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AT&T Archives: Switchboards, Old and New (Bonus Edition)

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See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att...
Introduction by George Kupczak of the AT&T Archives and History Center
Switchboards, Old and New traces the development of voice switching methods from the first system that utilized the wires of a burglar alarm unit in Boston in 1877, to the "latest type" of switching in central offices, circa 1932.
Along the way, we get the evolution of the Operator as well. Originally teenage boys were hired as operators, but it was quickly noted that they were not ideal due to being rambunctious and prone to pranks. Emma and her sister Stella Nutt were the first female operators, hired in 1878. They started a tradition that continued to the 1970s, when equal hiring practices made it possible for men to become operators as well, again.
Switchboards started to be replaced by TSPS (Traffic Service Position System), starting in 1969. Voicemail trees, also called Interactive Voice Response, also replaced operators.
In 2000, there were fewer than 300,000 operators working in the U.S., most at the switchboards of large companies or hotels. That number continues to drop by the thousands every year.
Produced by Loucks and Norling Studios
Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

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19 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 328

@mattmonaghan5502 3 года назад

My grandmother was an operator during the 1920's and 30's in Chicago. The switchboard was so large the operators wore roller skates to get around.

@richdiscoveries 5 лет назад

He answers the phone just like me.. "hello, what do you want"!!

@AKATenn 4 года назад

must imagine it was the only way to get his point across on those crappy pre-vaccume tube, pre-semiconductor of any kind days....

@PointyTailofSatan 3 года назад

"Explain wave particle duality!"

@suzi7715 3 года назад

That's what I say to scammers before I call them out!!!

@allenjamesrooney 3 года назад

@@PointyTailofSatan I'm not allowed to discuss that at the dinner table. Too many arguments. Sometimes I wish we could see radio waves.

@MrAquinas1 3 года назад

I include (the hell) between what and do.

@roguerunner7553 6 лет назад

Retired from AT&T after 30 years. I saw many changes from 1981 to 2011!

@LINESTELECOMCORDEDTELEPHONES 5 лет назад

@@peterjszerszen correct

@garymckee8857 4 года назад

I have contracted for the phone industry for 25 years and I also have seen many changes in equipment. When I first started almost all equipment and materials were made in the USA now it's China or some other foreign country.

@workingtheworld68 4 года назад

@@garymckee8857 - so much easier to eavesdrop on conversation with PRC gear.

@workingtheworld68 4 года назад

The layoffs were great! And the dismantling of Bell Labs, another smart decision. But seriously, the monopoly had run its course and Moore's law won. God bless you, Mr. Shannon.

@garymckee8857 4 года назад

@@workingtheworld68 you are correct firewalls are manufactured in 🇨🇳

@stevecannon-english8683 5 лет назад

My mom was an operator in the 1950s for Southwestern Bell, then worked switchboards at Montgomery Wards then at Sears (she was head operator there for some years) in the 60's and possibly early 70's. She worked what some call "cord boards". I learned to work the one she worked at one place she worked. I then was able to work the switchboard at a high school I attended that had a board that was from the 40s. I used to relieve the operators at several places I worked but by the mid and late 70s, everyone had gone to the Demension system which was wonderful. No more cords and switches, it was all buttons and would fit on a desk with ease for an entire building of telephones, be it an office or hospital. It was fun and I didn't have to do it for entire shifts,, but male operators are apparently rare. Some people disconnected when a male answered assuming they had an incorrect number.

@Yomama1029 Год назад

Oh how interesting! Thanks for sharing. It made my day!

@MsDaisy173 4 года назад

I was an Operator with Southwestern Bell Telephone from 1969-1974. I started in Kansas, transferred to Texas then to Missouri. The three changes in 5 years kept the monotony down. Later became a nurse and retired with 25 years service.

@astridvvv9662 2 года назад

Lovely 💙

@zelphx 4 года назад

My great-aunt was an operator in a small town... she WAS the operator. She NEVER spilled on what she knew, which was "everything". I, on the other hand, talk too much. She was a PURE class-act and kept Wann, OK connected for years.

@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 3 года назад

She should’ve wrote a book on all the gossip she overheard. I would’ve bought it

@Zylstra555 11 лет назад

I really appreciate that these archived films are uploaded for all of us to enjoy.

@radeonblue1816 3 года назад

The company that gave us 8 nobel prize winners. Thanks

@MegaLivingIt 3 года назад

Saw a really old time switchboard in Hoboken New Jersey hotel. Worked as an operator in South Dakota on the original drop down (magneto) boards (for a town and had several lines (farms) on each line. During electrical storms we operators would get "bit" by a small shock sometimes and all the lines would drop at the time. Then worked 5500 boards for Morristown New Jersey (pbx) 50 Jack's to a position. Also Pacific Bell information operator in the 1960's (madly thumbing thru a telephone book for each call). I got to love Motorola equipment when we finally got to own our own headsets. 😊

@WCM1945 3 года назад

My older sister was a long distance operator for Southern Bell in the late 50s. She would come home with some hilarious stories, mostly about how callers from other parts of the country tried to pronounce some of the Indian-based town names found down here in Alabama! "Sylacauga" was the most memorable one!

