25-Jan-86 08:16:06-EST,491;000000000001 Received: from MC.LCS.MIT.EDU by XX.LCS.MIT.EDU via Chaosnet; 25 Jan 86 08:16-EST Received: from BRL-AOS.ARPA by MC.LCS.MIT.EDU 25 Jan 86 08:20:54 EST Received: from brl-vmb.arpa by AOS.BRL.ARPA id a027354; 25 Jan 86 8:17 EST Date: Sat, 25 Jan 86 8:15:03 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) To: telecom.mit-mc@BRL-AOS.ARPA cc: cmoore@BRL.ARPA Subject: Re: Named Exchanges Could not send to swenson: LAndscape 5 is a THREE-character exchange? 25-Jan-86 08:26:23-EST,749;000000000001 Received: from MC.LCS.MIT.EDU by XX.LCS.MIT.EDU via Chaosnet; 25 Jan 86 08:26-EST Received: from BRL-AOS.ARPA by MC.LCS.MIT.EDU 25 Jan 86 08:31:14 EST Received: from brl-vmb.arpa by AOS.BRL.ARPA id a027394; 25 Jan 86 8:27 EST Date: Sat, 25 Jan 86 8:20:34 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) To: telecom.mit-mc@BRL-AOS.ARPA cc: cmoore@BRL.ARPA Subject: exchange names using 2 words There is also CHestnut Hill in Philadelphia, MUrray Hill in Manhattan, WHite Plains and MOunt Vernon in Westchester County (NY), and someone has mentioned MUrray Hill in Murray Hill, NJ (location of Bell Labs). I have seen ATlantic City (NJ) but this does not correspond to the dial prefixes I now see in the 609 area. 25-Jan-86 12:51:33-EST,615;000000000001 Received: from MC.LCS.MIT.EDU by XX.LCS.MIT.EDU via Chaosnet; 25 Jan 86 12:51-EST Date: Sat, 25 Jan 86 12:56:21 EST From: "Keith F. Lynch" Subject: Named Exchanges To: MYERSTON@SRI-KL.ARPA cc: KFL@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU, Telecom@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU Message-ID: <[MC.LCS.MIT.EDU].795949.860125.KFL> From: HECTOR MYERSTON How about the non-exchange, non-dialable, ZEnith X-XXXX numbers?. These were pre 800 800 numbers. "Call you local operator and ask for ZEnithX-XXXX, no cost to calling party". Huh? There is no "Z" on the dial. ...Keith25-Jan-86 18:27:28-EST,352;000000000001 Date: Sat 25 Jan 86 15:24:18-PST From: Doug Subject: numbers to exchange names, now. To: Telecom%xx.lcs.mit.edu%CSNET-RELAY@hplabs.arpa I'm not bored yet. My exchange in Oakland CA is 655-. Does anyone know if it was a "named" exchange. My friends have 547- in Oakland, also. Same question. Thanks. ------- 27-Jan-86 08:35:28-EST,267;000000000001 From: hplabs!tektronix!athena!dalel@ucbvax.berkeley.edu To: telecom@teklds.tek Subject: Trivial Query Date: 25 Jan 86 18:16:09 PST (Sat) This could get interesting. How many people remember those names? -- Dale Lehmann Tektronix, Inc. Beaverton, Oregon 30-Jan-86 15:45:37-EST,3627;000000000000 Date: Thu, 30 Jan 86 14:26:02 CST From: Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI To: telecom@MIT-XX.ARPA Subject: Prefix names Well, I could try relying on memory, and I'm sure I would provide some wrong or otherwise worthless info, so I went to the source. I went to the St. Louis public library and asked for a telephone book from the early 50's. (It took them a couple tries to find one with the front pages, with the dialling instructions and suchlike, intact enough to read -- it's interesting how frangible a telephone book gets in only 35 years... :-) Anyway, here is some "official" info on named exchanges in the St. Louis, MO area in 1953: Exchanges in the St. Louis City area: CAbany GEneva MUlberry CEntral GOodfellow NEwstead CHestnut GRand OLive COlfax HIland PArkview CUmberland HUdson PLateau DElmar JEfferson PRospect EVergreen LAclede ROsedale FIreside LOckhart SIdney FLanders LUcas STerling FOrest MAin SWeetbriar FRanklin MIssion VErnon 2 GArfield MOhawk VOlunteer 3 Some of these equate to street names, but others are sort of off-the-wall. While I didn't copy all the suburban area