Oof. New plan! (Patreon update)

Love your channel! Do you have displays behind the shelving on your set? I've never noticed the background change before. BTW - If Wyndott (I've always seen it spelled "Wyandotte," so not sure if it's a misspelling on that label or if it's referring to a different town) is referring to Wyandotte, MI, it's pronounced "Wine-dot"

Ian Clanton-Thuon

IIRC they are flat screen TV's just showing slideshows. in most videos he keeps them on the same pic so they seem like static artwork.

nobody

From old TV shows from the time, a whole block would pool their money and get a party line installed. This means 3-4 (or more) houses would share one phone line - and thus one subscriber number. So I'm guessing that sometimes you would get your friend's neighbor if you were calling your friend. The rotary speed meant higher numbers took much longer to dial, and were thus much less popular. So places like NYC got low area code numbers like 212, while remote Hawaii got 808, which took almost as long to dial as to fly there.

Stephen Gillie

Will look forward to the rotary telephone video when it happens.

Arthur Robillard

Thanks for sharing! Most, if not all, YouTubers I support on Patreon are also not a set schedule. Thank you for taking the time to produce quality over quantity, and cutting your losses on something that isn't quite working out. Stay safe!

Dre

I kind of disagree. The youtube app makes it super easy for people to click on some other video if the current one isn't paced for full entertainment value. I'm not saying it's better to talk faster, but he will likely retain more viewers and get better stats from YT if he avoids pauses and breaks. In contrast, other platforms (twitch streaming) seem to be okay with the presenters just getting up and leaving to answer the door or visit the bathroom. What a weird time we are living in.

nobody

Hi, it is great to hear you speaking more freely in this video compared to some of the scripted teleprompter videos. It is a lot nicer to listen when you make more breaks and more comfortable to watch when you are not constantly looking into the camera. Maby you could consider some of these aspects more in your regular videos. Keep up your great work, amazing how the channel has grown!

From Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans - he rushed out to the phone, and he dialed: DANton-ten-six - "Nurse,” he said, “it's an appendix!”

Mantle technology was the ultimate combustion lighting technology before everything went electric. It was used on lanterns as well as gas lighting in the city. It's still used in Boston, where certain parts of the city still have gas street lighting. I'm not old enough to remember gas lighting, but I am old enough to remember growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, where you were either PLeasant or SWift. (We were PLeasant.)

Craig Brickey

Aw, man, I think the "history of the US phone system" would make an awesome series, a'la the TV series. (Also, I used named-exchange dialing when I was a kid in the 70s... Mayfair-3! Dialing within your exchange you could elide the first 2 digits ... so all calls in-town was just 3-xxxx.)

Jason Thorpe

the changing backgrounds, while attractive, are visually distracting to me (I'm easily dis...squirrel!) I'd rather they change slowly over time or between cuts?

Sierra Mistystep

My family actually used kerosene lanterns around the house during the 90's. We had one Aladdin lamp for the main light source in the living room. We didn't have electricity at our house. The irony is that my dad had a business repairing electronics. We used deep cycle batteries to run a 12 volt tv. He also pulled the rectifier out of a Nintendo so it would run off of strait DC. (He probably could have kept the rectifier in, but I digress) Anyways, we had a bad storm once where everyone else lost power, but we were just fine because we never had it lol.

I would love to watch an excruciatingly-detailed ten part series about telephones, fwiw.

Karl Voelker

I don't suppose you have a Geiger counter lying around? Mantles tend to be doped with soluble thorium and cerium salts. They're not particularly radioactive as they only kick out alpha particles, but it could make for a cool demo.

Mike Richards

I remember as a kid my dad had a Coleman lantern (circa 1985) for camping trips that had a "mantle" similar to that. It was similarly finicky and would shatter if you looked at it sternly.

Ray Everett

Here in France we had named exchanges before rotary dials. You would call the lady operator (there were only ladies at the time because their voices soothed angry male callers) and tell her "connect me to Balzac 22" and she would use her switchboard to reach the "Balzac" exchange and the operator there would connect you to subscriber 22 on that exchange.

