In article ,
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Desperation? How about: "It was developed to provide telephone
service where it was impossible to run new lines."

It's never 'impossible' to run new lines. Otherwise none would ever be
installed. It was used as a stopgap until they were - I doubt you'd
find many in use today.


At one time it was. there are pictures of New York and other major
US cities with so many phone lines that the sidewalks were dark.

So that's still the case? Or did they find ways round this 'impossible'
situation? Like running multicores? And hopefully underground?

They literally ran out of room for new wire, under the original
designs. Some phantom circuits were only a few blocks, on pairs that
went much further.

In some cases, the phantom circuit was cleaner than
the other pairs.

I can quite see a phantom circuit being cleaner than a faulty copper pair.
However, try running that phantom circuit over faulty copper pairs...


Have you ever used 100 miles of old telephone trunkline for a
network feed at a remote radio station? Or, in a pinch, connected a
spare audio console directly to a phone line to do and emergency
live remote feed to the station?

That really was what I was basing things on. A phantom music circuit
never performed as well as a discrete pair - even when that pair was
an ordinary telephone circuit.

Did Western Electric invent it?

Who do you think invented it?

I dunno. That's why I was asking you if you were sure or just guessing.
They may well have been the first to use them in the US, of course. But
that's not the same thing.


I saw several sets while in the US military. All were made by WE,
and had the parent numbers on them. WE wouldn't include the numbers if
they didn't own the patent.

The equipment could well have been the subject of a patent. But did they
invent the principle? I did do a quick Google but got nowhere.

--
*Why is the third hand on the watch called a second hand?

Dave Plowman London SW
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