[GreenKeys] Re: [Off Topic] Looking for WECO keypad

[Roy Morgan]

At 11:36 PM 3/7/2006, Don Robert House wrote:
>Sellam,
>
>The 16 button dial pads are collectors items and hard to come by.
>They were used mostly by the military and in telephone test boards....
>Make sure yours is a fake.  The devices are still illegal even though
>they will no longer work on most networks.
>On 7 Mar 2006, at 4:49 AM, Sellam Ismail wrote:
>I'm doing a replica project whereby I'll be constructing a functional
>facsimile of the infamous Woz Blue Box, as pictured here:
>
>http://www.xs4all.nl/~robinv/digitaldecay/beeld/bluebox.jpg


Sellam and others,

Though I don't know the history of the development of long distance 
dialing, I assume the following story from MIT tells of a time much earlier 
than the "blue box":

Early in the development of long distance tone-enabled dialing, an article 
about it was published in the Bell System Journal.  My memory of "the 
Journal" was that most articles were esoteric, usually high level 
engineering, and very technical.

An electrical engineering undergraduate at MIT read the article and 
preceded to build a  working tone generator in his room.  The folks at the 
phone company noticed some unusual traffic on their experimental circuits 
and traced the source to his dorm phone.  They approached the young fellow 
and cautiously asked him about what he'd done to allow him to dial his 
buddies at Cal Tech and elsewhere.

Instead of charging him for the calls, they offered him a nice job once he 
graduated.  I'd guess that his reputation preceded him and he had a fine 
time at Bell Labs.

Roy
EE Tufts, '66 (just UP the hill from MIT)


- Roy Morgan, K1LKY since 1959 - Keep 'em Glowing!
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