The UK used letter codes for exchanges for a while. Like all these things, it worked for a while, and sometimes still holds true, but it didn't last long. http://rhaworth.net/phreak/tenp_uk.php

David Rickard

Just because they didn’t answer “Braitewaite 006” doesn’t mean there weren’t more than 9 phones :-)

Lars Jacobsen

We had letters on our phones here in Denmark, Europe as well, and the exchanges had two-character names. So for instance, I grew up in the town of “GEntofte”, so you would dial “33”, the operator would say “Gentofte”, and you would say “5994” and get someone in our house on the line. Or not. Or you would hear a voice saying “Optaget” (= busy). The letters were laid out differently than in the US. 1 was “C”, 2 was “ABD”, 3 was “EFG” and 9 was the special Danish letters “ÆØ”. 0 did not have any letters because it was reserved for special services with numbers starting with “00” (and of course also numbers containing zeroes). For instance, “0055” was the speaking clock, others gave you the news or the weather forecast, and “000” was the emergency services. There was no speed dialing, so you would typically know peoples phone numbers by memory. I wonder how many of us do that today. I certainly don’t :-)

Lars Jacobsen

If you think the 60 watt output from an Aladdin lamp is impressive, then check out the German made Petromax lamp. It is a high-pressure kerosene lamp that outputs 400 watts of light. It operates on the same principle, but instead of a wick it burns kerosene vapors. Here is a link to the Petromax website: https://www.petromax-shop.de/petromax_en/petromax-petroleumleuchte-hk500-829-chrom.html I found several Youtube videos that show you how to light them (a pretty laborious task) and the amount of light they produce, which is really quite astounding.

Lars Jacobsen

How are you doing the changing background? I thought these were edgelit paintings behind glass.

This is great, love having your pre-release discussion videos here getting people involved in your process. Great material, I think you could easily pull of a whole series of videos just related to the phone, how it works, open them up, the phone manual/automatic switchboards, etc etc. And thanks for the lamp video also, my father used to have one "storm lamp" that was closed from the top with just some small air vents, and certainly brigther than a 60W.. but with the same light-producing setup inside.. just never saw how it was operated, so this was exciting for me :)

Jonas

I remember visiting my grandma’s house when i was a kid and she had an old phone with the number written in the center of the dial. It was 12. She literally had the twelfth phone in her town.

nobody

They are called Hurricane lamps because they are supposed to stay lit in a hurricane wind. I have had an Aladdin lamp just like yours, except blue for 18 years. Be sure to keep fresh kerosene in it, won't burn properly if it has been in there about a year. Also not good outside, the slightest breeze will mess with it. O, yes the Aladdin lamp puts out 2800 BTU of heat, so very nice aux heat source in a blizzard power outage.

Paul Malloy

Here's an explainer on the phone numbering system in Germany by the YouTuber Rewboss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWww_3g1iNA If after watching this you are more confused than before, you're not alone.

Mark Hesse

I assumed it was because they're used to light your home when a hurricane knocks out power.

Mike Chimeri

I have read that huricane lanterns are named like that simply because they can resist to wind...

joseph

I also remember when Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) started. It's where we got area codes in the US. Our phone (ITT, not AT&T/Western Electric) had a DDD code of 815 (Chicago suburbs). It used to be that all DDD codes had a zero or a one as the middle digit. The '1' for long distance (or DDD prefix) turned into the US' country code. (+1).

Mike Bird

I remember seeing old British movies and TV series where'd they'd answer the phone with a greeting like "Braithewaite 6". Yes, there were less than 10 phones in that area. Usually doctors, vets, and politicians.

Mike Bird

We used to have letters on my British rotary phone when I grew up. But we never had a need for them. Very helpful about scheduling for videos. I drive myself on to get a video done every 10 days, and maybe that's too much pressure I'm putting on myself.

Big Car

Creativity ebbs and flows. Just go with your instincts about when to work and when to take a break. As for phone dial letters, they were in still use in London the late 1950s and early 1960s when I was growing up. One of my uncle's was near an exchange called Prospect, so it was probably P, R, O, followed by a number. Perhaps when you are ready to research the Strowger story, you might look into that tale about the rival undertakers' businesses, where, it has been reported, one of the owner's wives worked at the plug and cord exchange. Guess who got more business, until the uniselector was invented? Apocryphal? I'm not sure.

Peter Bryenton

Not long ago I saw a video (on YouTube I think) from an American teenage girl being confronted with a rotary dial telephone, she really had no clue how to operate it and was very shocked that you had to leave it home, very funny to see ;-). Now I'm feeling old, knowing that I grew up with them... (but maybe they stayed a bit longer in the Netherlands than in the US) Those lamps are cool, I know the cold-blasts very well, as we used them on holidays in our childhood and my father actually collected them for some time, the smell is typical, but I don't hate it, probably because it reminds me of holidays ;-). I never knew that oil lamps existed with a mantle (I know it from gas lamps), seems very useful, if you don't have electricity. Let's see how my cold-blast is working, it had some troubles last time I tried it, maybe I should just buy a new one. I'm looking forward to your dish-washer video, I love mine ;-)

MrHammond

I'm in the rail as a day job, and it actually wasn't that long ago (2010's!) that we still had working hand crank and telegraph systems in operation. The little door would flip down from a catch at the other signal post. I'll grab some photos and direct message ya.

