TELECOM Digest     Mon, 21 Feb 94 09:21:00 CST    Volume 14 : Issue 94

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

   The "Blue Pages" -- Are Yours in Good Shape? (Will Martin)
   A.G. Bell's Last Living Grandson is Dead at 87 (Nigel D. Allen)
   Intelligent Network Services (Wayne King)
   Dvorak Offer Redux (Cliff Sharp)
   Shortage of Prefixes in 800? (Carl Moore)
   Caller-ID Question (Scott Schell)
   Percentage of DTMF Circuits (Thomas Hinders)
   Power Supply For Digital Cordless Phone (Flying Dutchman)
   Third-Party Billing (Carl Moore)
   Get Paid For Receiving Commercial Email (Sheldon W. Hoenig)
   Re: Internet Costs and Software Are Free (John Galloway)
   Re: Internet Costs and Software Are Free (Chaim Frenkel)
   Re: Telephone Number History (Carl Moore)
   Re: Telephone Number History (David Breneman)
   Re: Caller ID in Russia (For Curious) (John R. Levine)
   Re: Cell Phone Welcome Message (Mark Earle)
   Re: AT&T Directory Assistance Now Includes Addresses ([email protected])
   Re: Priorities (Andrew C. Green)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of
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long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers.
To reach us:  Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 05:07:57 CST
From: Will Martin <[email protected]>
Subject: The "Blue Pages" -- Are Yours in Good Shape?


I recently had the need to look up some Missouri state government
phone numbers in the Southwestern Bell Greater St. Louis Area white
pages telephone book section that has blue edges to the paper and is
called the "Blue Pages"; this lists Federal, State, County, and City
offices.

I noticed, while doing this, that the listings were rather sloppily
formatted, sometimes contained out-of-date material, and were
incomplete.  Unfortunately, there is no number given in the directory
to call to report errors or omissions or problems in the directory
itself.  After some effort, and telephone tag thru the SW Bell
bureaucracy, I was able to contact an office at Southwestern Bell that
would accept some degree of responsibility for this section.  (They
still disclaimed actual control, referring instead to a "publications
office" which you cannot call directly because it never deals with the
public.)

I was able to get them to agree to correct some obvious errors -- for
example, the name "Mel Carnahan" (Missouri's current Governor) has
been listed as "Lieutenant Governor" in both the 1993 and new 1994
editions!  But the section on state legislators was woefully
incomplete and had someobvious formatting errors; they claimed they
couldn't make this section complete on their own -- that each
legislator had to contact them individually and request to be
included! I considered THAT to be rather outrageous.

There were other items, like the way St. Louis County was entered in
the listings -- the address for the county government center is run
together with the county name on the same line in the same typeface,
so the column headings all say:

ST LOUIS-COUNTY OF 41
  SOUTH CENTRAL --

instead of:

ST LOUIS-COUNTY OF
  41 South Central --

and SW Bell insited that THAT was the way the county government had
ordered it, and they couldn't change it. Hmmm ... Right...

So I wrote a letter to my State Representative about it.  (His name,
and that of my State Senator, were among those omitted).  In addition,
I suggested that he could get the state Public Service Commission to
promulgate an order to all telephone companies in the state to make an
active effort to keep all "government" listings up-to-date and
correct, as opposed to just passively waiting for changes from the
offices themselves.  After all, the whole purpose of these special
"blue pages" government listings is to provide information and contact
points to the public, and their accuracy is important in this regard.
The telephone companies should automatically update such listings when
elections or reorganizations change the data shown therein.  He called
me a few days later and told me that he was going to look into it and
would see what SW Bell would do about it.

Just yesterday, a person from SW Bell called me. It actually was one
of the same people I had spoken to before and who had been relatively
disinterested in trying to get the obvious errors corrected. A sudden
transformation had overcome this person -- she was all eager about how
this was going to be passed along to "higher levels" in SW Bell, and
that they were going to make a great effort to clean up this section.
She admitted there were many obvious problems and that they would be
fixed.

Well, we'll see -- there's a year until the new directory comes out.
(I had started this effort after seeing how the same errors were in
both the 93 and 94 editions.) But I found it amusing how rapidly this
sudden attitudinal change had come about ...

