How were telephone bills calculated in pre-computer days?

Question

People have always received bills for their telephone at home, but how did the telephone company collect the necessary data (such as legnth of call and to which area) without the use of computers?

Answer 1

Basically what sosgez is saying,in plain English,it was like your domestic gas or electric meter and they were physically read by a human being.

Answer 2

as your man at the top says but they were called strowger exchanges and it was a disc that spun round, some lucky bugger had the job of taking a photo of a few cogs at once and sending off the film to be translated.

Answer 3

There was  an electromechanical counter attached to each line at the exchange.  Pulses caused the counter to move on - for international calls this would be quite quickly, and slower for STD and slower still for local calls.  Someone would come round and read them periodically.  These exchanges were by modern standards quite large and used the Strowger uniselectors - quite fun to watch them zipping up and down and round to make connections.

I went round a new exchange in around 1976, but was told it was all going to be replaced by System X in a few years. Then I moved to Hull, where System X was already installed - its a purely electronic system.