Anton

Thanks for the little outtake, I love seeing the ad-hoc stuff. In NZ it was a little odd as we had 0 being 10 pulses, 9 being 1 pulse and so on. The numbers on our dials were actually backwards as the mechanics was the same internally. And back in my home country (NZ) I have a crossbar, SxS ", "Strowger" and heaps of other parts and phones I could have actually filmed for you, bit sadly COVID killed that idea. Interesting re the lamps, we had a hurricane lantern at home for blackouts (which never got used, we just used candles and the dolphin torch) I've only used kerosene ones which were pressure lanterns with the mantle (s) and they were surprisingly bright. A very ingeneous method of operation where a tube is heated by the flame and then turns into a consistent gas. Search for Coleman camp pressure stove 425 for the one I had with the tube that tavels across the burner for vaporisation.

Anton

I am old enough to remember using dial phones ONLY. We got into push button phones around 1961. The "1" on the phone dial has no letters because in the days before direct distance disling, the "1" was the entry digit to phone company options. 113 was directory assistance or information as we called it. 114 was a recorded time announcement. ("At the tone the time will be 9, 13, am.") There were other numbers starting with "1" that we didn't know about as they were for phone maintenance technicians who were working out in the field. Then when we got direct distance dialing, the "1" was the access to entering the area code as you said. Aw, those were the days.

Allen Boogaard

My old phone number when I was a kid used to be Castle 8 5157 (long before I was born). The nearest Big City had a number of exchanges, each one began with Windsor (Windsor 1, Windsor 6, Windsor 7, et cetera).

Brendan Meteer

Regarding phones and letters on the dial, in Denmark (or at least in the capital area) we had letters on the dial during the 20's to 70's, but differently coded than the US: 1 C (central), 2 ABD, 3 EFG, 4 HIK, 5 LMN, 6 OPR, 7 STU, 8 VXY and 9 ÆØ. They were used for exchange names, but that was before my time (the last exchange of that type was closed in 1978) although in my childhood home we had a model F-68 (from 1968) with letters (see http://mini.ptt-museum.dk/telefonmuseet/ ).

Søren Møller

I hope you have a CO detector, watching that Aladdin continuing to burn in your basement studio is giving me the creeps.

Kevin Tessner

I think the phone concept is kind of begging to turn into a "history of telephony" series tbh

GayCoonie

We had phone numbers with letters in Denmark as well - and of course letters on the dial, though they differed from yours. The number tag on my grandparents' state telco-owned phone still said 'SØ 81 83' when I was a kid in the 70s, even though the central ID was changed when it went automatic in the mid-60s. My own landline of yore (bye, ADSL!) would have been 'ÆG 28 85', so I have that on my now completely ornamental rotary phone.

Oscar Røhling

The Collar that has 3 arms to hold a shade and a not a lot. If you look at a real railroad lanterns, you will see what you have is JUNK.

You need a wick trimmer, you put it on and rotate it, with the wick just starting to be high enough to touch it, I assume you have new mantles, I still have some that are radioactive, you know they only become fragile after you burn them, just like a coleman lantern. They are great for power outages, we have about 10, some 100 year old, and some like yours. If the wick is trimmed correctly, you should get about 100 watts, any high spots will give you the soot, black spots on the mantle, use a wick trimmer, all you want to take of si the charred edge . Sorry about the typing but I'v got the THING ! Dam

I worked at Gannet Newspapers, they would "Lock" the rotor at night, so we could not make any calls. Then they Removed the rotor. Don't think they ever figured out you just need to pulse the hangup buttons, Like Click Click Click (wait a second) Click Click, (wait a second) Click Click Click Click. That would dial 3 2 4 (or for tho operator) just click 10 times.

On the subject of phones, I'm old enough (and from a somewhat backward rural area) to remember the predecessor to the rotary dial system. Our small East Texas town had a manual plugboard exchange. To place a call, I would crank the magneto to signal the operator; Mary Lou (I swear I'm not making that up!) would say "Number Please", and I would reply "67F11" to talk to my grandmother. Mary Lou would plug into jack 67 and press the "ring" toggle about 3 seconds, then pause and press it again for about 1 second (the "F11" part of the party line number) and wait for Mamaw Babb to pick up. If that didn't happen in a reasonable time she would repeat the ring sequence. Mary Lou's son Kenny was in the same grade as I and I got to watch this happen when I'd go visit him.

HarveyB

I really enjoyed this one Alex! I've never seen an Aladdin burn before so it was a treat to see how they are lit. My brother in law collects them and I now have to get him aside and learn more!

HarveyB

If you do do a a video on the history of lighting you might want to look up the Carbide lamp. A interesting rabbit hole to go down.

