Subject: telephone cord on alien..
From: albert.dobyns@mwbbs.com (ALBERT DOBYNS)
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 95 01:15:00 -0500
Message-ID: <8B0804B.028E00089F.uuout@mwbbs.com>

I just thought I'd drop in and enter a few comments on the phone cord
attached to the wall phone in the Fox special on alien autopsy.

Back in 1950, we had a wall phone but I believe it had the standard
phone cord and not a coiled one.  I believe phone cords for that
era were composed of 2 or 4 insulated copper wire covered by a "tube"
made of rubber.  I think I have seen such cords with some sort of
woven fabric over the rubber cord, but I'm not certain.

The movie "UFO" made in 1956 shows a wall phone in a room where
several military people are looking at a radar scope.  This wall
phone does have a coiled cord BUT with what may be an important
difference:

it has been stretched enough that only portions of the cord are
still coiled.  This doesn't surprise me because the material used
probably isn't capable of returning to it original coiled shape.

Current coiled phone cables seem to have no difficulty returning
to a coiled shape.  The materials in modern phone cords has changed
considerably in the last 40 years that I can remember having phones.

When did the phone companies switch to modular connectors, jacks,
etc.?  Today's telephone are so much lighter than they were 40
years ago.  They come in a variety of shapes.  In the old days,
you got a black phone which was made of very durable parts.  I
suppose one place to check out phone company equipment is to go
to a museum.  The first color phone we got was in 1967.  I remember
the phone company charged extra for color phones.

OK, now that I've said all I know about old phones, what about the
large wall clock?
---
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