Unexpected Garage Sale Find

**Detroit Signal** · September-30-11, 11:23 AM

1958 Detroit Yellow Pages with Hardcover payphone binder in
PRISTINE condition!!
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If anyone wants a lookup for a business, just send me a PM. I'll be happy to do it.

**CountrySquire** · September-30-11, 02:06 PM

Nice!!! What did you have to give for it? I have two Detroit Phone Books, one is a 1950, the other is a 1981. I got the '50 at an Antique Shop for $20, and the '81 at an Estate Sale for $1.

**Detwa** · September-30-11, 02:10 PM

That is cool!

**detroittrader** · September-30-11, 02:40 PM

I'm really digging that rotary phone in the picture!

**Detroit Signal** · September-30-11, 03:06 PM

$15 is what I paid. This book is awesome. It shows just how much the job world has changed around Detroit. The phone works, but I can't dial out now that we have digital phone service.

**Philbo** · September-30-11, 10:15 PM

Nice find ! I am looking for a 1967 Detroit yellow pages if anybody finds one.

**Django** · September-30-11, 11:21 PM

I remember going to Grandmas house in Detroit as a kid in the 70s when Detroit had a population. I would sit on the phone book so I could sit high enough at the table to see my food on the plate.

**jtf1972** · October-01-11, 01:09 AM

Nice '58! I have a '59 I got off ebay a while back...

Originally Posted by CountrySquire

I have two Detroit Phone Books, one is a 1950,

Mind looking up a couple grandfathers for me? They both moved during the 50's, so my '59 book has them listed at the addresses & numbers that I knew as a kid. It's be interesting to know their info from 61 years ago!

**Bigb23** · October-01-11, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by Detroit Signal

$15 is what I paid. This book is awesome. It shows just how much the job world has changed around Detroit. The phone works, but I can't dial out now that we have digital phone service.

I'm one of those people that kick themselves for selling something for $2 that goes for $10, 000 on Antique Roadshow.

**JBMcB** · October-01-11, 07:27 AM

That's pretty awesome. Notice there's no mention of Bell on the cover, 'cause there was just "the phone company."

**shovelhead** · October-01-11, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by Detroit Signal

$15 is what I paid. This book is awesome. It shows just how much the job world has changed around Detroit. The phone works, but I can't dial out now that we have digital phone service.

Detroit Signal,

Try www.dialgizmo.com for a solution to your dial phone's inability to call out.

This is a pulse [[dial) to tone [[touchtone) converter that plugs inline to your phone by modular connectors. There is another converter available from Old PhoneWorks in Chicago but he states his will not work with Uverse from AT&T.

You can contact dialgizmo online with specific questions on compatibility to your system. He does answer back in a timely manner.

One thing, he is in Australia, if you are uneasy dealing overseas FYI. He uses PayPal and the converters take about ten to fourteen days to arrive stateside.

I personally have two converters and can vouch for them working on Uverse.

If you have any questions PM me and I will try to help.

P.S., sweet Western Electric 302 you have there. Isn't outdated technology great?

**Jimaz** · October-01-11, 08:05 PM

FWIW, the technical term for touchtone is DTMF. There are radios that can detect, decode and display these numbers when intercepted from unsecured cordless phones. Credit card numbers have been stolen in this way. Be cautious.

Pulse dial brings back some fond memories. I once hacked into a Western Electric pulse dial phone. I tapped its switchhook circuit and wired it to an inconspicuous [[possibly illegal [[but harmless) at that time) jack beneath the phone. Unplugged, the phone worked normally. I could plug a wire into it that ran to the cassette relay in the back of my TRS-80 computer. I could control that relay with homebrew [[assembly language) software thereby getting my computer to relentlessly dial the phone for me. I tweeked that software until I had the fastest possible reliable demon dialer. It would attempt to call a local [[pre-internet) BBS repeatedly, as fast as reliably possible, until the modem detected a carrier signal from the BBS. When the carrier was detected the software would honk a horn audible throughout the house to inform me that my connection to the BBS was available. It was kind of steampunky but man, did it work well. Fastest dialer in the west!

At Apollo BBS, the author writes:

Besides, it was so popular that I wasn't the most regular user -- I could never get on.

Heh, I never had that problem there.

**Detroit Signal** · October-01-11, 08:52 PM

Thanks guys!!

**Carey** · October-01-11, 11:41 PM

Not long ago I was looking through a 1951 Detroit Yellow Pages. It certainly gives you a vivid picture of the flight of businesses from the city [[as if the empty buidings weren't enough). Dry cleaners, for instance: There were multiple pages of them, easily more than a couple of thousand. Bars, auto dealers, restaurants, drug store, hardware stores, meat markets...there were column after column of listings. I also was astounded to look at all the esoteric stuff -- dozens of companies that did things like repair industrial blowers and manufacture pulleys.

**CountrySquire** · October-03-11, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by jtf1972

Nice '58! I have a '59 I got off ebay a while back...

Mind looking up a couple grandfathers for me? They both moved during the 50's, so my '59 book has them listed at the addresses & numbers that I knew as a kid. It's be interesting to know their info from 61 years ago!

Sure! Send me a PM, I also have a '39 Polk Directory if that helps. The yellow pages would just list a business address. The polk would list people.