Microsoft cordless phone

In the 1979s. the UK telephoens were still essentially a government monopoly. Everything had to be rentyed from the GPO, you couldn't do any mdoifications yourself [1]. Pkug-in telephones were very rare, most werre hardwired. If you are interested in finding out more about the wiring of subscriber equipment in the UK -- telephone schemantic,s how extensions were wired [2], etc, then do a goodle search for N diagram. And enjoy... [1] That's not to say it didn't occur :-) [2] Multiple phones opn a line were a bit odd. The speech circuitry was wired in paralel, the ringers (bells) in series. Evey extension scheme had a 'Plan' number -- Plan 4 is the one for plug-in telephones. Note that there are different versiosn of Plan 4 depending on whethr you rented one telephoen or morte than one. I guess if you decided ot rent a second telephoen on Paln 4, an engineer had ot come out and rewire all the sockets and the existing telephone. You were saying... :-) On the other hand, the Planphones (telephoens with swithcing to extensions, facilities to call exten sions, etc) are rather fun. Yes and no. It is not common, virtually everyone has a normal watt-hour meter that is read 4 times a year (or should be) and gets a bill shortly after. However, if the electricity company thinks you're a 'bad risk' and are likely to not pay the bill, they can install a prepaymetn meter. In the old days, that was something you put coilns in (often shillings, not pennies), nowadays it more likely you put money on a smartcard or similar at a local shop and use that to add credit ot the meter. That way the meter iteslf never contains coins, and they don't have to send soembody round to empty it (such people were attecked for the money they carried, and often scuh meters were used in less 'desirable' areas...) I can see why a scrap dealer would be likely to be judged a 'bad risk'... -tony