Evening star., 1952-12-05
100000 10 Receive
New Phone Numbers
All Am. Tomorrow

~ ] HsVIs IV1IIVIIVW
More than 100000 Washington
area telephone subscribers will
get new numbers at l am. tomor-
row quicker than an operator can
murmur Sorry. that's a wrong
nu-u-umber-will yo1 puhleese
consult your new directory?"
One hour after midnight, engi-
neers in 80 central offices will push
in couple of plugs. pull out a !
couple more and the entire area
will be converted to the two-letter,
five-digit type of telephone num-
Der.
Simple for the User.
It's that simple for the tele-
phone user. No tinkering will be
done on his phone. All he must
remember is to tear the yellow
mask from his telephone dial to
learn his new number. Then he
should throw away his old direc-
tory and start using the new one |
distributed the past month.
The Chesapeake g. Potomac
Telephone Co. promises no ces-
sation in services during the
changeover period. Months of
planning the rigging of tempo
rary wiring on master switches
has made this possible.
The company doesn't even an
ticipate great wave of wrong
number calling. though it could
be fooled on this score. It may
be hard for subscribers to forget
$4,000 numbers deeply rooted in
memory. Habit being what it is,
hubble is likely to dial home on
the wrong wave length a few
times before he gets Strengthened
out
For those who forget, c. & P.
has set up one of it's recorded
voices which will politely but
firmly advise use of the new
directory.
Extra Spin of Dial.
After l am. six pulls" of the
phone dial will yield only a dead
silence. It will require an extra
spin Of the wheel to make the
intricate dial system work.
The telephone company has two
reasons for the extra digit. I'm
der the "2-4" system, it virtually
had reached the end of expansion
possibilities for new central office
codes. Only so combinations were
possible, whereas an astronomical
500 is the potential under the
"2-5" Setup.
Looking into the future, C. g. P.
also saw the day when customers
may dial inter-city. To achieve
this plan nationally. each city
must have the same type of dial
ing system.
A step toward broader dialingI
is being taken simultaneously
with tonight's changeover. A new
central Office building is being
opened at 5000 Riggs road in
Prince Georges County for serv-
ing many subscribers now handled
by the Silver Spring and Hyatts-
vile Offices.
Numbers beginning with HAr-
rison 2, HEmlock 4 and Webster
5 will be included in a new service
of automatic timing and record
Ing of many inter-zone telephone
calls presently recorded by op-
orators.
This automatic message ac-
counting" equipment in time will
be installed throughout the area,
making it possible to dial calls
now made through toll operator.
The company expects to complete
this work in about a year.
Three Types of Changes.
Three types of changes are
being made in tonight's big num-
bers game. Some numbers will
retain the present name and
figures except for an extra digit.
Others will switch the name but
keep the number plus the fifth
digit. Still others, in the minority,
will change both names and num-
bers.
The phone company has tried
to eliminate confusing pref1xes
(Ordway has been misunderstood
by long distance operators as
Audrey and also the names of
towns and States which in time
might be confusing in inter-city
dialing.
These names are being banished
forever: Alexandria, Atlantic. Ak
minister, Chestnut, Falls Church,
Franklin. Georgia, Glebe, Green
belt. Hickory, Hillside. Hyatts-
vile. Marlboro, Michigan, Ordway,
Owens. Oxford. Rockville, Shep-
herd. Silver Spring. Trinidad, Vic
tor. Whitehall and Wisconsin.
More than 100000 subscribers
will keep present numbers, for
that many have been changed
since the phone company began
~ L.