Off Topic And Now for Something Completely Different

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Barchullona said:
Used to do the tapping thing in a phone box at Brid. A poor bloke at York called A Batman and who used to answer his phone by barking out "Batman!" had live made a misery by people ringing up and saying "Batman, why do..." followed by someone asking a ridiculous question.
This was at the time of the classic Adam West Batman TV series.
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As kids (well early-mid teens) we'd spend all day tapping the phone into Teledisc - a great service from Hull City telephone system. First one I remember was the Everley Bros "Cathy's Clown".
 
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tigerincanada said:
I always wondered why the emergency number was 999 on a rotary dial phone as 111 would have been much faster.
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they wanted the number that was easy to locate in the event of no light or smoke.

starting from the low end:

111 wasn't used as it could be triggered accidentally by line faults
222 was the the number of an exchange, and so on

from other end:

000 couldn't be used. The first 0 would connect you to an operator which defeated the object
999 was next, and that's what it became
 
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Oregon Tiger said:
they wanted the number that was easy to locate in the event of no light or smoke.

starting from the low end:

111 wasn't used as it could be triggered accidentally by line faults
222 was the the number of an exchange, and so on

from other end:

000 couldn't be used. The first 0 would connect you to an operator which defeated the object
999 was next, and that's what it became
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Thanks for the clarification.
 
originallambrettaman said:
999

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Information Room, circa 1960

The General Post Office, which ran the telephone network, proposed a three digit number that could trigger a special signal and flashing light at the exchange. The operators could then divert their attention to these priority calls.

In order to find the new emergency number in the dark or thick smoke it was suggested an end number was used so it could be found easily by touch.

111 was rejected because it could be triggered by faulty equipment or lines rubbing together. 222 would have connected to the Abbey local telephone exchange as numbers in the early telephone network represented the first three letters (ABBey = 222, 1 was not used due to the accidental triggering). 000 could not be used as the first 0 would have dialled the operator.

999 was deemed the sensible choice.
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Thanks, I'm getting an education this morning.
 
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