Enduring anachronisms

[Dr Hoo]

I'm surprised anybody still has a landline. What are they for apart from receiving spam calls on?

I moved out of my childhood home at 18 nearly 2 decades ago and never even thought about having a landline phone and there hasn't been a single occasion where having one would have been even remotely handy. An utterly pointless waste of money.

You obviously don’t live in a deep rural area like the Peak District, in a stone house with small windows and walls two feet thick, located in a deep dale where the rocks are high in lead content.
Who needs a Faraday cage?

 

[DelW]

Another one - the reasonably standard sign for an EV charging point which has the front end of something like an Austin 1100 with a massive 3 pin plug.View attachment 206639

I've always thought of that as being a Ford 100e, in whichever version had the three horizontal bars grille, as here:

Ford Anglia 100E 1953-1959 24.6.2018 2102

Ford England . Classics in Bleienbach Schweiz / Switzerland

www.flickr.com

(Link to a photo by "Elmar" on Flickr)

 

[CharlieSpotted]

The phrase "You wait ages for a bus and three turn-up at once". This may have been true in the 1970s when bus-bunching was an issue (not helped by some drivers holding-back until they had a convoy!) but is surely an anachronism now. Mainly expressed by non-bus-users attempting to be clever/funny I suspect.

This definitely can still be true - it happens on the relatively high-frequency bus route that runs past my gaff - it's not massively unusual that if you've waited a while you can see two or three come down the road nose-to-tail!

 

[The exile]

The phrase "You wait ages for a bus and three turn-up at once". This may have been true in the 1970s when bus-bunching was an issue (not helped by some drivers holding-back until they had a convoy!) but is surely an anachronism now. Mainly expressed by non-bus-users attempting to be clever/funny I suspect.

Not here in Bath it isn’t. It is not unknown in the afternoon peak for three of the four buses on route 2 to arrive in near-enough convoy. Never seen all four in convoy.

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I'm surprised anybody still has a landline. What are they for apart from receiving spam calls on?

I moved out of my childhood home at 18 nearly 2 decades ago and never even thought about having a landline phone and there hasn't been a single occasion where having one would have been even remotely handy. An utterly pointless waste of money.

Various medical monitors work via the landline.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm surprised anybody still has a landline. What are they for apart from receiving spam calls on?

Some internet providers require a BT landline.

 

[GordonT]

Judges, barristers etc. being required to wear horsehair (or lighter synthetic) wigs in court.

 

[Cross City]

Various medical monitors work via the landline.

Some internet providers require a BT landline.

I meant as in actually having a phone plugged into it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2026 ==

You obviously don’t live in a deep rural area like the Peak District, in a stone house with small windows and walls two feet thick, located in a deep dale where the rocks are high in lead content.
Who needs a Faraday cage?

Even if I did even cheap mobile phones now have wifi calling where you can use your broadband connection to take and make calls where you don't have a phone signal.

 

[The exile]

I meant as in actually having a phone plugged into it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2026 ==


Even if I did even cheap mobile phones now have wifi calling where you can use your broadband connection to take and make calls where you don't have a phone signal.

If you need a landline for a medical monitor you might as well have a phone attached to it. It can’t be a waste of money (if you already have the phone) because it effectively costs nothing.
The other reason I have it is that I am at times the contact number for a group I belong to. None of the contacts will ever be urgent, so I don’t want them disturbing me at work. Any calls when I’m out go to the answerphone and I can deal with them in my own time without them getting in the way of my calls.

 

[contrex]

Some example of anachronisitic imagery
A 3.5" floppy disc as the save icon in numerous software packages
A steam loco on the UK road sign for an ungated level crossing
The handset of a 1960s/70s style landline phone used as the phone icon on modern smartphones

Cameras on road signs that look like my dad's Agfa Isolette




== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2026 ==

• The speed/enforcement camera sign on roads being a Victorian bellows camera

I see you beat me to that; my dad's old Agfa which is sitting on my bookshelf was made in 1957.

 

[sor]

Some internet providers require a BT landline.

This hasn't been the case for years now, though some people may still be paying for one without knowing it. Also worth noting that very few providers (other than BT themselves) required a *BT* landline even back then. Sky, TalkTalk, etc all supplied their own phone service using their own exchange equipment and they just rented the copper line from Openreach. This also means they don't have to adhere to Openreach's 2027 deadline.

