[VoIP] 4-Wire Telephones?

[John Novack]

Rusty Dekema wrote:
> On 3/16/07, John R. Covert <john_reads_cnet_via_archives at covert.org> wrote:
>   
>> I assume you're referring to the standard four-prong pre-modular
>> phone jack: http://www6.covert.org/4-prong.jpg
>>
>> These had nothing to do with four-wire phones.  Just like a modern
>> modular RJ-11 jack, which is also a four-wire (and occasionally
>> 6-wire) jack, the old 4-prong jacks were used with two-wire phones.
>>
>> Tip and ring were wired to the two pins that are farther apart.
>>
>> I'm sure your grandmother's house did not have four-wire phones.
>>     
>
> Ahh, interesting. Those are the connectors I was referring to. I am wondering why 4-prong connectors and 4-wire wiring were used to wire houses in the "old days" (pre-1940). 
In the Washington D.C. area, pre WWII houses were not pre-wired, but 
wired on an as needed basis with three twisted wires held in place with 
large headed wire nails. THe individual wires were cloth over rubber in 
my grandmothers house, very neatly taked along the baseboard.
4 prong jacks were used for single, party line  where the third wire was 
needed, and also portable phones wired to one subset. One could unjack 
the desk stand or  A,B or D handset mount and move from one room to another.

Multiple phones and multiple lines were not the norm, given the coast 
and the high unemployment rate during the 30's

The house I owned in Silver Spring, built in the mid 50's was wired with 
3 wire jacketed cable. THe 4th wire wasn't often seen until the late 
50's in C&P territory at least.
Tract housing in the 50's was prewired with multiple pair cables, 
frquently in a loop, but the pre wire cost was born by the builder, so 
not all reeoms or even all bedrooms were prewired in the lower cost 
homes. Often a Panel phone box with blank plate was installed in the 
kitchen, and when service was later ordered the blank was replaced with 
a panel phone. Later in the 60's a standard wall phone was installed on 
the blank plate. Panel phones had a fiarly short life, as did the 
retractible handset cords. The D.C. area apartment houses were mostly 
prewired with panel phone boxes, secreterial service cordboards, and two 
line panel phones.
The only 4 wire service outside of some military uses were for a few 
private line services. I have a small binder of 4 wire facilities used 
in the D.C. area, but little clue as to their applications

But I digress
Frequently


John Novack