Different telephone switches (the big ones in the central offices) have different behavior for clearing the line when one party hangs up. I've heard that some switches wouldn't clear the line for tens of seconds when a called party hung up, and that those switches were common in the UK.
I personally recall people ocassionally being able to hang up one phone before picking up a different phone if they wanted to take the call in a diffent location in the house. Although, I don't remember it ever being very effective, over time (in my corner of the US), it became never effective, so you'd just leave the first phone off the hook and have to hang it up later.
I personally recall people ocassionally being able to hang up one phone before picking up a different phone if they wanted to take the call in a diffent location in the house. Although, I don't remember it ever being very effective, over time (in my corner of the US), it became never effective, so you'd just leave the first phone off the hook and have to hang it up later.