On 6/5/19 11:38 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Typically a thick flat disk that clipped to the dial, with a motor and a
clutch to permit the dial and disk to return to rest position.
That sounds suspiciously like you've seen something like I was trying to
describe.
But, a FINGER is such a better visual image!
;-)
Prior to Carterfone V Western Electric, (1968) . . .
There were DAAs RENTED by TPC ("The Phone Company" (cf, "The President's
Analyst")), dialers RENTED by TPC, and acoustic couplers in the
after-market.
There were devices that sat on top of the "hook" of the phone (where the
handset rested to hang up, with the handset on top of them. A solenoid
could lift the handset for "off-hook", and set it down again for hang-up.
In some cases, such as answering machines, that sandwich in between the
phone and handset had speaker and microphone, but I don't recall ever
seeing a modem made that way - "common sense" held that you needed
"cups" for the handset for noise isolation.
I've seen something conceptually similar within the last 10 years to
take a handset off hook in support of a wireless headset.
Carterfone was extremely significant as it allowed connecting to the
phone line "if it did not damage or interfere with normal operations".
ACK
Carter started trying to peddle his systems in 1959, but AT&T So,
Carterfone is to thank for all direct connect telephone devices, indeed,
all "foreign attachments", even a plastic cup that clipped on the phone
handset for a little more privacy!
AT&T rejected ANYTHING that connected, on the grounds that even that
plastic privacy cup degraded the quality of the sound.
http://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/1/1.2CarterfoneATT_FCC48-67.html
I can't say as I'm surprised.
Prior to Carterfone, you had acoustic couplers, switch-hook solenoids,
DAAs RENTED by TPC, and only TPC dialers. Once direct connection was
available, you got things like the PhoneMate dialer, and moving piece of
mylar with marks and photocells.
Later, "Touch tone" made it possible to "dial" by making noises into the
phone, both simple dialers (cf. Hayes "ATDT") and simple devices to
implement the full set of DTMF tones (cf. blue boxes, and DTMF C-tone to
turn off FBI phone recording taps)
"Hayes Compatible" was a marketing term to describe anything that used
the same (orsimilar) commands as Hayes. But, Hayes, themselves, never
fully created a standard. Joe Campbell ("C Programmers Guide To Serial
Communications", "The RS232 Solution", etc.) once consulted for Hayes to
try to help them make such a standard out of the myriad devices they
already had extant.
ACK
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
