#speaking clock

this is the second "speaking clock" - in the UK you used to be able to phone a certain number (when we were a kid it was 123) and a very posh woman's voice would say "at the third stroke, the time will be eleven, fifty-seven, and forty seconds" and then three beeps

the woman whose voice was recorded on that drum as the speaking clock was Pat Simmons

Peter Blegvad: I remember it as if it were yesterday... the 14th of February-- Valentine’s Day...

Peter Blegvad: That WAS yesterday.

Peter Blegvad: How time flies when your time has come! When you’re having so much FUN!

Peter Blegvad: Things are pretty grim for the rest of us, how come you--?

When the speaking clock was first launched calls to the service cost one penny from home. Today a call costs about 40 times that much. 10 things you might not know about the speaking clock.

There was a time when, in our particular area in the state of California, if I said I had “called popcorn!” any local would have known exactly what I meant, while anybody from far afield might be baffled as to what I was talking about. “POPCORN” spelled out on a phone dial pad translates to the phone number 767-2676, and if you dialed that number in northern California you would get the speaking…

Orange announces the end of the speaking clock after 89 years of career

It’s the end of an era and a feature launched in 1933. Indeed, Orange announces the removal of the speaking clock from July 1, 2022. This automated system made it possible to know the time exact in France by calling the paying number 3699. As Charles Aznavour said, this is a service that “those under 20 cannot know”. Since 1933, the French wishing to know the exact time in France could resort to…