[Platapus]

Long distance phone calls have become so automated that really the concept of long distance phone calls has fallen by the wayside. People make long distance phone calls just like local phone calls. I doubt if the younger generation even understands that at one time there was a difference.

Here is an audio clip of how people made long distance phone calls in 1949



Notice that it takes about 2 minutes just to make the connection. Interesting listening.

Anyone remembering Dialing Tools? It was a stylus, usually with a mechanical pencil at one end and a ball at the other end (where an eraser would be on a more traditional pencil). This ball was used to physically operate the dial without either breaking a nail or after long days, getting a blister on the finger.

Kinda weird that someone had to invent a tool to use a dial when the dial was designed to be used by hand. But that's the difference between making one phone call a week and hundreds per day.