Also, this time there was no nonsense about how the mis-formatted
entries were there "because the customer ordered it that way";
instead, this person stated that these listings were all "free".
Somehow I doubt that -- I think these government offices are paying
business rates for their service and are entitled to listings in the
white pages just like any other business, so they are paying for the
listing just as much as "Joe's Auto Repair" is...

Anyway, I encourage all other TELECOM Digest readers to look at your
local telephone books, and see how well and accurately the government
offices are listed. If you see problems and obvious glaring errors,
raise a fuss about them! Invoke the magic initials "PSC" (or "PUC" in
some states) and see if that helps. Involve your state legislators,
especially if their own listings are wrong or missing. It might keep
them busy doing something helpful instead of what mischief they
otherwise might spend their time doing ... :-)


Regards,

Will

------------------------------

From: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 05:55:16 -0500
Subject: A.G. Bell's Last Living Grandson is Dead at 87
Organization: Internex Online (io.org) Data: 416-363-3783  Voice: 416-363-8676


The following obituary appeared in {The New York Times} on Thursday,
February 17.

Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild, 87, Dies

    Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild, a research entomologist at the
University of Florida and the last living grandson of Alexander Graham
Bell, died last Thursday at his home in Gainesville, Flordia. He was
87.

    The cause was cancer, the university said.

    Mr. Fairchild, who was known as Sandy, spent almost 30 years in
Central America and South America studying the role of insects in
disease. Since 1970, he had been a research professor of entomology at
the University of Florida and a research associate at the Florida
State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville.

    He was the author of more than 140 articles in scientific
journals and was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was named
entomologist of the year in 1968 by the Entomological Society of
America.

    Mr. Fairchild is survived by his wife, Elva, and a daughter,
Alice Fairchild, both of Gainesville; a son, David, of Carmel Valley,
Calif., and a grandson.


Nigel Allen      [email protected]

------------------------------

From: [email protected] (Wayne King)
Subject: Intelligent Network Services
Reply-To: [email protected] (Wayne King)
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 16:08:23 -0500


I am looking for detailed information on the features provided by
Intelligent Network and Advanced Intelligent Network services.  I
would like to know where I can get information on this topic.

Thanks in advance.


Wayne King   Kylain Inc.         Phone: (613) 226-1250
            2 Gurdwara Road     Email: [email protected]
            Suite 610,          Fax:   (613) 226-6854
            Nepean, Ont., K2E 1A2

------------------------------

Subject: Dvorak Offer Redux
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 94 16:39:21 CST
From: Cliff Sharp <[email protected]>


  I hate to revive a painful subject, but...

  I switched to Sprint to get the modem, and in November I got a
letter that I was to return telling them what kind of software I
wanted for the modem.  Due to messy filing practices, I didn't return
it until December 27.  Now, not having seen anything of the modem yet,
I ask ...

  1.  How long did it take between your mailing the letter and your
getting your modem?

  2.  Was it mailed, UPSed, or how was it shipped to you?

  3.  When and if I have to check up on it, does anyone have a copy
of the letter showing the 800 number they listed for contacting them
about the modem?

  TIA.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 20 Feb 94 17:29:22 EST
From: Carl Moore <[email protected]>
Subject: Shortage of Prefixes in 800?


In the messages about N00 prefixes, [email protected] commented
about seeing N0X/N1X prefixes in use for area 800 (tollfree calls).
Yes, I have been seeing some of those, too.  Someone else wondered if
800-NXX-XXXX could generalize to 800-XXX-XXXX (ditto for area 900),
since there is no occasion to use less than the ten-digit number
(including the area code) to reach any of them.  A response said that
a lot of local switches would block 800-0xx and 800-1xx (ditto for
area 900), and it occurs to me: back in the 1970s, when 213 was the
only area code having N0X/N1X prefixes, did a lot of local switches
block 213-N0X and 213-N1X because they were "smart" enough to spot
that 0 or 1 in the middle digit of what should be the prefix?  (In a
related story, I understand that many operators, especially on the
East coast, didn't know about N0X/N1X prefixes until it became time
for New York City to get such.)

