On Australian dial phones using decadic [DC pulse] dialling, 111 would be replicated accidentally by tapping or jiggling the ‘switch hook’ AKA ‘handset rest’ many times in impatience.

If 111 was the emergency number it would be called falsely many times by callers jiggling the switch hook.

Noel Reed.

From:TramsDownUnder@... [mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, 16 December 2017 9:21 PM
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Subject: RE: [TramsDownUnder] Re: One pint milk bottle

Noel Reed wrote:

> In New Zealand, the numbers on the telephone dials were the reverse of the Australian arrangement. WHY ! !


Because New Zealand had the same dial as the UK, if I remember rightly. It is a long time since I saw a dial phone. Decades. So maybe it was the reverse of the UK dial too, but I don't think I ever saw a dial phone on any visit to the UK.

The NZ emergency number is 111, which was either the first or last number on the old dial. Corresponding with the 999 in the UK and the 000 in Australia.

--
david mcloughlin, Wellington no more
"Holy writ requires unholy scrutiny."

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Posted by:mcloughlin.dj@...

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