A telephone that answers,
In the early years of the XX Century, it was not very difficult obtaining a private line IF one had the money. It was not something that middle-income families could afford but certainly no problem at all for the owner of establishments like our Corrientes 348. In 1946, Juan Perón nationalized the industry and from that moment on the telephone company saw no need to expand its networks. So by the time the 50s, 60s and 70s rolled around some people had to wait for a whole decade to get a private connection. In the period under review, this was never the case.
- A pre-dial wall model from the mid 1910s
- A representation of a 1920s telephone operator.
- A "portable" pre-dial desk model from the early 1920s
Our tango-club received its service from the Juncal Central; but more on that at the proper place.
An item of interest in the use of the telephone in Buenos Aires is the way connections were requested of the operator prior to the auto-dial service. In the early 1900s, a person would call the operator and give the desired connection by first identifying the Central (e.g. Juncal, Corrales, Buen Orden) and then the four-digit number broken into pairs (e.g. twelve, twenty-four). In later decades, beginning in the 40s, telephone centrals were given two-digit identities and requests for connection developed into giving the central identity number (e.g. ninety-one) and followed by the four-digit connection number in individual numbers (no longer in pairs, e.g. two, seven, seven, five). Incidentally, this became a measure as to whether the caller was a porteño or a 'foráneo' i.e. a newcomer to Buenos Aires.