 

[gg1]

I meant as in actually having a phone plugged into it.

I can think of one more advantage, though a niche one only a minority of people would be bothered about.

You can screen calls by letting them go to answerphone and pick up if it's someone you want to speak to. With a mobile you have to wait for them to leave the full message then call them back.

 

[contrex]

This hasn't been the case for years now, though some people may still be paying for one without knowing it. Also worth noting that very few providers (other than BT themselves) required a *BT* landline even back then. Sky, TalkTalk, etc all supplied their own phone service using their own exchange equipment and they just rented the copper line from Openreach. This also means they don't have to adhere to Openreach's 2027 deadline.

The UK’s copper-based PSTN and ADSL network will be switched off on 31 January 2027.

 

[Oxfordblues]

I don't know if it's an anachronism or just plain annoying, but all this talk about Andy Burnham being "handed the keys to No.10 Downing Street". If you look carefully there is no lock on the door of No.10. There are no "keys". It's all a nonsense!

 

[The exile]

I don't know if it's an anachronism or just plain annoying, but all this talk about Andy Burnham being "handed the keys to No.10 Downing Street". If you look carefully there is no lock on the door of No.10. There are no "keys". It's all a nonsense!

Indeed - there is no way of opening the door from outside.

 

[Cross City]

I can think of one more advantage, though a niche one only a minority of people would be bothered about.

You can screen calls by letting them go to answerphone and pick up if it's someone you want to speak to. With a mobile you have to wait for them to leave the full message then call them back.

This has been possible on at least the mobile phone I own for years

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2026 ==

Cameras on road signs that look like my dad's Agfa Isolette

View attachment 206692
View attachment 206693

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jun 2026 ==


I see you beat me to that; my dad's old Agfa which is sitting on my bookshelf was made in 1957.

You're correct, but I like the story that speed camera signage actually depicts a police speed radar facing towards you. The bit which looks like bellows is a fixing mount for attaching them to doors.

It's plausible at least:

 

[GraphitProjekt]

Also worth noting that very few providers (other than BT themselves) required a *BT* landline even back then. Sky, TalkTalk, etc all supplied their own phone service using their own exchange equipment and they just rented the copper line from Openreach.

How does this work? Did those providers have to install their own equipment within and alongside BT stuff in every exchange throughout the country?

 

[Mr. SW]

The icon for e-mail being a paper envelope and the icon for "Send" being a paper dart.

Don't forget the use of an arrow meaning "Go That Way".

 

[contrex]

I've always thought of that as being a Ford 100e, in whichever version had the three horizontal bars grille, as here:

Ford Anglia 100E 1953-1959 24.6.2018 2102

Ford England . Classics in Bleienbach Schweiz / Switzerland

www.flickr.com

(Link to a photo by "Elmar" on Flickr)

The three-bar grille was from introduction in 1953 to 1957; my dad had the later 1957 to 1959 'lattice' grille.

 

[gg1]

This has been possible on at least the mobile phone I own for years

Wasn't aware that was possible on any mobile, though not something I've ever looked into as it's not a feature I'm overly bothered about.

How does it work? When you get an incoming call, do you get an option to redirect to voicemail and listen in as the person leaves the message?

 

[contrex]

How does this work? Did those providers have to install their own equipment within and alongside BT stuff in every exchange throughout the country?

I think they were/are called DSLAMs.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

This hasn't been the case for years now, though some people may still be paying for one without knowing it. Also worth noting that very few providers (other than BT themselves) required a *BT* landline even back then. Sky, TalkTalk, etc all supplied their own phone service using their own exchange equipment and they just rented the copper line from Openreach. This also means they don't have to adhere to Openreach's 2027 deadline.

Plusnet still do...

 

[GraphitProjekt]

I think they were/are called DSLAMs.

I think a DSLAM is the kind of equipment we're talking about for sure: for seperating analogue voice from broadband data, modulating the data onto a different medium and presumably doing some kind of packet routing. But I'm more curious about the scale of physical infrastructure belonging to those third party providers. Did they lay a backhaul network between thousands of exchanges?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I don't know if it's an anachronism or just plain annoying, but all this talk about Andy Burnham being "handed the keys to No.10 Downing Street". If you look carefully there is no lock on the door of No.10. There are no "keys". It's all a nonsense!

