Old Irish Public Telephone, A & B Button.

For many years Irish Public Telephones were based on the British Public Phone system.
When you wanted to make a call you lifted the handle then you put in your money, and waited till someone at the other end answered. Then you pressed the A button. When you finished the call you pressed the B button to get you change if any. This last action occasioned the very ditinctive clicking noise of exactly seven second. In this video you will hear this sound some of us have not heard for over 35 years.
Ray McGovern who worked in the maintenance section of The Irish Public Service explains its fascinating history, in the Office of the Little Museum Dublin,30th March '13.

[@darrenfarrell-bn2cb]

Too much mechanical
And then pay
What we have now 2024 is instant

[@PaulClapham-e3d]

I have one of these phones, but it's locked &I can't get into the mechanism. Can you help me I would really appreciate it 2:32

[@jsmith498]

Very interesting. I knew of a guy in the 1990s that got 2 years in prison for drilling open dozens of public phone cash boxes.

[@raychester1609]

i think the gong was for the penny and the bell was for a sixpence and shilling, the shilling would hit the bell twice (double runway) and the sixpence would fall down after the first runway

[@elmont321]

hi brian
if you want to discuss this matter with by all mean contact ray at the little dublin museum. regards
elmont321

[@brianmanning2876]

When I was at UCD we used to "tap" these phones all the time by tapping the cradle. The number of taps corresponded to the number you wanted. 9, 0 and 1 were free. They eventually replaced them with a newer type that weren't tappable. Never paid for a call for years in the early 80's!

[@maryjomay2399]

I remember tapping the phone also. Never paid for a local call during the 80s lol