Previously on this newsgroup people described the common practice of
> making a person-to-person call to one's self so as to discretely
> send a message back home (eg "I arrived safely") without incurring a
> long distance charge.
The common method was make a collect call giving yourself as the calling party, thus notifying the called party you had arrived at wherever. The called party would then refuse the collect call.
Also various kinds of codes were worked out in advance and the name given to the operator as the calling party was actually the code words for the message the caller wished to convey. Again the called party would refuse the call.
Apparently back in the 1950s or earlier AT&T imposed a "report
> charge". If a person to person or collect call could not be
> completed, there was still a charge imposed for the effort.
The report was made and the calling party was given the report each time the operator made an attempt, and the report charge applied.
I think they gave 24 hours to complete the call. This was back when
> toll operators did a lot more work to put a call through, indeed,
> almost acting as a secretary to search out the desired party. Part
> of this was necessary since back then calls might not have been
> completed right away due to limited capacity.
"MX precedence" the originating operator would announce on a multi-switch call to each operator on the line as she was advancing the call.
It was common way back to place toll calls by name, "Get me John
> Jones in Los Angeles" and the toll operator would have to call DA
> first to get the number. The Bell System literature urged the
> public to call by number.
That's why with the adoption of DDD they made nationwide Directory Assistance available as (area Code)+555-1212.
People could also leave the long distance operator in advance a list
> of calls to be made at a certain time. (1949).
>
> Would anyone know when the "report charge" was discontinued?
>
> I also read of way back there was a messenger charge; where they'd
> send out a messenger.
The operator would first check for a "nearby" who might be willing to go next door or across the street to get the called party to the phone. If not, they would send out a messenger after first getting the called party's agreement to pay the messenger charge.
Anyone know of other discontinued long distance toll services?
Yes: "Collect-to-coin."
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com