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Comment by bahmboo | Hacker News Reader

Wow, what a find! Thanks for posting this. It's funny that dial tones bring back the memories!

Yah a network where you could dial a number and get automatically connected to another phone anywhere in the US without any computers at all and not even a transistor being used! Crazy.

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If you’re into this, and ever in Seattle check out the connections museum.

https://www.telcomhistory.org/ConnectionsSeattle.html

The volunteers there maintain a bunch of functioning cool vintage equipment you can see in action and even use.

Be sure to send them an email first, so that you can arrive at the proper time for them to give you a tour. It is very, very worth it. One of the best museum experiences so far.

Thanks to both of you for the info. I'm longtime Seattle and I had no idea. I'm still disappointed that the living computer museum was closed. Jody Allen is a decent person so was surprised she let that tiny line item expire from the spreadsheet, I digress.

+1 to this! If you have any interest in telephones, telephone switching, or phreaking, this place is incredible. And the people who run it are awesome.

'Exploding the phone' by Lapsley is such an incredible book on the phone phreaks.

Thanks for the kind words! And it's funny, when I saw this story on HN my first thought was "loop arounds and talkable busy signals!" :-).

Thank you for writing it, I think about it often. It is so well researched and written, I could tell it was a labor of love :)

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