Telephone multiline signaling using common signal pair

An operator can rapidly and automatically produce coded electrical signals by manipulating mechanical thumb wheel switches so as to instruct a service center to connect any number of telephone lines to the console thus enabling the operator to listen and/or talk over several lines simultaneously. The system includes an on-site console having several mechanically operated thumb wheel switches to which the desired lines to be connected can be dialed in. Electrical coded signals are fed to a number of banks of line AND gates representing units, tens and hundreds, a group of channel gates, and a command gate. These signals are gated out in a controlled manner to an encoder which generates tones that are transmitted over a single line to a communication service center.