------------------------------

From: [email protected] (Scott Schell x8034)
Subject: Caller-ID Question
Reply-To: [email protected]
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 22:58:10 GMT


I am trying to locate info re: Caller-ID.  How does it work?  How much
digital, how much analog, how much Ma Bell?  Where can I obtain the
specification?  I have voicemail/mbox in my computer and I would like
to integrate Caller-ID function for database storage.


Thanks,

david wolfe   Internet: [email protected]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note:  Caller-ID? Hmm ... isn't that some new
feature the telephone company is offering these days?  I think I have
heard of it someplace. Maybe we should start a discussion thread about
it here in the Digest <giggle> ... PAT]

------------------------------

Date: 21 Feb 1994 07:28:09 EDT
From: Hinders, Thomas <[email protected]>
Subject: Percentage of DTMF Circuits


What percentage of the world's telephone voice circuits are DTMF?
What percentage of the telephone instruments are DTMF? The reason I
ask, is one of the proposals for routing inbound fax uses additonal
digits after the # to provide routing information and it occured to me
this solution would only work on DTMF capable circuits.


Thanks,

Tom Hinders/Soft-Switch
+1 215 640 7487 (v/vm)  +1 215 640 7511 (f)
Internet: [email protected]
X.400:  C=US A=Telemail P=Softswitch S=Hinders G=Thomas

------------------------------

From: [email protected] (Flying Dutchman)
Subject: Power Supply For Digital Cordless Phone
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 02:29:03 GMT


I need a 3 V supply for the "new" logic chips.  I intend to use only
three AA batteries.

I have tried simulating a transistor/zener regulator but with a load
of about 10 ohms, the voltage drops too low.  I have not been able to
find an IC regulator that will operate at such a low voltage (only a
0.6 V drop).  A voltage divider setup is no good since the voltage
will vary from about 3-4 V from the NiCAD batts.

Any ideas?  Please forward to my E-mail address ONLY.  I don't want to
switch batteries, or add more of them.


Thanks,

Mark

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 03:35:30 EST
From: Carl Moore <[email protected]>
Subject: Third-Party Billing


I just had two unauthorized third-party charges removed from the AT&T
portion of my C&P bill.  Both were from the same telephone number, and
both were to the same prefix in a different state.  The AT&T service
rep was even able to identify the people who have those three telephone
numbers were (I did not recognize any of them).

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 04:24:49 EST
From: Sheldon W. Hoenig <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: Get Paid For Receiving Commercial Email


Pat: I received this posting.  It sounds like "something for nothing" which
means that there is a catch.

  From: Suarez C Industries <[email protected]>
  Fri, 18 Feb 1994 10:36:58 -0500
  To: Multiple recipients of list ANN-LOTS <[email protected]>
  Subject: EPS

       Electronic Postal Service (EPS) Registration Information

  Here's how you can reduce commercial e-mail on the Internet and make
money for yourself at the same time.

  Electric Postal Service will pay you money to receive commercial
e-mail.  EPS estimates you will be paid an average of 6.5 cents per
commercial e-mail message.  It is estimated that the average
commercial e-mail receiver can make $200.00 to $500.00 a year and
likely more.  There is absolutely no charge, periodic charge, hourly
charge or phone charge to receive or review EPS commercial e-mail.
The sender bears all of the cost.  You are provided with a free EPS
mailbox and you may access this EPS mailbox through a toll free phone
number so there are no phone line charges.

  In addition, as an e-mail receiver, EPS offers you many other new
and innovative on-line services such as special interest bulletin
boards, special interest conferencing, new services, information
services, full Internet access including network Internet e-mail
remote log-in, file transfer capability and much more.

To receive more information about EPS, reply by:

  Sending e-mail to our internet address at [email protected]
  Subject: EPS INFO
  Included your name and address.

  Or call 1-800-764-0009 and ask for operator OL12.

