telephone booth

A small enclosure containing a public telephone.

Background

Although Alexander Graham Bell is credited with the invention of the telephone, the "telephon" (made from a hollowed out beer barrel, a sausage skin, and a knitting needle) was an original prototype being researched in 1860 by Philipp Reis. The mechanism of the phone was uncovered in 1874 and focused on musical reproduction, but the actual resolution of electricity and voice transmission was actually invented in 1876 by Bell.

The early telephone booths were manufactured from wood with ornate trim and design. A heavy solid wood door allowed the attendants to lock the customer into the booth until the completion of the phone call. This prevented the customer from leaving the premises without making payment. The earlier model slowly evolved into the coin-operated phones of today.

History

It may be of little surprise that the telephone booth has been around for more than 100 years. Inventor William Gray invented the booth after realizing the difficulty of placing a phone call from outside the home. Early wooden telephone booths were primarily located in railroad stations, fancy hotels, or banks. They were located in heavy traffic areas to ensure that the attendant's salary could be paid by the earnings of the booth.

Gray was encouraged that a coin-operated phone booth without the need of an attendant would be more of a convenience then the more costly attended booths. The Hartford Bank in Connecticut became the site of the first coin-operated telephone booth. In the days where Western Electric manufactured thousand of these telephone booths, a phone call was only a nickel.

Raw Materials

The original telephone booths were constructed from hard woods such as mahogany and had plush carpets on the floors. The floor disappeared over the years evolving from reinforced steel or metal to just disappearing altogether. The current enclosures of hard plastic or 14 gauge steel have aluminum anodized or powder coat to protect against corrosion.

Design

The traditional wooden phone booth is still available but typically as a touch of nostalgia in restaurants or private offices. Telephone booths historically have had accordion doors but as these limit handicap access recent designs are usually partial enclosures with phones attached at lower heights to accommodate users in wheelchairs. Telephone enclosures designed for institutional use such as prisons, universities, or other high traffic areas subject to abuse and vandalism are constructed from heavy duty (14 gauge) steel housing.

There are many different mounting arrangements for modern telephone booths, depending on whether the user will be sitting, standing, or placing a phone call from their automobile. In the manufacturing process these methods strive to be as standardized as possible to keep the numbers of parts required to a minimum.

The Manufacturing
Process

1. The steel arrives at the manufacturing plant in thick sheets. Its is loaded onto a conveyor belt and cut to the desired length and width.
2. Side panels are die cast. Molten steel is poured into the die and left to harden. When cooled, the frame panels are removed.
3. The framework is then taken into a room and sprayed with an aluminum anodized coat to protect them from wear and corrosion.
4. The framework is then welded to the frame. Each framework is molded to hold several panels inserted at a later stage in the assembly process.
5. Panels can be made from wood, particle board, plastic, or any other material that can be formed into sheets. The panels may be customized to reflect the business establishment providing the public phone access. Many are constructed from vacuum formed plastic and bearing the logo of the business. Display panels can also be made of white translucent butyrate.
6. The panels are manufactured with grooves along each of the outer surfaces. Correspondingly, moldings are provided with projections extending along at least a portion of the molding.
7. The panels are secured by moldings allowing the housing to be manufactured and assembled without nuts and bolts. The moldings are made of rubber, plastic, or similar materials and are manufactured by an extrusion process.
8. The phone is then fitted to the finished booth.
9. The booths are transported either to a dealer or directly to the customer. They are then manually installed.

Quality Control

Through the entire process, the quality of the materials is checked. Any defective molds, steel, or panels are discarded. The frame is checked for stability strength. The projections on the molding must be of equal or less than the depth of the grooves to be received securely. Design and Engineering manufacturing uses AutoCAD and VersaCAD computerized technology that constantly provides feedback and analysis of the manufacturing process providing a consistent and uniform product.

