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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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20th Nov 2009, 6:10 pm | #21 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
See post #12.
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20th Nov 2009, 7:34 pm | #22 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
I don't really think people were basically any more honest than now Alan. A lot of it was that people kept an eye on the phone boxes and didn't want them damaged. Few people had a telephone in their home in those days (50s) so it was in their own interest to look after them and their kids knew it so left them alone.
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20th Nov 2009, 8:05 pm | #23 | |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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20th Nov 2009, 8:51 pm | #24 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Going back to the original question, I understand the last A-B coinbox was removed from the Isle of Rum in the inner Hebrides, possibly in 1994. Apparently it went straight to a museum somewhere. This information came in 1995 from a stallholder selling antique phones and a decimal-converted A-B box, who told me that the last one was removed a few months earlier.
There is a web page here which shows the later version in use in 1994. Certainly I remember the later model, often with a separate 700 series handset, was quite common until the late 1980s. The earlier version is described here. It seems there were a lot of dishonest people about. I often used to see vandalised payphones with the coinboxes ripped out. I suppose it was seen as a victimless crime, since the phones were owned by the government, then BT who were seen as a huge faceless company making vast profits. |
21st Nov 2009, 9:18 am | #25 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
That sounds familiar, I knew it was either the Shetlands or the Inner Hebrides but I can't be sure of the date. Google or one of the telephone websites may say; I'll have a look. I too understood the last A-B instrument went to a museum. Perhaps it was the former BT Museum which is now either disbanded or out of bounds to the public.
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21st Nov 2009, 10:01 am | #26 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
The box coin collecting No 700 diagram was drawn up in 1961 and last ammended in 1978
(N1169) In this time it became the No705 (IIRC with cosmetics designed by Lord Snowdon). The 705 was superceded by the Box Coin Telephone No21 when it became apparent that armoured cash boxes were required (same look and electrically similar). I came off the road in the mid 70s losing touch with changes. As Graham has already mentioned armoured handset cords were a feature quite early on. I recall being called to one as an emergency one day to find a young lady securely stuck to one with super glue. I had to dismantle half the unit to get her off to hospital with handset and cord still firmly attached to her left hand. It was quite a squeeze in there and the perpetrators watching from accross the road!
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23rd Nov 2009, 10:55 pm | #28 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Speaking as an ex BT Payphones Engineer I remember the changeover to Pay on Answer was still going in 1978 when I started with the PO. I transferred to payphones in the mid/late eighties and we were ripping out the POA boxes of which there were three types the Public one piece version, the renters with separate telephone (wall or desk) and the smaller red hospital payphone which used a smaller mechanism (I think). All three types got broken into.
They were replaced with pushbutton payphones which were susceptible to many frauds and modifications were required to overcome them. Very good for overtime. The last generation of PB payphones had the most break ins, having the largest capacity for cash. Soon people will say what is a payphone never mind a coin box. |
24th Nov 2009, 7:56 pm | #29 | |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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http://www.connected-earth.com/Daysout/index.htm http://www.connected-earth.com/Dayso...eums/index.htm Edward |
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24th Nov 2009, 10:38 pm | #30 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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25th Nov 2009, 10:32 am | #31 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Discussions about fraud, even in the past, aren't appropriate to these forums. Please stay on topic.
One post deleted.
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Graham. Forum Moderator Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron. Last edited by Station X; 25th Nov 2009 at 11:04 am. Reason: Previous post removed. |
23rd Dec 2009, 11:26 am | #32 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
I went to the tram museum at Crich in Derbyshire a few years ago and they had what they reckoned to be the last working A-B type phone. It was housed in a beautifully preserved telephone box complete with mirror, directory holding unit and that chromium plated thing which looked like it was intended to hold spare change, but was usually used as an ash tray.