Your free EPS e-mail post office box access information will be mailed
to you.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sure does sound like a catch somewhere.
Let's find out what it is ... I sent for my free information and sign
up materials today. You do the same! Then, reports from everyone please
based on your findings. Sounds like these folks are willing to pay you
to help commercialize the net.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: [email protected] (John Galloway)
Subject: Re: Internet Costs and Software Are Free
Organization: Galloway Research
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 23:14:12 GMT


In article <[email protected]>, TELECOM Digest Editor noted
in response to Chaim Frenkel <[email protected]>:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've always felt the same way where this
> Digest was concerned. It is purely my contribution to the world to help
> stamp out ignorance where the operation of telephone networks is concerned.
> At least it began that way ... now I think I am a victim of my own success
> where the Digest is concerned as the volume of traffic and the size of
> the mailing list has increased far beyond what either Jon Solomon or I
> expected or considered possible. Part of this of course is due to the
> general increase in Internet usage; part perhaps due to my own efforts to
> gateway the Digest to so many places. At that I was successful, and now
> the mail is pouring in at such a volume that even a cursory examination
> of much of it is difficult. And that is not good. I wish I could read
> every peice of mail and use every peice of mail I receive, but until the
> time comes that I can support myself independent of other outside jobs
>  -- if that time ever comes -- and work on the Digest eight or nine hours
> per day -- which could easily be done now if resources were available --
> then I have to do what I can. I wish I lived high enough in the "Maslow
> Hierarchy" to be able to afford it.  PAT]

Seems like it shouldn't be to difficult to insert a smart multiplexer
in the stream somewhere that would parcel out submissions to multiple
moderators and which would keep articles in the same thread going to
the same moderator and parcel out new threads based on the article
load of each moderator.  On the other hand given that none of the
news.software.* groups seemed appropriate for this comment, perhaps it
won't be _quite_ that easy.  (i.e. gee PAT get some help!!)


internet    [email protected]  John R. Galloway, Jr  795 Beaver Creek Way
applelink   D3413                  CEO...receptionist    San Jose, CA   95133
                                  Galloway Research     (408) 259-2490


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, I *am* getting some help in the
form of a monthly cash stipend starting soon. An organization which
represents a large number of telephone companies has agreed to assist
in funding TELECOM Digest (a not-for-profit educational activity registered
in the State of Illinois) with a generous grant payable monthly. More
details later. I won't exactly be singing 'Happy Days are Here Again' but
I will be able to pay IBT on time each month.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: [email protected] (Chaim Frenkel)
Subject: Re: Internet Costs and Software Are Free
Date: 20 Feb 94 16:32:31 GMT
Organization: Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc.


In article <[email protected]> TELECOM Digest Editor noted:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've thought about it, and probably would
> then have them edit their articles and send them back to go into the
> finished, published issue. One problem with this is the additional delay
> it would cause in getting stuff out.

I would have thought that it would REDUCE the delay. Consider a serial
vs a parallel algorithm. The 'first' articles would be delayed longer
than before, but the 'later' articles would be completed earlier than
before.


Chaim Frenkel              On contract at:
[email protected]          [email protected]
Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc.  Bear Stearns & Co., Inc.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But therein lies the problem. I do not
want the original article to be delayed. The original article should
get out as quickly as possible.  PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 06:59:54 EST
From: Carl Moore <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Telephone Number History


I don't quite understand the change from two letters + four numbers to
two letters + five numbers for Louisville.  I understand phone number
lengths had to be standardized, but I heard that Cincinnati did that
by inserting a 1 after the two-letter prefix.

------------------------------

From: daveb@jaws (David Breneman)
Subject: Re: Phone Number History
Date: 20 Feb 94 23:39:37 GMT
Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA


Mark W. Schumann ([email protected]) wrote:

> My ma/pa-in-law still have one, although they're the only party.  Ohio
> Bell (Ameritech) has repeatedly said they'll take it away and start
> charging them regular single-line rates but that hasn't happened yet.

