Dial 999: 80 years of emergency calls

[OscarFoxtrot]

Dial 999: 80 years of emergency calls

The world's first emergency phone service, 999, was launched in the UK in June 1937.

We take a look back at the highs and lows in the history of the service.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_...mergency-calls

[thermionic]

The choice of 999 for an emergency call has always amused me. With a traditional dial 'phone it's almost the slowest way of summoning help, only '000' would be slower!



SimonT

[Scimitar]

Which was deliberate. The concern was that poor connections could be interpreted as loop disconnects and so create false alarms with something like 111.

[Station X]

Indeed. the introduction of the 112 code on lines which still accepted pulse dialing lead to tremendous problems with false calls.

Digit 1 wasn't used as a first digit until the introduction of STD when the operator code was changed from 0 to 100.

[Boater Sam]

'Twas a wild & stormy night, horizontal rain, cold and dark.

The 'phone rings at home around 10pm.
Its the Law!
They are getting repeated emergency calls from our works premises. No voice speaks, line hangs up and redials after a few minutes.

As the key holder they contact me, concerned that someone there is in dire trouble.
I explain that there is no one there, I locked up hours ago and I know who has all the other sets of keys.
Insistent that I turn out and check the whole place out, patrol car has had a look and can see nothing but will wait whilst I get there.

On arrival find no one, no break-in. Police check me and the place out and leave. I check the phones, noises on the line. disconnect all but one phone, same.
Check wiring backward to incoming and find a junction box with water ingress near a fanlight window.
Penny drops, the water has been dialing 112.

Sam.

[OscarFoxtrot]

Could have been even more expensive if it had been dialling 118 118 118 118 118 118 .....

[Station X]

It wouldn't though. High digits are much less likely to be simulated by line faults.

[Pellseinydd]

Originally Posted by thermionic

The choice of 999 for an emergency call has always amused me. With a traditional dial 'phone it's almost the slowest way of summoning help, only '000' would be slower! SimonT

999 was chosen because coinbox dials could easily be modified to allow it to be dialled without inserting coins. '0' could already be dialled without inserting coins, so what easier than adding another little screw to allow a 9 also be dialled for free. There were virtually no subscribers numbers on automatic exchanges that consisted of combinations 9's and 0's. The photograph at http://www.britishtelephones.com/dial1.htm#d11 shows a photo of an early coinbox dial with only one screw whereas the photo of the later Dial No 13 introduced c1950 http://www.britishtelephones.com/dial1.htm#d13 has the holes for three screws on the little 'disc' in the centre of the reverse of the dial.

Those connected to CNet can dial '999' and listen to a short excerpt from the 1937 BBC news report on the introduction of an operator answering a 999 call.

Those connected to CNet can dial '999' and listen to a short excerpt from the 1937 BBC news report on the introduction of an operator answering a 999 call.

How do they dial 999 though?

[Pellseinydd]

If using a rotary dial, they put their finger in the hole marked '9' and pull it around to the finger stop and let go

CNet (Collectors Network) is a replica of the old GPO telephone network to which collectors can connect their old telephones and preserved telephone systems. It uses the old STD and local dialling codes of thirty or more years ago - so London numbers ae still 01-xxx xxxx. It has old telephones of all sorts connected as well as preserved former GPO public exchanges, UAXs/IAXs etc. All free to use - no 'line rental' or call charges! There are other numbers that have interesting 'things' on them like the old GPO Speaking Clock of the 1960/70's, plus various interesting or even amusing recordings. The network extends into over twenty countries as far away as New Zealand. Dialling 010 61 3 1194 gets you the original Australian Speaking Clock preserved in the Telecoms Museum in Melbourne Australia. Another recording reached by dialling 999 is the recording of an emergency operator answering a 999 call on the BBC News program in 1937.
PM me if you'd like more information.

[Tim]

Indeed. the introduction of the 112 code on lines which still accepted pulse dialing lead to tremendous problems with false calls.

And still does. occasionally I get faults that are dialling 112. An intermittent disconnection can do this sometimes.

[Boater Sam]

Is it true that on a mobile 'phone if you use 112 in preference to 999 that the operators can trace your location?
Sam.

[Herald1360]

Don't know about operators, but surely any mobile phone which is switched on can be triangulated at least roughly by the network.

[Station X]

Yes and many phones have built in GPS.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

Is it true that on a mobile 'phone if you use 112 in preference to 999 that the operators can trace your location?
Sam.

I'm sure that's an urban myth.

As far as I know, on a mobile, dialling 112 or 999 merely triggers a generic call to the Emergency Services defined in the protocol stack.

[Station X]

I wouldn't be so sure about that:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...ls-traced.html

I believe the AA use a similar system to track down broken down motorists, with their permission of course.

The last time I made a 999 call from my land line the police operator certainly knew exactly who I was and where I was calling from. That's just a reverse directory look up though.

[G6Tanuki]

999/112 calls have been 'triangulatable' for some time - certainly a mobile-sourced call I made to the emergency services back in 2002 was triangulated and the electronic-voice giving the details was clearly audible in the background as my call was being routed to the police.

There was talk about also using 911 as an emergency-call number some time back: makes sense to me, as would 2222 [which was the number I was always told should be called in case of any emergency from chip-pan-fire to plane-crash]

[Station X]

The trouble with using 2222 is that a timer would have to be run after the 4th digit was received to determine whether the call was destined for another number commencing 2222. Genuine emergency callers would wonder why they didn't get ring tone or an answer. Dithering diallers could find themselves making unintended emergency calls.

As for 911 that's an American thing. I think they should use 999 or 112.

112 works throughout most Europe, but of course mentioning Europe in any context is like a red rag to a bull to some people.

[Boater Sam]

I thought the police found us very quickly on the canal a few years ago when we had an assault.
Didn't know about 2222, is it still working?
Sam.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Station X

The trouble with using 2222 is that a timer would have to be run after the 4th digit was received to determine whether the call was destined for another number commencing 2222. Genuine emergency callers would wonder why they didn't get ring tone or an answer. Dithering diallers could find themselves making unintended emergency calls.

As for 911 that's an American thing. I think they should use 999 or 112.

112 works throughout most Europe, but of course mentioning Europe in any context is like a red rag to a bull to some people.

Of course 999 was, is, and as far as anyone can tell, will remain the UK Emergency number. 112 was introduced as a secondary number and was never intended to replace 999.

Regarding 2222 etc, are there any examples of numbers in use in the PSTN that would break the strict parsing rules of the Strowger era?

I must say that my Asterisk system is full of them, and I use them "because I can", for example
12, speeddial for the XYL's mobile
123 Internal speaking clock
123x1 and 123x0 turns on or off individual relays in a bank of 8

Graham
G3ZVT