just because I'm a nerd and can gush about a thing I find interesting, please ignore if you like
Back in the day, the telephone automatic switching system operated off of clicking sounds. The rotary dial was spring loaded, and such that if you put your finger in the hole of a number, rotated to the stop, and let go, it would make that number of clicks. The human ability to choose the next number was taken as a pause for the other end to stop counting and tally up the clicks to register one number.
This meant lower numbers were easier and quicker to dial, and thus more valuable to business owners. When it came time to add area codes for automatic long distance dialing, New York got 212, one of the easiest numbers to dial.
Back to before automatic dialing, local exchanges technically used two numbers but had nicknames based on letters associated with that number. Sycamore would probably translate to 79. It was mainly there to make operator's jobs less confusing if they didn't have to remember both a 5-digit number and a 2-digit exchange to patch to. It might've been easier for telephone users to remember as well.
When they introduced automated dialing, you just knew to translate two of the letters to numbers, usually either the first two of a single word or the first one of each of two words. That's why the letters have been part of the dial from the beginning. It took a while for people to get out of the word-exchange habit and just start writing the full seven digits directly.
Sorry for the infodump if unwanted, I know it's something you could have easily looked up if you wanted.
Mycroft 🐇
npub1l2…5r8lj
2026-05-30 17:24:17 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…y4hf
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npub1l2n40py2ytuyvhmrkf6zcy3n26dv9mujssuzfdvfa3qanj2lcwmsh5r8ljSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-05-30 17:24:17 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "just because I'm a nerd and can gush about a thing I find interesting, please ignore if you like\n\nBack in the day, the telephone automatic switching system operated off of clicking sounds. The rotary dial was spring loaded, and such that if you put your finger in the hole of a number, rotated to the stop, and let go, it would make that number of clicks. The human ability to choose the next number was taken as a pause for the other end to stop counting and tally up the clicks to register one number.\n\nThis meant lower numbers were easier and quicker to dial, and thus more valuable to business owners. When it came time to add area codes for automatic long distance dialing, New York got 212, one of the easiest numbers to dial.\n\nBack to before automatic dialing, local exchanges technically used two numbers but had nicknames based on letters associated with that number. Sycamore would probably translate to 79. It was mainly there to make operator's jobs less confusing if they didn't have to remember both a 5-digit number and a 2-digit exchange to patch to. It might've been easier for telephone users to remember as well.\n\nWhen they introduced automated dialing, you just knew to translate two of the letters to numbers, usually either the first two of a single word or the first one of each of two words. That's why the letters have been part of the dial from the beginning. It took a while for people to get out of the word-exchange habit and just start writing the full seven digits directly.\n\nSorry for the infodump if unwanted, I know it's something you could have easily looked up if you wanted.",
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