telephone lines

And here all along I thought ground pig was called pork sausage. ;-P

Take care, Rich

God bless the USA

Me thinks that this off tangent topic has reached new limits and shall never return. ;-0 LMAO

Great answer

Well, in the two can comfiguration, only one person can talk at a time since you have the switch the can from mouth to ear.

Actually, as a kid I tried that and never could get it to work. Some books suggested techniques for improvement (waxing the string?) but it didn't help.

Then someone lent us two handsets and some wire which worked great off of a No. 6 dry cell. (Do they still even make them?) Unfortunately, we couldn't keep the handsets. We wanted to run a private line between our two hours but our parents nixed that idea and there were logistical issues.

[Of course today kids have their own private phone lines, cell phone, and computer with Instant Messaging, so the novelty of two handsets and a wire is rather dated. They also make walkie-talkies which I presume are more powerful than the ones we had to play with. Ours were "rated" at one mile but were good only for about 100 yards at best.)

As the OP I was wondering how long it would take for someone to realize that small bit of techno thing with the cans.

Good job Hancock, please move to the head of the class you win.

What you have won is the pride in knowing that you were the first to post that the two cans and string are in fact simplex in nature. You have passed and may now continue on with life.

Congrats!!!!

Les

That is all incorrect though.

The can/string system provides full duplex for anyone with good ears. There is no technical requirement that the can be moved to the ear to hear it's output. There is a technical requirement that the can be in front of the speaker's mouth to transmit a voice though.

Hence if it is limited to simplex there might be two cause,

1) operator error. 2) operator inadaquacy.

What about the more advanced design using a string-hybrid? Tie a second can and string near each end of the original string so that each end has a Y arrangement. Full duplex. Some sidetone. Serious neck injury trying to talk and listen while keeping both cans pointed in the same direction. ;-)

-wolfgang

(And yes, this isn't really a hybrid. To be a real hybrid there would have to be another string (or lever ??) between the two cans to subtract most of the outgoing signal from microphone can so the earphone can wouldn't get its full signal.)

Well I guess that you may be right. However with my hearing loss I will still consider it to be simplex at best.

Later,

Les

Wow!!! The creative juices are starting to flow. So when can we expect prototype submissions????

Later,

Les/

Don't feel bad, with my hearing it only works if the other party shouts, and we limit the length of string to about 5 feet... ;-)

Huh???? What did you say?????????????????

Les