Party lines provided no privacy in communication. They were frequently used as a source of entertainment and gossip, as well as a means of quickly alerting entire neighbourhoods of emergencies such as fires, becoming a cultural fixture of rural areas for many decades.

What were old phones called?

Story of the Candlestick Telephone. The first consumer telephones were heavy wooden wall mounted hand cranked telephones. That changed in 1892 when Bell introduced the first upright desk top telephone called desk stand or candlestick telephone.

What does it mean to cross the floor in the House of Assembly?

Parliamentary parties usually vote as a team, with all party members voting the same way. A member of a parliamentary party who votes against their party in a division is said to have crossed the floor.

What was the first ever phone called?

Sound Telegraph 28 December 1871: Antonio Meucci files a patent caveat (No. 3353, a notice of intent to invent, but not a formal patent application) at the U.S. Patent Office for a device he named Sound Telegraph. 1872: Elisha Gray establishes Western Electric Manufacturing Company.