Dear LPG, 

I know that most of the people that read this site are over 65 and I also know that most people who read any web post may have never even noticed this particular fact of life, but because of the jobs I have done in the past this is, and has been, something that has puzzled me for years.

Back in the 1980s I started work as a GPO telephone operator and I remember the first day when I watched an experienced operator providing the early morning call services, as it was called back then.  I thought I would never get the hang of it but within a couple of months it became easy and part of that was because we did not have to see the telephone keypad to dial a number.  I suppose, like touch typists, we just knew where each key was and after 10 years of doing that job you will understand how automatically dialling a telephone number became to me.  Even when at home, I just knew where the numbers were.

When the telephone service became independent and the GPO conceded to the competition, early morning calls, like doctor’s transfers, X directory connections and all the other services that were once done by hand, became automatic and many of us operators became redundant. 

For a bit it felt like the end of an era, but I soon got another job and turned my hand to the role of becoming an accounts assistant with a publishing firm.  As you can imagine that involved using a calculator a lot, but it took me ages to stop making mistakes because of one really annoying factor that many people will not even be aware of.

I knew exactly where the numbers were and often continued to key them in without looking, but have you ever noticed that the keypads are different.  To this day, every now and then I get it wrong because of the up-side-downness of the two key pads.

 We all know that the calculating keypad came first and I found some interesting explanations for the subtle difference which, for all those who have had my experience or just wondered why, I thought it would be good to share.

Apparently the answer lies in the difference between 1 and 10. 

AJ, Lewisham.

AJ shared solutions found on the internet…

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