> What's funny is that they're in the 216-741 exchange, which is about
> five miles out of downtown Cleveland.  You would think this would have
> been one of the first places to eliminate party lines.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If Ameritech wants to get them off the
> single-party 'party line', the best way would be to (use their right to)
> assign some other subscriber to the party, preferably some subscriber
> with *a lot* of incoming and outgoing calls; maybe a family with a few
> teenagers, etc. That would drive your in-laws/outlaws or whatever off
> in a hurry, and Ohio Bell could smile sweetly and tell your relatives
> how sorry they were to lose them as a party-line subscriber.  :)   PAT]

My parents waited over ten years for a private line in the 206-858
exchange.  Finally, somebody moved into the neighborhood (never found
out who) who would leave his phone off the hook at night.  If you
picked up the phone, you could hear him snoring!  When my parents
complained repeatedly about the danger of this situation, the phone
company (Island Empire, now Pacific Telecom) finally relented and gave
them a private line, but charged $1.25 per month per mile for the
distance between their house and the central (crossbar) switch in Gig
Harbor (Washington -- near Tacoma).  This was about 1979.


David Breneman                        Email: [email protected]
System Administrator,                 Voice: 206 881-7544  Fax: 206 556-8033
Product Development Platforms
Digital Systems International, Inc.        Redmond, Washington,  U. S. o' A.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They should have called their party line
neighbor during the day and told him to quit doing that. Yes, you could
call your party line neighbor on the phone even though the logical way
of thinking was that if you went off hook, the line would become busy so
how would you reach him ... during manual service days, if you simply
asked for the other side of your party line (let's say you were 1234-J
and party was 1234-W) then the response from the operator was 'line
is busy', the same as if you asked for your own number by accident, and
people would sometimes do that. The operator did not look at who was
*calling* unless there was a billing function involved, she looked at
who was *being called*; the (cord) tip to (jack) ring test would 'test
busy' and that was her report ... bing! she was gone to handle another
call. So you tipped her off by saying 'calling my party line, 1234-W',
and she would say to hang up, let her ring it and pick up the phone
again in maybe twenty seconds. She could then ring on the line (yours
and party's would both ring) and if party answered she told them to
hold on a couple seconds until you picked up again.

Anyway, your parents should have called the snorer, and with the music
of J.S. Bach's "Sleeper's Awake" playing sweetly in the background given
him a piece of their mind. I wonder if the guy even knew he was on a
party line or if he was just plain inconsiderate ... we used to have a
guy here who was addicted to CB who stayed on the radio all day and all
night. About once a week he would fall asleep while he was keyed up
and the channel would be tied up all night long with his carrier. We
could hear him snoring in the background also. In the days of party-
line phones there were also inconsiderate people who did not want to
be bothered with a phone call while they and their spouse engaged in
sexual activity and they would leave the phone off the hook, too dumb
to realize that their party line neighbors and all the operators got
to listen in to that as well.   PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 06:34:00 EST
From: [email protected] (John R Levine)
Subject: Re: Caller ID in Russia (For Curious)
Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass.


It is my understanding that when dialing a toll call in Russia, you
have to dial your own phone number after the desired number so that
the exchange can tell who to bill it to.  Is this what you're referring
to as Caller-ID?

The term has a somewhat different meaning in the U.S.


Regards,

John Levine, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 05:47:16 CST
From: [email protected] (Mark Earle)
Subject: Re: Cell Phone Welcome Message


I experienced this the other day when leaving the SBMS service area
north of San Antonio, TX and entering the Austin GTE Mobilnet area.
The problem to me, is I quite often don't activate FMR. My spouse and
telcom savvy associates know to reach me, dial the local roam port
number, then my mobile number.

In this way, they pay the LD part of the call; I pay airtime only.
More importantly, though, if no one calls, no roam fees, since my
phone didn't make any calls. Well, answering this greeting means
getting hit for roam fees. Nice trick.

Another reason sometimes not to activate FMR is the way FMR is done,
it can lag behind you by 15-30 minutes. I'd rather have my associates
try two or three roam port numbers, and get me, than be in the FMR
black hole of no communications.

I know, autonomous registration may solve the FMR boondoggle/kludge,
but we're not destined to get it for awhile on the B side in South
Texas.


[email protected]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 18:53:05 -0500
From: Jonathan <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: AT&T Directory Assistance Now Includes Addresses


Monty Solomon wrote:

> In all states except New Jersey and Connecticut you can now request
> phone number and/or address information from AT&T Directory
> Assistance.

> They can't currently provide addresses in New Jersey and Connecticut.