Byproducts/Waste

The steel and/or aluminum from the manufacturing process can be retrieved and recycled. Waste is kept to a minimum as the manufacturing tools run on compressed air keeping the work area free of debris.

The Future

It will be interesting to see where the telephone booth finds itself in the future. The full length booths have been replaced by smaller modular models and the convenience of cellular technology seems to leave fewer and fewer of us scrambling for spare change. Kiosk systems are being developed that provide a multitude of communication options. Coinless phone options such as Internet capabilities and phone and fax services are all rendered possible from one multi-use communication enclosure.

Where to Learn More

Other

PBG, Telephone Enclosures Web Page. December 2001. <http://www.PBGinc.com>.

Redy Ref Web Page. December 2001. <http://www.redyref.com>.

[Article by: Bonny P. McClain]

A slang term referring to one of the many phone terminals on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange that is used by floor traders to receive orders.

Investopedia Says:
With the advent of technology many floor traders use personal digital assistants (PDAs) to receive orders as well.

An enclosure for a telephone in a public area.

telamones at Agrigentum

For the 2003 movie, see Phone Booth (film).

Classic UK red telephone boxes.

A K6 Telephone box and a Edward VII Pillar box at the Amberley Working Museum.

A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, or telephone box is a small structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience. Such a booth usually has a door to provide privacy and a window to let others know if the booth is in use. The booth may be furnished with a printed directory of local telephone numbers, and a booth in a formal setting such as a hotel may be furnished with paper and pen and even a seat. An outdoor booth may be made of metal and plastic to withstand the elements and heavy use, while an indoor booth (once known as a silence cabinet) may have more elaborate architecture and furnishings.^[1] Most outdoor booths feature the name and logo of the telephone service provider.

19th century long distance telephony suffered from high losses, so "silence cabinets" were built to allow hearing faint voices from distant places and shouting across a country without disturbing neighbors. Most were on telephone company premises, and luxuriously appointed, until the turn of the century when they began to appear in railway stations, hotels and other places where well-heeled customers were expected. [1]. They became commonplace, though less luxurious, in industrialized countries in the 1910s. In 1959 Phonebooth stuffing, in which dozens of college students crammed their bodies into a standard booth, was a notable fad on campuses in several countries.^[2]

Starting in the 1970s pay telephones were less and less commonly placed in booths in the United States. In many areas where they were once common, telephone booths have now been almost completely replaced by non-enclosed pay phones. In the United States, this replacement was caused, at least in part, by an attempt to make the pay telephones more accessible to the handicapped. However, in the United Kingdom phones remained in booths more often than the non-enclosed set up. Although still fairly common, the number of phone boxes has declined sharply in Britain since the late 1990s due to the boom of mobile phones.

Many locations that provide pay phones mount the phones on kiosks rather than in booths — this relative lack of privacy and comfort discourages lengthy calls in high-demand areas such as airports.

Special equipment installed in some telephone booths allows a caller to use a computer, a portable fax machine, or a telecommunications device for the deaf.

Contents 1 Paying for the call 2 Recent developments 3 Booth or Box 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Paying for the call

A Telstra phone box in South Australia

Another variant of a Telstra phone box in Ingleburn, New South Wales

The user of the booth pays for the call by depositing coins into a slot on the telephone, by entering a payment code on the telephone's keypad, or by using a telephone card. Coin-operated phones usually take the money before the call is made, and return it if there is no answer on the receiving end. Other phones, such as those used in the UK until the early 1980s, take the money after someone has answered at the other end by blocking the call until money has been deposited. Some pay phones are equipped with a card reader that allows a caller to make payment with a credit card. A caller who possesses no means of payment may have the phone company's operator ask the call recipient if the recipient is willing to make payment for the call; this is known as "reversing the charges", "reverse charged call" or a "collect call". It is also possible to place a call to a phone booth if the intended recipient is known to be waiting at the booth, however not all phone booths allow incoming calls. Long before "computer hacking" was a common phenomenon, creative mischief-makers devised tactics for obtaining free phone usage through a variety of techniques, including several for defeating the electro-mechanical payment mechanisms of telephone booths--early methods of phone phreaking.