@nlo114 8 лет назад

The start of my apprenticeship with 'Post-Office Telephones' (UK), was servicing manual boards in the operator-room. Some of the equipment was put in during the early 1930s. Made of solid brass, it never wore out. The only things that failed were the operator's cords and pulleys. There are still Main Distribution Frames in some London telephone exchanges that have hardwood terminal-blocks wired with cotton-covered wire! They still work though and the smell and sounds of an old exchange is something that stays with you forever.

@waltman333 4 года назад

Plenty brass polish, many hours cleaning those brass plugs!

@AdvancedGemini 4 года назад

To those who are curious, the dial office shown in the film at 9:40 was the Western Electric Panel switch. It was the first automatic switch developed by the Bell System and installed mostly in large cities starting in the 1920s. The Connections Museum of Seattle, WA currently operates the last functioning Panel switch in the world and has a few videos about it on RU-vid for the even more curious.

@rayfridley6649 4 года назад

Before this, another form of automatic switching, known as the step-by-step system, using direct dial impulses from callers to connect to the number being called. manufacturer was the Automatic Electric Company. Its use was in moderately large to rural cities and towns. First such switch was installed on the Bell System in Norfork, Virginia, in 1919.From then on, it was used on both Bell and non-Bell telephone exchanges.Try the Connections Museum of Seattle, WA, as these, like the panel system, are no longer operational.

@mehdouch80 4 года назад

I can't believe how fast technology has evolved, from a room of workers connecting few hundreds of calls to a small circuit board in a tiny box that can handle millions of calls across continents without any human intervention!

@mikeure1528 3 года назад

what if that rate of change continues, not just for completing calls, transmitting data, but for things we wouldn't understand at this time.

@RANS87IROCZ 3 года назад

Heck and the phones are wireless now!

@619guy202 3 года назад

@@mikeure1528 I feel like everything will be like that. I mean electricity has only been around for 120 years it hasn’t even been around that long and look

@kathleenking47 Год назад

@@RANS87IROCZ and MORE THAN PHONES

@RANS87IROCZ Год назад

@@kathleenking47 right, crazy how it all works to me

@eferg16 5 лет назад

Oh the good old days: "Hello. . . HELLO, what do you want?. . .ok"

@atruebrit6452 4 года назад

@Jeffery Amherst now 100 random google and amazon employees listen in... when you are not even calling anyone. And it's pricey.

@highlypolishedturd7947 4 года назад

A guy I knew years ago would answer the phone with "What's your problem..."

@zawir_usaodpowiadausa3354 4 года назад

Yanks were never civilized nation... Even in 2019

@acoustic61 4 года назад

I remember when we used to call the operator for the correct time.

@KurisuYamato 4 года назад

I'll always love how the teletypewriter concept was the progenitor of the very way we all are getting to watch this video - the internet. in slow but steady stages the concept of non-voice information going over voice lines eventually gave us this....

@ivanleterror9158 3 года назад

In the 60s we had a teletype in our AAA contract station at our tow company in Van Nuys. Van Nuys Club Service just off of Sepulvida Bl.

@karenrich9092 3 года назад

Thank you for posting this piece of history. My husband was a telecommunications engineer and worked on PBX systems. He even installed multiple line phones in our house which are still in use. This is history to be treasured.

@cantcomeupwithausern Год назад

I used to punch phone lines internally at a large insurance company before we went to voip. It's crazy to think at every punch down, there used to be a person plugging in a wire temporarily.

@nicholasmargaritis3356 4 года назад

Does anyone remember the "emergency cut-in". You have to call someone about an emergency but the line on the other end is busy so you could ask the operator to interrupt the busy line and announce that so and so is trying to reach you about an emergency.

@REXXSEVEN 4 года назад

Yes I remember. My grandmother told me about it in the 1990s.

@Zandanga 4 года назад

You could also ask the Operator to check if a line was in actual use if it had been busy for a long time. This was one way to report trouble with a line.

@thegraintruckguy4345 4 года назад

@@Zandanga you could also dial 0 and ask operator to call you back to verify that the phone was working and then when it rings you yelled "I got it" then answer it and pretend a friend needed something just to get out of the house and usually do something you shouldn't lol

@Zandanga 4 года назад

@@thegraintruckguy4345 Hah! Do you remember party lines? My cousins in East Texas used to have lots of fun messing with their neighbors on the party line back in the late 50s and 60s.

@thegraintruckguy4345 4 года назад

@@Zandanga I don't personally remember them, the town that I lived close to had a 567 prefix and I remember that you only had to dial the 7 and the next four digits to make it work though

@mistergrandpasbakery9941 5 лет назад

My great grandmother, grandmother, and great aunt were telephone operators in the 30s and 40s.

