A small modification; Taped a piece of thick paper to allow slightly ticker coins. Now it accepts NOK 10 and NOK 1. Ease to adjust back, just remove tape and paper. Building the coin controller was the most difficult part, Norwegian payphones did work different.
In Austria the major (former monopoly) phone company is still legally required to provide a dense network of payphones for emergency use. Occasionally I still see them being used for regular calls but not all that often. Some have even been upgraded to web access stations. Card phones have become rather uncommon I think, I haven't owned a card myself for more than 10 years.
The cards are still available as far as I know and there's a very odd anomaly. Originally the cards cost 50, 100 and 200 Schillings and contained a corresponding number of credit units. When the Euro was introduced in 2002, the system was never changed, only one unit is now 7.2 cents instead of 1 S. I never knew that until I found a card with a few units left in 2004 and the phone still showed what I considered Schilling credit.
We dont have many payphones left, But I did get my fingers int this, typical of the 90ies here. Pretty ugly, and this one are the most dirty I ever have seen. dsk
Is that really from the 90s? Dial pay phones were pretty much extinct by the early 90s in Austria. The only ones I've ever seen were semi-private ones at a public indoor pool. I think they survived until the introduction of the Euro. I really liked them because they had a cool vintage look about them. They even had red 7-digit displays for credit.
They were phased out when we got new coins in 1994. Then push button came. We were pretty late with non rotary. The last monopoly telephone was released in 1982, and was our first non rotary.
They were phased out when we got new coins in 1994. Then push button came. We were pretty late with non rotary. The last monopoly telephone was released in 1982, and was our first non rotary.
dsk
We weren't thst far ahead (first push-button phone introduced in 1980 but still pulse dial) but pay phones were upgraded fairly quickly.
In American telephony the term "rotary" refers exclusively to multi-line phones now only seen in period film and TV.
They are marked by having multiple push buttons towards the front which must be selected (pushed down) to complete a connection.
The term "rotary" is linked to the fact that the INTERIOR switching for these phones used "ROTARY WIPERS" as the switching mechanism. (Later some used linear wipers which are vaguely related to the cheapo keyboards used by PCs even now. The critical circuits are printed on thin plastics/ dielectrics and the contact wipes across these thin films to make the connections.)
{ For cyber-security buffs, the Japanese PURPLE code machines were built up around rotary wipers. When the Americans attempted to replicate their scheme they ended up with a PURPLE machine that worked even faster than the Japanese original. }
What you're describing would be termed as "dial telephone" -- leading to terms such as "dial tone."
(This followed an older scheme wherein you didn't dial at all -- you rang the operator (PBX -- public exchange) and told her who you wanted to reach. She then worked her plug board to make the connection. (Yes, she had a dial, herself)
This scheme was made funny and famous by Lilly Tomlin on Laugh-In. With it, Lilly could listen in on every conversation at will -- the ultimate gossip.
The rotary switch constituted a mini version of a PBX -- with some able to handle 64 lines. (IIRC) This type can be seen in "The Apartment" (1961) on the desk of the big bosses's secretary. Like Tomlin, she ends up knowing everything that's going on in the big corporation -- for the exact same reason.
True rotary phones were rented at a premium, (Impossible to buy.) typically at commercial rates for two+ lines. (You'd get a Yellow pages minimal citation to go with your commercial lines, too. Space ads cost a bundle extra.)
If you were a private party and wanted two lines the phone company would merely provide an extra vanilla handset. You would not get the push-buttons, etc.
Rotarys took off because they permitted "call stacking" -- if line one was busy, the system would automatically shift a new caller to line two, and so on.
Not surprisingly, most businesses felt compelled to get at least two lines and a rotary set of phones to match.
By todays standards, those old phone rates were sky high.
