how do it in advance. I wonder if there's a modern equivalent trick for a keypad?

Edit: I've just remembered that 112 is more international, and on looking it up I discover it's now the the official UK one, alongside the 'older' "999". You'll find very few folk in these islands who know that it isn't "999".

[selvin]

Like Bynx I also dialled more than I keypadded. Unfortunately we finally tossed our old dial phone away a few months ago but it would havea been a great prop for the old Elizabeth Taylor movie. "Butterfield 8"

Aloha