Why do people repeatedly hit the phone hook switch when disconnected?
Watching a "Columbo" episode recently (c.1971), it had a scene that I realized I used to see a lot in older movies and TV shows. A woman is talking on her rotary phone, when the person on the other end is suddenly cut off.
"Hello?" she says. Then she rapidly presses the hook switch of the phone several times, all the while saying "Hello? HELLO?"
How was pressing the hook switch repeatedly supposed to help? Was it supposed to restore certain kinds of lost connections?
I'm old enough to remember old phone technology, but we never used the hook switch on the phone other than to hang up the phone (or press once quickly for call waiting).
Best Answer
I believe that by 1970 (at least in most places), this behavior did not really accomplish anything very useful, but would have been more of a habit.
However not too much earlier, operators would have been used extensively when completing calls. Repeatedly pressing the hook would cause a light in the office to flash, directing the operator to pick up. Since the operator might be able to assist with some types of dropped connections, the learned response to an unexpectedly dead line would be to call her in by cycling the hook.
Pictures about "Why do people repeatedly hit the phone hook switch when disconnected?"
What does switch hook do on a telephone?
The switch hook connects the telephone instrument to the direct current supplied through the local loop. In early telephones the receiver was hung on a hook that operated the switch by opening and closing a metal contact.What is the phone flash button?
What is a FLASH BUTTON? Most new phones have a feature button that allows you to "FLASH" between calls. Flashing between calls is equivalent to hanging up the phone for a half second, then picking up\u2026as you would to answer a call waiting.What does off the hook phone mean?
The state of a telephone line that allows dialing and transmission but prohibits incoming calls from being answered. The phone is off-hook when the handset is lifted off the base of a stationary phone or when Talk is pressed on a portable phone. The term stems from the days when the handset rested on an actual hook.What is flash hooking?
A Hook Flash is nothing more than hanging up and picking up the line very quickly. By default, Biamp's telephone interfaces are set to do a Hook Flash in 150 milliseconds.Nintendo switch loosing display problem
More answers regarding why do people repeatedly hit the phone hook switch when disconnected?
Answer 2
Actually, on rotary phones (and maybe on some early touch-tone phones), that 'hang-up' lever, if pressed quickly and lightly, would send a signal that was equivalent to the dialing the number one (or however many times you pressed it). It was actually possible to dial that way if you were careful (why would this be needed? well, say you were a child, and some silly adult had applied a lock to the rotary dial...). I tried it once, back in the day when I first heard about it, and it DID work.
Anyway, back in those days, if one party accidentally pressed the 'hang-up' lever, and then immediately released it, the connection was not necessarily closed. Sometimes, pressing the lever again would have the effect of 'bringing the connection back,' even though it was still there. This became an issue again when call-waiting was introduced...you might think you've hung up on someone, but actually one of you is in 'on the other line' without actually talking to anybody, and 'hanging up' again, would 'restore' the connection.
Answer 3
Phones can dial in three ways. Normal phones use Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) dialing, where each number is a unique pair of two frequencies in a column x row manner. Cell phones use digital connections, but still use DTMF when the call is active so you can access an IVR.
Older phones use Pulse Dialing. Each number dialed actually breaks and makes the phone line connection n number of times. Real Rotary phones use this exclusively. Most normal phones have a switch that allow you to switch between DTMF and Pulse. This is still supported even in 2015. In the movie Hackers, one of the characters uses this to make an unauthorized call while in jail, by pressing the hook ten times really fast, to "dial" 0, to get the operator.
This break and make connection is also used to switch between lines, as in call waiting or placing a line on hold, or to set up a 3-way call. Some phones have a dedicated button for it called Flash.
The reason that people used to repeatedly press the hook is a combination of the above. Sometimes you are placed on hold or on the other line or to get the other side's attention.
Mainly this was before some modern phone signals were used, such as Calling Party Control. We all know this as the disconnect tone, and the off the hook tone. If you watch some shows, people used to take the phone off the hook to block calls from ringing. That behavior stopped when CPC introduced the off the hook tone, which is very loud and annoying. And more relevant to the question, the disconnect tone which tells one side that the other side has disconnected. Prior to CPC, you had no way of telling if the silence on the phone was silence or that the call was lost. The disconnect tone fixed that. People no longer had to toggle the hook to know you were hung up on, the BEEEEEP did it for you.
Oh the ever evolving PSTN technology.
Answer 4
I can confirm that (cde & BowlOfRed's answer) - the other answers aren't quite right because the technology started changing so rapidly in the 60's and 70's after the transistor was invented and finally found its way to the phone system. Everyone was used to hitting the phone hook repeatedly to hang up - it took a while for this old habit to die out.
I was born in the 50's and actually used those phones back in the day. Hanging up back then frequently didn't break the connection because everything was done by switchboard operators. I always thought it was weird that I could hang up and then pick up the phone 5 minutes later and still be connected to the other phone. Hitting the phone hook rapidly flashed a light on the switchboard operator's panel, which attracted her attention. She would manually pull the cord out of the panel, and the call would finally be disconnected.
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