The Duke of Earl

North American Numbering Plan. Which covered the USA, Canada, and a few smaller nearby countries/territories. My guess is they all had a similar exchange system, etc. At least in the last 50 years or so. Ewen

Ewen McNeill

Love using those mantle lanterns when camping; they're so bright! Haven't used a kerosene one though, only those "camping gas" isopropane/butane ones, but same idea with the mantle incandescing.

Kay Ohtie

You really should get a couple of center draft round burners. There are a couple of styles, with open center og with a mushroom shaped flame spreader that greatly increases the light output. The 14''' (open) and 15'''/16''' (flame spreader) use the same wick so they would be nice for comparison. The ones with flame spreader are the brightest you can get without a mantle, and are very good for lighting a whole room. Not as bright as an aladdin, but a lot simpler to use, less picky on fuel, cheaper consumables, and needs much less attention while in use. I get power outages several times every winter, so I have some kerosene lamps for backup. The aladdin is too fiddely so i only use it if i really need the light output, but a couple of 15''' lamps (one is vintage (1900-1910ish) light the kitchen and living room, with 14''' lamps for reading and lighting smaller rooms. The whole range from 8''' up to 20''' is still made by a family company in France, there is a "how it's made" about them. As for the safety aspect: the aladdins can flare up and shoot flames out the chimney if left unattended, but the other types are really very safe. There is a risk of fire if they are nocked over or placed too close to a ceiling, but you can get a metal "hat" for the chimney to avoid the latter, and the first should be obvious to avoid. Electric lamps also start fires if knocked over so... Also, if the aladdin was bought new it should have come with a wick cleaner to trim it, if its missing then get one as they are the only way to get the wick even.

Thor Syvertsen

New Zealand had letters on their old phones, but we never used them to denote region / exchange / etc, at least, phone users didn't. I think they were just a hold over from whoever made our phones that we imported, so the letters were only every used for 0800 / 0900 / business numbers, because as you mentioned, you could spell out the number. I'm also a much bigger fan of this talking style than I am your scripted / acted sequences, if I'm being honest, not sure if that helps you.

Leigh Beattie

Did you know that Den Haan Rotterdam still makes a standard oil lamp (non-pressurized, no-mantle) with a 3.5" woven wick (turned in a circle). They have 3-4 lamp model using that style of burner. https://www.dhr.nl/dhr-decorative/products/spare-parts/burner-20-ideal

The main cities in the UK, London, Birmingham etc used letters for local exchanges. Most phones outside those areas didn't have letters - but they were certainly around the 1960s. We had a dial telephone at home and I mostly dialled three digit local numbers. From outside the village, I only needed five numbers. I've been around a few telephone exchanges in my career and it's amazing how much of the old equipment is still in place. You might find your telephone company would give you a tour?

Daniel Andrews

Thanks for the video! I'm definitely looking forward to the telephone video; I've always wondered how the old systems worked. Funny note: Do you remember that cordless phones used to come with a pulse-tone switch in case you didn't have tone based circuits yet? My grandma refused to pay the tone fee so she had to use the pulse function. It was so slow dialing a number! (Circa '87, Bartlesville, OK)

I think it's safe to assume oil/pitch/fat burning was before candles as the oldest evidence is a few thousand years before candle evidence. The earliest was just string/rope in a saucer of liquid. Like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_lamp#/media/File:DiwaliOilLampCrop.JPG

Canada did use the Bell system for exchange numbers, by the way :)

Ian Spence

I would wager the decision to use a word as a component of the exchange is the result of tons of Bell Labs R&D. They did copious research dealing with the challenge of getting humans to memorize a collection of digits, which contributed to the 3-3-4 pattern. I seem to remember this being covered in a history of technology journal; will see if I can dig it up.

drewbot

It's a brand new mantle so I'm gonna imagine it's the same sort of thing that Coleman uses. I shared a picture of the lamp on Twitter and loads of people were asking about Thorium - truthfully I did now know that was ever a component of them!

Technology Connections

I had planned to use footage from some of AT&T's archival films, but since I committed to shelving the project I've considered going to a telecommunications museum at some point and seeing what I can arrange!

Technology Connections

I didn't realize that Aladdin lamps was the same company that made the Aladdin thermos and lunchboxes as well. That logo was instantly recognizable.

Mark Krenz

Is that mantle radioactive like that old mantles? Or have they shifted to yttrium rather than thorium?

AuroranFilms

The hair is highly approved! 😆

Bill R Tomison

do you need footage of old rotary dial switching (what happens back at the phone center)? We have a nearby historical museum that I might be able to get footage.

Brian Miller

Perfect, just as I was running out of entertainment for the evening.