Happy Emma Nutt Day! The world's first female telephone operator starts her new job 141 yrs ago

[asiliveandbreathe]

20. Good question..party line requests, it was cheaper..but we had to tell customers

the other party could listen in..oops...I remember the line assigners, even though the order called for party line, they would assign a single line cable - pair.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony)

oops...In December 1942, University of Tennessee's strategy in an American football game versus University of Mississippi was revealed to the opposing coach as a telephone on the Ole Miss team's bench had been inadvertently wired to the same party line..

In 1989, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company replaced party lines with individual lines in Talcott, West Virginia, a rural area which once had as many as sixteen subscribers on one line.[32] Universities also phased out the systems, which were once common in student dormitories. Illinois State University terminated its last party line in 1990.[33] Woodbury, Connecticut's independent telephone company abandoned its last party lines in 1991, the last in that state to do so.[34] The same year, Southwestern Bell announced its intentions to replace all of its party lines in Texas with individual line service by November 1994,[35] and the company's last party line finally shut down in 1996.

Pacific Bell phased out most of its party lines by 1997, and the last ones operating in Nevada shut down in 2001. As of 2002, SBC Ameritech's only operating party lines were located in Michigan.[36] USA Today reported in 2000 that over 5,000 party lines still existed in the United States, but the majority of them were only connected to one telephone, and therefore appeared like individual telephone service at cheaper rates.

Ready for this one - In 1956, Southern Bell officials refused a request from a public utilities commissioner in Jackson, Mississippi to segregate party telephone lines on racial boundaries. Saner heads prevailed....