Isn't there another more discreet entrance round the back of No. 10 Downing Street, which may, or may not, still have keys in use?

 

[sor]

The UK’s copper-based PSTN and ADSL network will be switched off on 31 January 2027.

What I said was accurate. This deadline affects Openreach PSTN services only, mostly BT/EE/Plusnet customers as well as some smaller providers who would resell it. There is no singular PSTN or ADSL network. In practice the industry is trying to shift all customers over to "digital voice" because a) it's cheaper to provide and b) it is necessary for customers who switch to full fibre.

In a small number of cases (such as for vulnerable customers without broadband), they will move to a "pre digital phone line" which uses new equipment in the exchange but otherwise behaves the same as it always did.

BT Wholesale ADSL, LLU (Sky/TalkTalk/etc) and other copper exchange based services are totally unaffected. Openreach is pursuing a totally separate programme to close around 4500 of their 5500 exchanges which will set an eventual end date for these services

How does this work? Did those providers have to install their own equipment within and alongside BT stuff in every exchange throughout the country?

I think a DSLAM is the kind of equipment we're talking about for sure: for seprating analogue voice from broadband data, modulating the data onto a different medium and presumably doing some kind of packet routing. But I'm more curious about the scale of physical infrastructure belonging to those third party providers. Did they lay a backhaul network between thousands of exchanges?

Exactly that. They rent space in the exchange and then rent copper lines from Openreach for each customer they serve. In most cases the DSLAMs also provided the phone service as well. For "fibre to the cabinet" they'd still use their exchange equipment for the phone service and pay Openreach to provide the broadband service.

Plusnet still do...

Openreach stopped selling new PSTN services in 2023, and as such new customers would be directed to take broadband only. Plusnet doesn't offer a "digital voice" service like BT and EE do. Customers who wanted to keep a landline service would have had to go with another provider.

Anyway - it feels like we're getting a bit off topic here

 

[Cross City]

Wasn't aware that was possible on any mobile, though not something I've ever looked into as it's not a feature I'm overly bothered about.

How does it work? When you get an incoming call, do you get an option to redirect to voicemail and listen in as the person leaves the message?

Not quite, it's call screening rather than voicemail. Think of it like a receptionist.

I have this turned on for every number not in my contacts list, so when an unknown number calls my phone tells them to say who they are and what they're calling for. I can see what they're saying in real time with text appearing on my screen as they speak. If I want to pick the call up I can, if not I just leave it and it then throws them over to voicemail.

 

[gg1]

Not quite, it's call screening rather than voicemail. Think of it like a receptionist.

I have this turned on for every number not in my contacts list, so when an unknown number calls my phone tells them to say who they are and what they're calling for. I can see what they're saying in real time with text appearing on my screen as they speak. If I want to pick the call up I can, if not I just leave it and it then throws them over to voicemail.

Ah okay, that makes more sense, my sister has something similar on her landline.

 

[quantinghome]

The phrase "You wait ages for a bus and three turn-up at once". This may have been true in the 1970s when bus-bunching was an issue (not helped by some drivers holding-back until they had a convoy!) but is surely an anachronism now. Mainly expressed by non-bus-users attempting to be clever/funny I suspect.

There are anachronistic expressions going back centuries which we still use today, particularly ones which originated in the navy - batten down the hatches, three sheets to the wind, the bitter end etc. There's no link whatsoever to their original use, but they've just stuck in the language. I suspect 'three buses at once' will do the same.

 

[simonw]

Plusnet still do...

Plusnet is owned BT

 

[SargeNpton]

The icon for e-mail being a paper envelope and the icon for "Send" being a paper dart.

Don't forget the use of an arrow meaning "Go That Way".

And the "C.C." field being an abbreviation for carbon copy.

 

[GordonT]

Address "quirks" arising from the different historical silos of local authority/county boundaries, Royal Mail postal/postcode boundaries, Ofcom's dialling codes etc.
Kincardine (Fife) is within the local authority boundary of Fife Council. Its postal address is Kincardine, ALLOA. Alloa is within the local authority boundary of Clackmannanshire Council. Kincardine comes under the Falkirk postcode of FK10. Falkirk is within the local authority boundary of the unitary authority of Falkirk Council and geographically is within Stirlingshire. The dialling code for Kincardine is the same as Alloa (01259).