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hEldergays, How did they make overseas telephone calls in the old days?

I know they used cables, but how did they get it to cross the ocean and how did these cables transmit sound?

by Anonymousreply 55January 7, 2021 11:31 PM

One Ringy Dingy

by Anonymousreply 1January 2, 2021 10:51 PM

Wikipedia, doll.

The short answer is, we managed.

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by Anonymousreply 2January 2, 2021 10:53 PM

You had to talk REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY loud.

by Anonymousreply 3January 2, 2021 10:55 PM

Two cans and a string that stretched across the Atlantic.

by Anonymousreply 4January 2, 2021 10:55 PM

I don't know but they were expensive.

by Anonymousreply 5January 2, 2021 10:56 PM

You had to place the call with the operator and then anywhere between 1 and 18 hours later she would ring you back with your party, so you'd better have a bottle of scotch and the new issue of McCalls handy.

by Anonymousreply 6January 2, 2021 10:59 PM

[quote]How did they make overseas telephone calls in the old days?

Carrier pigeons.

by Anonymousreply 7January 2, 2021 11:05 PM

My understanding is that there were cable wires underneath the water across the Atlantic and likely the Pacific as well over 120 years ago. Let's not forget that the first long distance line of communication was the telegraph in the last part of the 19th century. Most big cities in the Americas (north and south) had port of calls around both coasts, from Seattle, San Francisco to Mexico, Panama, Lima and Valparaiso, Chile. around Cape Horn to Buenos Aires up to Port of Santos, Brazil up again into the Caribbean basin, then the port of New York City and the port of Boston. There has been wire communication across the Americas and Europe for at least 150 years more less.

by Anonymousreply 8January 2, 2021 11:19 PM

They cost a fortune even between Euro countries. You didn't even dare to ask to make one in a friend's home.

by Anonymousreply 9January 2, 2021 11:19 PM

The spirit of Shirley MacLaine carried them.

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by Anonymousreply 10January 2, 2021 11:23 PM

They were called trunk calls, you dumb whore!

by Anonymousreply 11January 2, 2021 11:29 PM

[quote] so you'd better have a bottle of scotch and the new issue of McCalls handy.

Along with a couple packs of Virginia Slims and a large ashtray.

by Anonymousreply 12January 2, 2021 11:30 PM

You would dial "0" and then say, "Long Distance Please".

I'm not going to explain what it means to dial a phone.

by Anonymousreply 13January 2, 2021 11:35 PM

You would dial "0" and then say, "Long Distance Please".

I'm not going to explain what it means to dial a phone.

by Anonymousreply 14January 2, 2021 11:35 PM

I remember having to wait until the time of the day when the rates went down to make a call to Europe and long distance here in the US.

by Anonymousreply 15January 2, 2021 11:37 PM

OP this is an actual representation of a call being made at the time.

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by Anonymousreply 16January 2, 2021 11:42 PM

How did they make overseas telephone calls in the old days? With a pencil of course!

by Anonymousreply 17January 2, 2021 11:48 PM

[quote]My understanding is that there were cable wires underneath the water across the Atlantic and likely the Pacific as well over 120 years ago.

Those cables were laid around the same time I last was.

by Anonymousreply 18January 3, 2021 2:35 AM

Back in the 60s you had to BOOK a call to the U.S. from the U.K.

You wrote to your family in the states, waited a few weeks, and remembered the date and time and then the operator connected you.

by Anonymousreply 19January 3, 2021 2:41 AM

You rang "O" for Operator (or just picked up line), asked domestic operator for "overseas" operator.

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by Anonymousreply 20January 3, 2021 3:12 AM

More:

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by Anonymousreply 21January 3, 2021 3:14 AM

Balance can be read in following link to Wiki piece.

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by Anonymousreply 22January 3, 2021 3:23 AM

First transatlantic telephone cable was not operational until 1956, however since 1920's it was possible to make telephone calls overseas via radio waves.

Keep in mind that first transatlantic cable only had 36 circuits, which meant at any given time only that number of simultaneous calls could be taking place. If all "circuits were busy" (which they often were), you had to wait.

