[487] in Humor
HUMOR: Grounding problems
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Fri Oct 7 18:38:25 1994
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 1994 18:35:08 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
From: lebzy@umich.edu
>From spage Mon Oct 3 08:53:17 1994
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 08:52:56 -0700
This annecdote excerpted from Syn-Aud-Con Newsletter, Vol4, No 3, April
1977.
AN UNUSUAL TELEPHONE SERVICE CALL
This story was related by Pat Routledge of Winnepeg, ONT about an
unusual telephone service call he handled while living in England.
It is common practice in England to signal a telephone subscriber by
signaling with 90 volts across one side of the two wire circuit and
ground (earth in England). When the subscriber answers the phone, it
switches to the two wire circuit for the conversation. This method allows
two parties on the same line to be signalled without disturbing each other.
This particular subscriber, an elderly lady with several pets called to
say that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and that
on the few occasions when it did manage to ring her dog always barked
first.
Torn between curiosity to see this psychic dog and a realization that
standard service techniques might not suffice in this case, Pat
proceeded to the scene. Climbing a nearby telephone pole and hooking in
his test set, he dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring.
He tried again. The dog barked loudly, followed by a ringing telephone.
Climbing down from the pole, Pat found:
a. Dog was tied to the telephone system's ground post via an iron
chain and collar
b. Dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current
c. After several jolts, the dog was urinating on ground and
barking
d. Wet ground now conducted and phone rang.
Which goes to prove that some grounding problems can be passed on.
