Scottish Post Office directories

The rise of telephones

In 1867 Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell got his electromagnetic telephone patented by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Phone numbers listed from 1880s

This significant step in 19th-century technical and social history can be traced in the Post Office directories, beginning in the mid-1880s.

They would for example be included in advertisements such as the one for Thornton Currie & Co in the 'West coast directory' for 1883-1884.

The 'Post Office Edinburgh and Leith directory' for 1885-1886 was the city's first to include telephone numbers in its general directory. They were recorded as 'telephone exchange' numbers, only being three digits long and not including an area code.

For Aberdeen, the first Post Office directory to include telephone numbers was issued in 1893. Interestingly, already by then telephones were not only available to wealthy people or institutions. They were also used by regular businesses such as woollen manufacturers or clothiers and drapers.

Phone charges

Some Post Office directories would give specific information relating to telephones, such as the charges for phone calls which would depend on the duration as well as the distance of the call.

The 'Dumfries and district Post Office directory' for 1911-1912 even includes instructions stating that each call would be limited to three minutes, or six when paid upfront at the Call Office.

 

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