How you got an international called placed may vary slightly by country, but in USA you rang local operator who switched you over to a "house operator", who in turn then connected you to an overseas/international operator. Besides taking down information to complete the call (as seen above), operator would also take down billing information. The rest is as seen in videos above...

Often due to demand you may have had to wait hours before operator rang you back saying they had whatever party overseas you were trying to reach (when a circuit finally opened).

Keep in mind if you were in an office, hotel or whatever there would be an added layer as you'd have to go through the house switchboard to reach a telephone operator on an outside line.

There is an episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy (along with Ricky, Fred and Ethel) are in Europe but she is homesick and lonesome for little Ricky who is about to have his third birthday in New York. Most of the episode revolves around Lucy's attempts to make an overseas call from Italy to New York just to hear her son's voice and wish him a happy birthday.

That episode was done in 1956, just when it the transatlantic telephone cable became operational.

by Anonymousreply 23January 3, 2021 3:55 AM

Witchcraft requiring blood sacrifice, OP

by Anonymousreply 24January 3, 2021 4:08 AM

Yes, they actually did create cables that were laid across the ocean floors, originally for telegraph messages, but eventually for telephone calls.

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by Anonymousreply 25January 3, 2021 4:15 AM

It used to be such a big freaking deal when someone called long distance, much less getting a telephone call from overseas.

Whenever a long distance call came (especially in middle of night), people assumed it was bad news like a death or something.

by Anonymousreply 26January 3, 2021 4:21 AM

isn’t the ocean a mile deep though, and full of even deeper trenches? and then the amazing long distance between land points. It boggles my mind how they wove ONE long piece of wire and had a ship big enough to carry such a large spool. What if it broke? you couldn’t dive to the ocean floor to fix it.

by Anonymousreply 27January 3, 2021 4:26 AM

More amazing is a second transatlantic cable was laid in 1959!

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by Anonymousreply 28January 3, 2021 4:34 AM

As mentioned July 1858 saw first transatlantic telegraph cable laid. That feat proved what could be done one hundred years later.

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by Anonymousreply 29January 3, 2021 4:37 AM

It truly was the beginning of the end of civilization when one could no longer gift a smart dialing wind during the holidays!

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by Anonymousreply 30January 3, 2021 4:58 AM

R27 and then there is all the fishies 🐠, Nemo no like!

by Anonymousreply 31January 3, 2021 7:53 AM

It's hard to believe how difficult and expensive communicating was outside your small area just 30 years ago. Anyone who longs for the good old days forgets how much we take for granted now. I grew up in suburban Chicago and remember not being able to call friends a couple of suburbs over because of the expense. Everyone had a calling area which was about a 10 mile radius. Call outside that and wham, the charges would jump

by Anonymousreply 32January 3, 2021 10:57 AM

First, get a pencil...

by Anonymousreply 33January 3, 2021 11:22 AM

7pm r15. Just a few years back still we were doing this.

by Anonymousreply 34January 3, 2021 12:32 PM

Original, r33.

Very original.

by Anonymousreply 35January 3, 2021 7:19 PM

With pencils, darling.

by Anonymousreply 36January 3, 2021 7:25 PM

Operator get me Transatlantic. Long distance love affair.

by Anonymousreply 37January 3, 2021 7:34 PM

I was born in 1964, my parents are first generation American's of Portuguese (Dad) and Italian (Mom) decent. We had many relatives in Europe that we used to call, and I remember my mother dialing 0 and asking for a long distance operator. She would give the name and number of who she wanted to call and hang up. Sometimes minutes, or hours or even the next day the operator would call back and say "I have your long distance call for your now" - and they would be connected. Rates were very high - although you couldn't always get off hours - it depended on when they could get the connection. They kept it brief, but never let me talk to my cousins because I wasn't fluent enough and translating took too much time. Also I remember my grandmother writing letters using airline paper - it was thin like tracing paper and light because you paid by the ounce. The calling may have been person to person and perhaps direct dial was available - I don't really remember. But it was very exciting and special to make and receive these calls.

by Anonymousreply 38January 3, 2021 7:47 PM

OMFG!!! 36 circuit lines!!! Did they also need to reserve an emergency line for world leaders to chitchat?

by Anonymousreply 39January 3, 2021 7:50 PM

If you lived close to an international border and you wanted to phone a person who lived just across the border, eg down the same street, you had to pay expensive international rates.

by Anonymousreply 40January 3, 2021 8:05 PM

R38 refers to aerograms.