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6th Jan 2010, 8:18 pm | #33 | |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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Bit different in manual area -the operators all knew me as staff. The thing to watch out for was stacks of coin ,neatly layed out .In that case ,lift handset ,dial 0 ,and ask operator to witness found coin going in box .In most cases these coins were left as bait by By GPO investigation branch . |
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6th Jan 2010, 8:34 pm | #34 | |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
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From memory this was pre 1978. In remote parts, the sub PO had one line, which also was used for the phonebox, via an isolating switch. What could have delayed some of them was the fact that a lot were Coronation boxes - placed on site in 1953 and requiring a lot more than just to be a lossmaker to be removed. |
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7th Jan 2010, 12:39 pm | #35 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Hi All,
whilst I can't actually answer the question directly I can point out that the change over of any particular coin box occured when the local manual exchange went automatic or the automatic exchange was replaced/enlarged. However, even after the country became entirely STD in 1979 there still may have been AB boxes around, but it would have meant having to have a central suite of operators to time the STD calls. Does anyone know if this happened? Btw I have a working AB box. It is very well made, but mine had a refund chute that had been bent with a crow bar. It did not help access to the money though. I had to have the spot welds re-made. The post payment box uses a dial-type mechanism driven by a weight which was raised by putting a coin. Essentually the 5p being smaller in diameter raised the weight to a lower height than the 10p. The only reason for having the two separate coin slots was to measure that the diameter of the 5 and 10p coins were within tollerence. The weight would drop back, regulated by a govenor and would dial a number of earth pulses which would tell the exchange the amount paid. Also, if you remember there was a lock on the coin slot, which opened upon the line current reversal which happened when your call was answered - time to put the money in. Then, as you time ran out, do you remember the pips? A very faint memory for me. I assuming they were based on the flicker earth from the exchange, 0.2 sec on, 0.2 sec off. I will have to recreate it on my own exchange. Cheers Andy Cheers Andy |
7th Feb 2012, 10:04 pm | #36 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Just stumbled across this thread.
To correct the record - the last few were; Muck, changed over in Late 1993. Canna, Soay and Foula followed in July/August 1994. The very last A/B box was on the island of Papa Stour, one of the Shetland Islands in on the 25th August 1994. The last phone call using the A/B box was made a Mr Ted Gray (aged 57) to his daughter on the Mainland of Shetland (They could only dial local calls). The A/B box 'disappeared' so the Payphone Manager told me at the time but I have the notices from the frames in the Kiosk. On the back of one of them is written 'Papa Stour 1' - the original number before Papa Stour got its own exchange. I've also got the A/B box from Foula - acquired when I recovered the Foula exchange for preservation in mid July 1995 - the last electro-mechanical exchange in service in the BT network. Foula had its own STD code until 1995 - 0393 3 and although the numbers were shown as four digits in the directory, the islanders only dialled two digits to reach each other and calls were untimed. You can hear an excerpt from a BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Secret Life of Telephone numbers' on 01595 780222 about the Foula kiosk and numbers. I've also got the A/B box from Canna, also acquired when I recovered Canna exchange in 1997 a couple of years after it had been replaced. Canna never appeared as an exchange as it was part of the Mallaig 'Linked Numbering Scheme, so had a Mallaig number. Incidentally although the replacement STD payphones were known as 'Pay on Answer' payphone there several types of A/B box; some were 'Pre-payment' and those on certain manual exchanges were known as 'Post payment', easily recognised as they looked like an A/B box but no button A or B. There is one A/B box still on the public network in a 1920's K1 type concrete kiosk at the Tramway Museum at Crich where it has been in service since the 1960's but it is technically a 'preserved' one looked after by the Museum. Ian J |
16th Feb 2012, 11:45 am | #37 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
The last time I recall seeing one of the old A B type phones was on Morecambe Railway station, that was about 1973-74.
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10th Mar 2012, 10:10 pm | #38 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
The Black button A/B phones were still in use in the Republic of Ireland well into the late 80's, after moving here in 1981 from the UK it was strange to use them again - I also recall re-using the 'tapping out the number' ruse which I had learnt as a 9 year old in Sussex, just before the grey box was installed in my local village phone box!
Incidentally you couldn't (officially) direct dial the UK from Ireland back then, although if one wrote down the routing that the operators used when placing a call (Manchester Guardian was involved as I recall) you sometimes could dial yourself. Although tapping was theoretically possible, the chance of a mistake on a long string of digits was almost certain!! |
16th Mar 2012, 9:07 am | #39 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
The black boxes probably contained mainly old pennies, probably of liitle interest to vandals as you needed a lot of them. The grey boxes had not only the old threepenny bit but sixpenses and shillings as well which would have been quite a haul.
Don Last edited by vosperd; 16th Mar 2012 at 9:21 am. |
16th Mar 2012, 2:13 pm | #40 |
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Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
Pellseinydd. Very interesting, that piece, as I was usually sent to accompany the Mallaig linesman when he did maintenance visits, way back in the late 60's early 70's.
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