exchange lists, I copied one. Note this interesting difference between the names. Some have capitalized two-letter beginnings, while others do not. Maybe the ones with no capital-letter-pairs cannot be direct-dialed, and had to be asked for through an operator? (I dunno; just a guess...) Atwater Northland TEmple 7 UNderhill 7 University 4 VIctor 7-8 Vulcan 6 Here's something interesting: on the cover of the suburban directory for 1953 is a table of prefix changes, that were scheduled to go into effect at 12:01 AM December 6, 1953. (My birthday! How nice! I don't think I knew about it, being 8 at the time...:-) ATwater to VIctor 7 AXminster to WYdown 2 or 7 DIxon to VIctor 3 FEnton to DAvis 6 KIrkwood to TAylor 1 or 2 LAke to LEhigh 6 POnd to CRestview 3 REpublic to WOodland 1 or 2 TErryhill to YOrktown 5 TUlane 4 to WOodland 1 or 2 WAbash to WAbash 2 WEbster to WOodland 1 or 2 WIllow 2 to ESsex 5 WIllow 3 to BUtler 5 WIllow 4 to ESsex 6 WIllow 5 to ATlas 7 WIllow 7 to JUstice 7 WInfield to WInfield 6 WYdown to WYdown 1 Again, some of these are the names of streets or communities, but others are arbitrary words with no particular local references that come to mind (there might BE real local references, but mayhap they are in areas I am unfamiliar with and don't recognize). Anyway, it was interesting looking at that old phonebook. I looked up my own old number and it wasn't anything like what I remembered! (I had thought it was a GRand but it was a LAclede; maybe it changed later, before it changed to a PRospect, which number my mother has retained to this day [address unchanged during this].) Found various relatives' listings, etc. So what does this prove? Not a heck of a lot, but I think we can generalize and say that phone-number-word-prefixes were a mixture of nationwide arbitrary words (FIreside, EVergreen, WIllow) and local specific street or community names (DElmar, CAbany, KIrkwood). If someone can get access to telco historical files, maybe they can find a "master list" of prefix names to use nationwide when there was no appropriate local name to use instead? Well, if your time machine zaps you back to St. Louis in the '50's, at least you'll find the phone numbers familiar... Look me up and give me some copies of the Wall Street Journal for the following decades, please... Regards, Will Martin 3-Apr-86 11:43:49-EST,1407;000000000001 Return-Path: Received: from Xerox.COM by XX.LCS.MIT.EDU with TCP; Thu 3 Apr 86 11:43:42-EST Received: from Aurora.ms by ArpaGateway.ms ; 03 APR 86 08:38:39 PST Date: 3 Apr 86 11:37 EST From: Denber.wbst@Xerox.COM Subject: Numbering Plans Revisited To: Telecom@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU Message-ID: <860403-083839-1247@Xerox> There was some discussion of telephone numbering plans on this list last fall. I ran across an interesting article yesterday on national numbering plans in the Bell System Technical Journal from Sept. 1952 by W.H. Nunn, which you may find of interest. A short excerpt (p. 854): Table I - Different Types of Numbering Plans Place Directory Listing Referred to as Philadelphia, Pa. LOcust 4-5678 Two-five Los Angeles, Cal. PArkway 2345 and Combined two-four REpublic 2-3456 and two-five Indianapolis, Ind. MArket 6789 Two-four El Paso, Texas PRospect 2-3456 Combined two-five and 5-5678 and five digit San Diego, Cal. Franklin 9-2345 One letter, four and Franklin 6789 five digit Des Moines, Iowa 4-1234 and Combined five and 62-2345 six digit Binghamton, N.Y. 2-5678 Five digit Manchester, Conn. 5678 and 2-2345 Combined four and five digit Winchester, Va. 3456 Four digit Ayer, Mass. 629 and 2345 Combined three and four digit Jamesport, N.Y. 325 Three-digit - Michel