Had to use this forum as I can't find any other relating to telephony, is there one?

Was just wondering, does anybody know how they used to actually make telephone recorded announcements in the 70s & 80s on landline telephones?

I'm sure that today it is all computer driven, but what did they do all those years ago, how did it work exactly?

You want the landline phones forum
http://digitalspy.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=131

Anyone slightly nostalgic for the past life of the telephone system should go to www.telephonesuk.co.uk

There's even a number that you can dial to connect to the old speaking clock.

Thank you for your replies. I'll ask for this to be moved to the correct place

Thanks for that link.

A very interesting read (and listen).

I wonder how they did that! Did they make a sample recording of her before it closed, licence the recording or buy the (very old) system?

It actually tells you the correct time, so I assume they have secured one of the old speaking clock set-ups.

Could try emailing the site owner, i'm sure he'd be glad to answer queries.

I tried, but, due to spam, their email address is no longer in service.

Using the feedback form results in the following error message:

Cannot open "we80.cnf": no such file or folder.

What a great site that is.

Telephones pre-1960: terrific pics and I'd like one of these right now please.

The "Intrinsically Safe Telephone" probably wouldn't be if dropped on your foot.

I had a bit of a laugh today when talking to a friend about modern technology v 'the old days' ....
I remember when I was about 15 (1966), myself and my Mum in a phone box, can't at all remember who she was ringing, some company or other.

She phoned and pressed button A, got through to a recorded message (a fairly new thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and listened to the lady. As I remember the message just kept repeating over and over (again I may be wrong ... memory) and my poor old Mum was saying '' hello can you hear me'' ''what's wrong with her'' to me.
We had great laughs about that over the years.
Mum died in '99, I don't know what she would make of technology these days.

I would love to have been a teenager in the 1960's.

Ah well the best thing for teenagers in the sixties was the fab pop music... but that's a subject for a different thread in a different forum. I can tell you here though, it was great!

The recording I remember most in the 60's and 70's was: "Lines from Manchester are engaged, please try later" every time you tried to make a long distance phone call. It could sometimes take over an hour to get a clear line to Blackpool.

In the sixties you could make free local calls from a phone box by 'tapping' out the number.

Not that I would ever have dreamed of doing such a thing, of course.

... or you could press button B and occasionally get somebody else's money back.

Or you could shout a message like "I've just left, I'll be home in half an hour" into the coin return and then press button B and get your money back. (There was a microphone inside. As you dropped coins in they fell against various "gongs" which the operator could hear to find out how much money you had put in). Around 1953 there were still some type 9 dials in London which you could "back-dial", or better still, wind the dial right round (this opened the "emergency" contacts, attach a crocodile clip to stop the dial going back to its stop fully and the just dial away! I never did any of this, of course. We used to have regular "educational" visits to Paddington Exchange and it was essential to take notes - these notes being the "trunk" codes for operators (before the days of SUBSCRIBER Trunk Dialling). There was then a way of dialling "FED9" cutting it off just after it came on and away you dialled. We had a chap at college used to speak to Glasgow regularly!