Not all places had provision for more than two types of ringing.
> Others had four, as you suggest. Many non-Bell companies used
> harmonic ringing which, at least in theory, could provide for eight or
> 10 distinct parties with single ringing. Some were more reliable than > others.
In our Northwest Ohio independent environment, you had 5 frequencies. We had both decimonic and harmonic ring plans in our various central offices. In practice, we had 2,4 and 8 party lines.
Wes Leatherock
> snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
> snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Am I correct in thinking that all
> party-line subscribers were geographically close to each other (such
> as a few doors away, or across the alley?) Were they nearly or always
> on the same cable out of the central office? Or were there party line
> subscribers across town from each other? PAT]
Originally, in TPL offices, the parties were on the same cable. In TPS, you used bridge lifters to add unrelated areas to party lines. Usually we did that to coerce :-) people to upgrade. That and the fact it was about 80 cents difference between 4 party and 2 party service and maybe a couple of bucks to go to 4 party from 8 party. I think nearly all 8 party service was eliminated by 1975 or so.
Carl Navarro