Recent developments

Phone boxes are often vandalised

The increasing use of mobile phones has led to a decreased demand for pay telephones, but the increasing use of portable computers is leading to a new kind of service. In 2003, service provider Verizon announced that they would begin offering wireless computer connectivity in the vicinity of their phone booths in Manhattan. As of 2006 the Verizon wifi telephone booth service was discontinued in favor of the more expensive Verizon Wireless's EVDO system.^[3] This allows a computer user to connect with remote computer services by means of a short-range radio stationed within the booth. The caller pays for usage by means of a pre-arranged account code stored inside the caller's computer. Wireless access is motivating telephone companies to place wireless stations at locations that have traditionally hosted telephone booths, but stations are also appearing in new kinds of locations such as libraries, cafés, and trains.

A rise in vandalism in certain regions has prompted several companies to manufacture simpler booths with extremely strong pay phones.

Most telephone booths in Northern Ireland are able to accept two currencies. They are able to accept both pound sterling and euro, due to the proximity to the Republic of Ireland. Similarly, mainly in large cities in Great Britain, certain telephone booths accept both sterling and euro. Other services provided by these booths are internet access, SMS text messaging and ordinary phone services.

In 2004, Jordan became the first country in the world not to have telephone booths generally available. The cellular phone penetration in that country is so high that telephone booths have practically not been used at all for years. The two private payphone service companies, namely ALO and JPP, closed down and currently there's no payphone service to speak of.^[4] In 2007, Finnet companies, and TeliaSonera Finland discontinued their public telephones earlier and the last remaining operator Elisa Oyj did that during the beginning of the year.^[5]

Following the commencement of the Smoking ban in England, it became illegal to smoke in most telephone boxes. The smoking ban requires owners to display no smoking signage, which has resulted in BT displaying a no smoking sticker which refer to the telephone box as "premises".

Calling cards are often found in phone boxes in London advertising the services of call girls

A telephone booth in Brazil, popularly called orelhão ("big ear") because of its format.

A joke public telephone at a V-Day anniversary celebration in Hampshire.

Booth or Box

In the USA and Canada "telephone booth" is used, while in the UK it is a "telephone box" or "phone-box".

See also

• Callbox
• Giles Gilbert Scott
• Interactive kiosk
• Mojave phone booth
• Police Box
• Red telephone box

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Telephone booth

1. ^ Melchior Telematics (2007). "Public Telephones" (in Finnish). Melchior Telematics. http://www.melchior.co.uk/BTphones/phone2.html. Retrieved on December 4 2007. 
2. ^ Marum, Andrew; Parise, Frank (1984). "Telephone booth stuffing (1959)." ("Follies and Foibles section"). New York: Facts on File, Inc.. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0-87196-820-7. 
3. ^ Jen Chung (2005). "Goodbye Free Verizon WiFi" (in Finnish). Gothamist LLC.. http://gothamist.com/2005/05/02/goodbye_free_verizon_wifi.php. Retrieved on December 4 2007. 
4. ^ "Cellular.co.za:Payphones suffer from cellphone growth 2004". http://www.cellular.co.za/news_2004/march/032704-payphones_suffer_from_cellphone.htm. 
5. ^ Elisa Oyj (2006). "Elisa luopuu yleisöpuhelinliiketoiminnasta syksyllä 2007" (in Finnish). Elisa Oyj. http://www.elisa.fi/ir/index.cfm?t=5&o=5120.00&did=13602. Retrieved on December 4 2007. 

External links

• La Cabina at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Phone Box Killer" ad
• Payphone_Net Index of payphone numbers and photographs of payphones in unusual or famous places around the world.
• Article in Spaces Magazine by Lee Garland, May 08

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)