snipped-for-privacy@invalid.telecom-digest.org
Regarding Lisa Hancock's inquiry about manual and magneto systems:
Just because a system used *MAGNETO RINGING* does NOT necessarily mean that all phones had *LOCAL BATTERY* for *TALKING*.
And just because a system had *COMMON BATTERY* for powering *TALKING* does NOT necessarily mean that all phones had centralized ringing machines!
Power for ringing is (usually) Alternating Current; power for the talk circuit is Direct current.
There were some magneto (ringing) systems that had common battery (DC) for talking, and there were probably systems that had local battery (DC) for talking yet a centralized ringing system.
Anyhow, that aside...
I don't know the very last magneto system in the *BELL* System in the US (or Bell Canada serviced provinces), but at least ONE of the last was Virginia City NV, which cutover to a full dial system in the early
1970s. There were historical groups in Virginia City NV that wanted the Nevada PUC to order Bell of Nevada to retain the magneto system, at least alongside a new dial system, but this did not happen. I don't have the exact date, but it was circa 1972 or 1973. I don't know if the power for talking was local battery or common battery though.The last "known? (US) Bell System common battery non-magneto manual system to cutover to dial was indeed Avalon CA (Santa Catalina Island), and it was indeed replaced with a #2 type ESS. But it was in 1978, not
1980.There were still a few more manual exchanges around the US and Canada after that, but they were all non-Bell telcos, even after Pacific (Bell) Telephone cutover common battery non-magneto manual Avalon CA to dial (#2ESS) in 1978.
There was Grand River (Iowa) Mutual Telephone Company which cutover to dial (ESS) circa 1981. This might have been magneto, but I don't know if it was local battery or common battery.
And there was Bryant Pond (Maine) Telephone Company magneto which cut to (digital) dial circa 1983. Again I don't know offhand if it was local or common battery. There are numerous references to Bryant Pond ME in backissues of this Digest, in 1983 and subsequently.
Additionally, there have been NUMEROUS "ring down" or "non dial" toll lines to various remote locations all over the US and Canada (and Caribbean). MOST of these have been either been discontinued altogether due to the camp or lodge closing down/abandoned, while others are now dial.
Many of these such toll stations or ring downs were magneto party line arrangements, where sometimes as many as thirty people shared a common party line. They could call each other with coded hand-cranked ring patterns, but a single long crank to signal the outside operator was needed to place a call to the "outside world".
One of the more famous of these such systems -- a magneto ground-return and LOCAL battery party-line systems -- which finally cutover to a dial (digita) exchange in 1990 -- was in the vicinity of Shoup (Idaho) around the Salmon River.
But even after Shoup ID was cutover to a digital dial exchange in 1990, there were still numerous (non-magneto, common battery) manual lines, scattered around remote points of the US (mostly in parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, and one in Washington) and all over Canada and Alaska. An AT&T operator (if calling from outside of the LATA) or an incumbent Bell or independent telco operator (within a LATA) was needed to place a call to these points. Some of them were party lines, with only 2 or 4 sharing a line (at the most), while others were single lines. If it was a party line, since there was no customer cranked magneto, the operator was needed to "ring-back" when calling another party on the line. There were also some non-dial operator-handled payphones in some such locations. And some of these places HAD a dial or touchtone keypad on their phones, with dialtone from a dial central office. But the only thing that the customer could dial was '0' for the serving local telco operator. Any other (single) digit dialed or keyed on the dialtone went to a re-order (fast busy).
MOST if not ALL of these locations have been either eliminated (abandoned) altogether, or they have been cutover to full integrated dial service. Some locations might have given up their old manual lines and are now using cellphones or satellite type phones.
- a/b