eli5 how you could pick up a telephone and hear another conversation(not in the same house)

Question

when i was a kid you could pick up the landline and hit the call button and join whatever conversation was already happening. though i’m reading salems lot right now, and they mention picking up the phone and hearing a conversation from those i know are not in the same home. how did this work???

In: 0

Answer 1

It was called a party line. One line would have fed 5 families. Each family would have had a distinctive ring but you could listen to other conversations by picking up the phone when it wasn’t your ring.