Does AT&T really provide the Directory Assistance service, or does it
go through the local telephone company?  It would be disconcerting to
know that AT&T knows everybody's address and telephone number, not
just those of its own customers.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: DA comes from a variety of sources. In
most cases the Bell Operating Company in that region handles it for
both itself and on contract for the independent companies in the area
and the various long distance carriers. AT&T runs (used to run?) 800
directory assistance and contracted it out to Southwestern Bell in
East St. Louis, Illinois. There are still a few places where an inde-
pendent telco does not contract with the BOC of record in the area to
handle directory assistance. In those cases, when you call AC-555-1212
and ask for information in a certain town (where the independent telco
operates) you'll note that the first operator who answers you says to
hold on while she connects you to a second operator (at the independent
telco). Most independents however have turned over all their operator
and DA traffic to Bell for a lot cheaper cost than they could handle it
themselves.   PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 12:23:59 GMT
From: "Andrew C. Green" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Priorities


John Shaver <[email protected]> writes:

> A British humourist noted that if God had wanted us to have aeroplanes
> he would not have given us the railroads. Cannot the same be said for
> Telephone and Telegraph?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And ditto for computers versus the old
> mechanical 'adding machines' of the 1940-50 era!   <smile>    PAT]

Pardon a short digression from modern telecommunications here, but my
circa-1940 Monroe calculating machine is in fine working order,
thankyouverymuch. I rescued it from the old 123 N. Wacker building (in
Chicago) just before demolition, and it now squats proudly on my desk
next to my newfangled PC.

The Monroe can add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers up to ten
digits (after some dignified thought) with the same accuracy as my PC.
Division is truly spectacular, with hundreds of motor-driven gears
munching in unison to operate 30 registers in two rows on a traveling
typewriter-like carriage. To "carryover" a digit, the carriage
literally lifts up, drags itself sideways one column, and crashes back
down to resume calculations. Repeating decimals can make it walk
across the desk. You get a new understanding of where the term "number
crunching" came from.


Andrew C. Green           *************************************
Datalogics, Inc.          NOTE! Ignore any "From" headers above
441 W. Huron              Direct all replies to [email protected]
Chicago, IL  60610-3498   FAX: (312) 266-4473


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I loved my old Burroughs (punch down
the buttons in each column; punch the appropriate operand key; yank
the handle) 'adding machine'. It had about ninety keys on it, with
eight columns (you could enter a number as high as 999,999.99 but
answers could be as high as 9,999,999.99) and ten rows ranging from
zero through nine which made eighty keys; then there were keys to add,
subtract; keys for the sub-total, total and what they called NOP (or
no-operation, meaning it printed on the tape what you entered, but for
memo purposes only) and lock, which would retain whatever keys had
been pressed in a locked position so you could pull the lever several
times without having to repress the same keys over and over. In
addition to the paper printout, a little glass window on the front let
you look at the wheels inside with the digits printed on them as the
calculations were being performed. To add 1234 plus 4321 you'd press
1-2-3-4 in the first four columns and the plus key; yank the handle
forward and release it; then press 4-3-2-1 in the first four columns,
the total key, and yank the handle forward a second time. To multiply
you entered the number as above, pressed the locking key to retain the
other keys in a down position) and pulled your lever back and forth
the number of times needed. To divide, you pressed the number keys and
the subtraction key and the lock key then pulled the lever back and
forth, counting the number of pulls as you went along until the little
glass window showed an insufficient amount to continue subtracting.
The number of lever pulls was your answer and the 'remainder' was
whatever the glass window and the print out tape said it was.

The *electric* Burroughs was a great labor saving device. No more levers
to pull and only a single matrix of numbers to be punched instead of
several rows and columns to be used. It had absolutely no logic checking
however, and if you attempted (for example) division by zero it saw no
problems with that and would start its calculations with the gears
inside chunking and spinning noisily, and it would continue all day until
someone pulled the plug and pressed the reset button, which was basically
a clutch to release the gears inside if they got locked up 'somehow'.
Most multiplication and division problems were handled by the machine in
thirty seconds or less.  PAT]

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End of TELECOM Digest V14 #94
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