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by Anonymousreply 41January 3, 2021 8:08 PM

[quote] my parents are first generation American's

Oh, dear!

[quote]of Portuguese (Dad) and Italian (Mom) decent.

While I’m sure they’re very nice people, the word you’re looking for is descent.

by Anonymousreply 42January 3, 2021 8:32 PM

R38

Not "air line" but air mail stationary.... Have some both writing paper and envelopes still in my top desk drawer from a purchase made decades ago. Otherwise yes, the paper is thinner which helps save on postage, especially if you wanted to write more than one page. Some considered it tacky to write on both sides of paper, but people often did both to save on writing paper and postage.

Used to be something called airline or air plane luggage as well. Louise Jefferson lends Edith Bunker a suitcase and the latter remarks it was so light, and Louise tells her that was because it was "airplane luggage"; Edith looks perplexed for a second and Louise continues "but you can take it on a train...."

by Anonymousreply 43January 4, 2021 1:06 AM

R32

Long distance and international telephone rates began to drop in part due as consequence of AT&T being broken up. That event plus advances in technology such as mobile phones dramatically changed the playing field.

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by Anonymousreply 44January 4, 2021 1:12 AM

R39

So called "hotline" between WH and Kremlin isn't telephone circuit per se, but do think there were ways in certain instances for reserving an international circuit to keep that "line open" for specific use.

Keep in mind if all circuits were busy and it was an emergency situation all an operator (instructed by her/his superiors at telephone company) would have to do is interrupt a call, tell both parties line was needed for whatever then disconnect call freeing up that circuit.

Such things happened all time with domestic calls of any sort. Before call waiting came along if line was engaged and someone needed to get through they could call the operator and as for call to be interrupted. For those gabbing first sign something was up is hearing a series of clicks in background. That was operator listening to see if line was actually engaged by people talking, or maybe phone was just off the hook, or maybe trouble on line.

by Anonymousreply 45January 4, 2021 1:28 AM

[quote]Long distance and international telephone rates began to drop in part due as consequence of AT&T being broken up.

And then it basically all merged back together again.

by Anonymousreply 46January 4, 2021 1:52 AM

"... And the operator says forty cents more For the next.. three.. minutes"

by Anonymousreply 47January 4, 2021 8:58 AM

Dalmations. 101 filthy dalmations.

by Anonymousreply 48January 4, 2021 9:06 AM

Pay phones, are there still such a thing? If so, how much does it cost to make a call?

by Anonymousreply 49January 4, 2021 9:12 AM

I remember backpacking in France and having to go to a post office to dial an international operator for a call back to the US.

My “Let’s Go: Europe” guidebook thankfully gave instructions on what to do. However the bitch operator laughed at my attempts to pronounce “en PCV” (“call collect”).

by Anonymousreply 50January 4, 2021 9:19 AM

R30

WTF, Muriel? The poster makes a funny joke and you ruin it with an ad of a gold pen in the middle of the post?

I demand a refund!

by Anonymousreply 51January 7, 2021 1:28 PM

The sound quality was poor and there would be a delay or an echo. In- state calls were more expensive than out- of -state. It could cost 70 cents a minute to call 5 miles away but 35 cents to call another state. The prices were all over the place and every month you would get a bill that listed every single call that was made.

by Anonymousreply 52January 7, 2021 1:57 PM

Marconi got it covered.

by Anonymousreply 53January 7, 2021 2:06 PM

You know that underwater cables cross the oceans is how we still connect to the world, right? Fiber optic cables allow for the Internet to work worldwide.

[quote]Anyone who longs for the good old days forgets how much we take for granted now.

But that's exactly why we miss those days. Everything was localized -- if I wanted a CD or tape, I had to drag my ass to the record store. Businesses ran on the needs of the people around them. We couldn't sit on the couch and order everything from the Internets.

by Anonymousreply 54January 7, 2021 2:26 PM

Hallo! Hallo!! Hallo hallo Hall! Operator! Hallo operator!!

by Anonymousreply 55January 7, 2021 11:31 PM
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