European Union recommended emergency number is "112". Because you can morse it with the hook or even by short-circuitin the wires. This is also why the pulse-dialing receiver is operational in most EU countries.
We're in NA so it was a huge mystery as to why this was happening just with their extension, took a while before we realized what was going on.
So think of the cradle switches - what "hangs up" the phone - as a button, and you just click that button (quickly) for '1' and then you pause and hit it twice in very rapid succession for '2' ...
You need to be on a POTS line to do this, of course, but it will work even today. Even if you have no dialing mechanism, you can dial the phone this way ...
To dial a 0, pulse the line 10 times.
This brings back memories, this is a trick people my age group mastered as teenagers in a 3rd world country. All calls were billed - including local ones, so parents would commonly get lockable cages that would cover the buttons/rotary dial to prevent unauthorised calls in their absence. The cages would leave the receiver accessible even when locked in order to be able to receive calls, so we would use the hook to do pulse tone dialing; dialing a number with many zeroes was always a challenge since it required 10 rapid taps as part of a longer sequence, but I built up muscle memory.
The practice was colloquially named 'tap-dialing' and it was handed down from generation to generation. Sadly it came to an end in the smartphone world.
https://www.epanorama.net/circuits/telephone_ringer.html:
”The voltage at the subscribers end depends upon loop length and number of ringers attached to the line; it could be between 40 and 150 Volts.”
I think they also (relatively to the hardware in a VoIP adapter) need a large amount of power.
So, to ring that bell, you need to transform your 5V/3V/…, and you need a larger power circuit. That isn’t worth it for the few who still have an old-style telephone.
1 + 1 = 2
Actually, I’ve heard that on cell phones in EU, you can still dial 911, and it’ll connect. I have had occasions to call 112 before, but it’s always been in big enough emergencies that I didn’t have time to experiment. I’m eagerly awaiting the day when I come across an emergency that’s urgent enough to call 112, but not urgent enough that it can’t wait a little bit for me to try something. It’s a delicate balance
That's why the UK went with 999 as something memorable, but slow to dial.
Sorry. Someone had to.
* http://jdebp.uk./FGA/truths-about-telephone-numbers.html#Eme...
The reverse dial was a result of the design of early Rotary exchanges built in Antwerp around 1921. Similar Rotary exchanges were installed in Oslo as well in 1914, and Oslo also used the reverse dial (but nowhere else in Norway).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_nu...
In Europe many of them are variations of 1XX, but since there are so many and sometimes they change too, it's not trivial to remember which one.
The American 911 is more memorable, even in Europe, simply due to it appearing in popular culture so often, I hope that if someone dials that one in Europe it'll also get forwarded to a real emergency line.
Eh? 112 works in the whole EU. As your link says. Of course old legacy numbers also work in many countries.
Just like the US, every country in has its own emergency numbers that you should probably know if you're in that country, but for Europe as a whole, 112 is the universal emergency number.
And while 911 might be known to many outside the US, as a number that requires actually navigating the dialing pad, it's not all that great. The UK's 999 or Europe's 112 are far better at being something you can dial while under duress (with 999, as a repeated number, being by far the superior choice here).
I bet little kids would constantly pick up a phone and dial “999999999”.... harder to mistakenly / playfully dial “911”
>Up until 1968, the United States was still using hundreds of seven-digit emergency telephone numbers across the country. In fact, some states, like Nebraska, had more than 180 different ambulance service numbers alone.
>The code 911 was chosen because it best fit the needs of all parties involved,” according to the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). “First, and most important, it met public requirements because it is brief, easily remembered, and can be dialed quickly. Second, because it is a unique number, never having been authorized as an office code, area code or service code, it best met the long range numbering plans and switching configurations of the telephone industry.”