It was "invented" in 1877, two years after the telephone itself. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson, his assistant, were making intercity tests which required shouting into the primitive instrument. This annoyed their Boston landlady.
Do Payphones Still Exist? Do People Still Use Payphones? Yes, and Yes.
"The free pay phone is a powerful piece, the equivalent of an art-world bomb aimed at the web of private financial structures that profit from our 21st century need for telecommunicating with loved ones."
Weburbanist borrows a few pictures from the Payphone Project and other sources in this showcase of abandoned payphones.
Here is a payphone number and location I wish I had posted a long time ago. Evidently this payphone was used by a runaway to call her mother, who turned to the Internet hoping someone could offer more information about the payphone's exact location.
Manhattan payphone with phone number hand-written on its face: (212) 239-1242
Verizon has left its public telephones out to dry. These non-working Verizon payphones will still eat your money. Those that can't, like this one, will at least try.
Some people complain when their Galaxy Note is bigger than their face. Others complain when their smartphones outsmart them. Others are happy to have access to a phone that works, even a busted up payphone like this that has no cover on the earpiece.
Close-up of another non-working Verizon payphone on 42nd Street in Manhattan. June, 2012.
Picture of a Caribbean Island Payphone, with links to more.
A News-Press.com reporter eavesdrops on a payphone in Fort Myers, Florida, reporting on the content of the calls. The story also includes a map of Fort Myers payphone locations and some facts and figures about payphone usage today.
For some reason USA Today's June 10 story about the decline of payphones in the United States includes a photo of a man using a British Telephone phone booth.
Payphone trivia and phone booth pictures from Central California.
This is a photograph of 2 human beings using a public pay telephone (PPT) in New York City in the year 2012. (More said pictures to come, because we human beings still use payphones).
“The pay phone previously present at the Kum & Go at 14th and Pierce? Gone. The one on Pierce Street between Gordon Drive and Third Street? Kaput. “That Pierce Street phone was the one used by Linda Talbott, of Elk Point, S.D., the last time she used a pay phone. That came in the early…
Pacific Telemanagement Services (PTS) continues its acquisition of U.S. public pay telephone locations with the purchase of approximately 4000 payphones from FairPoint Communications.
Vector Media Payphone. Queens Boulevard. May, 2012.
El Paso, Texas. Across the street from Luby's. October, 2008
Dial 0. As in Zero. Null. Void. Nothing. Dial a non-number. Dial dial dial dial. Dial that 0. (Speaking of zero, speaking of death, speaking of the nothing that arises from nothing, I had some health scares the last 2-3 months. I hope you are doing better than all this. Blargh.)
Two human beings talking on the telephone. Midtown Manhattan
Rotary dial phone booths at the Florence Hotel. Missoula, Montana.
Picture of a payphone in Neuruppin, Brandenburg, Germany. June, 2007
CBC Radio's "All in a Day" follows up on the developing story of a potential 100% increase in the cost of payphone calls with a map of payphones in Ottawa. Each point on the map includes a photo of the phone booth or payphone. Pretty cool.
Canadians seem to take their payphones pretty seriously based on their online reactions to a proposal from Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to raise the cost of payphone calls by 100%. Watch this video from "The National", which aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Picture of a woman using the payphone outside the former Whitaker Street Saloon in this historic district of Savannah, Georgia.
Ironworks Dance Club. Thonotosassa, Florida. June, 2003. (813) 986-5309
Red-jacketed New York City man using a Titan payphone. February, 2012.
August, 2009: Picture of a partially melted telephone at Miss Lyndonville Diner, Lyndonville, Vermont.