@josephibarra1757 4 года назад

Mister Grandpa's Bakery that’s great

@mathieulessard404 3 года назад

I was a telephone operator in the 1920's

@GameInterest 4 года назад

I love how the insulate in between tips, rings, and sleeves on the 3rd board are red. It's the little things.

@foureyedchick 4 года назад

When I was a young girl in the 1960s, my dad went to have a hernia operation at Franklin Blvd hospital in Chicago. I went in and out of the waiting room with my mom, and there was a room with ladies connecting calls with plugs into switchboards. I had a small transistor radio with a little earphone that my mom bought me. I told her, I can plug the earphone into the earphone jack the same way that the operators plug the plugs into the switchboard.

@tomk1974 2 года назад

I think the plugs and jacks are basically the same design, just smaller on modern devices.

@geoben1810 4 года назад

Makes you realize that the mechanisms involved in the ability to actually make a phone call takes much more than just a telephone. Who came up with the designs, concepts, and construction of all the related equipment ? Who came up with the switchboard? It's like electric distribution, Nicolai Tesla was the genius in designing the equipment and components in order to enable the distribution of electricity.

@friendofdorothy9376 4 года назад

I’m 56 and when young I NEVER looked up a number in the paper phone directory...I just called “Information”. I remember when they changed the name of that to be “Directory Assistance” and then started charging for it.

@jblyon2 3 года назад

My Mom's entire side of the family started their careers with the phone company working in information. I remember that change when I was a kid and being told to not call it anymore because we'd get charged. There was an exception though. You could call it for free from a payphone because they expected you were going to hang up and then pay to call the number they just gave you. That ended shortly after they got the ability to connect your call for you a few years later.

@ivanleterror9158 3 года назад

Ours was 411.

@trishajackson9678 4 года назад

I love these 70's AT&T videos❤❤❤❤❤

@-fuk57 4 года назад

I so long to hear someone speak in "Transatlatic". I'm just thrilled over this video as well.

@barebone2 9 лет назад

at&t creates interesting history vids, history channel creates interesting storage bidding vids, music television creates interesting life of pregnant teens.

@kraftpr 10 лет назад

Amazing how far technology has come. This brings to mind what "Ernestine" said: "Why don't you use 2 dixie cups and a string! (snort-snort)"

@charleswhite4634 5 лет назад

Love Lilly tomlin. Glad she's finally out and still working.

@JedrzejP 3 года назад

Now add a switching office to it.

@dhansel4835 Год назад

I remember as a young boy I was watching the demolition of the old switchboards being tossed out the 2nd floor of the local telephone company in order to replace the rotary dial equipment. This was back in the 50's. Now the telephone office still stands but is empty. "Time Changes Things".

@cyclenut 4 года назад

When I was young, during the 60's and 70's, dialing O got a human voice. During the 70's we had party line, there were several others on the same line. We each had a certain ring to let us know the call was for us. Some times we had to wait tell someone finished their call before we call dial a number. Always worried when making a private call, as others on the party line could listen in.

@thegraintruckguy4345 4 года назад

My grandparents said the same thing, they lived in the country outside of a tiny Town, said on a Saturday night a bunch of people on the party line would all sit and yak in the phone for fun, they knew who was getting the call by the ring, shorts and longs and all kinds of unique stuff, lots of eavesdropping I'm sure

@JerryEricsson 4 года назад

Indeed, we had a plunger on our first phone on a party line, we could leave the plunger down and listen, lift the plunger to talk.

@619guy202 3 года назад

How do you know they aren’t listening in on you now?

@cyclenut 3 года назад

@@619guy202 They often made noises. Other times gossip.

@619guy202 3 года назад

@@cyclenut yes but I’m talking about now. How do you know Google, Amazon, and the government aren’t listening right now?

@dansclassics 4 года назад

Always wondered how those ones worked; the video made it so clear.

@edpodellis 3 года назад

I worked at NET&T in1980 and the office still had a switch board with three operators .

@MrC0MPUT3R 4 года назад

This guy in the intro is a delight

@user-mj8nf2vp7q 2 года назад

I know, isn't he awful? 👍🏽🤣💯🙄

@ourv9603 3 года назад

My older sister (may she rest in peace) worked the switchboard in Indianapolis . She was only18 years old. She was working for Indiana Bell. !

@americanspirit8932 3 года назад

I worked on tsps back around 1969 in Long Island events throughout New York State

@ex0thermic 11 лет назад

I like the monty python-like animation of a hand that appears at 6:42

@trs-80fanclub12 4 года назад

I bet they played hell calling everyone about the extended warranty on their carriage plan.

@ivanleterror9158 3 года назад

And fraud involving their Soc Sec as well.

@acoustic61 4 года назад

I remember when we used to call the operator for the correct time.

@ivanleterror9158 3 года назад

There was also a direct number. I think is was like "something, something, 1212 or similar.

@0neIntangible 3 года назад

I had a flash back memory of Lilly Tomlin on Laugh In as a switch board operator.

@jasons44 4 года назад

Att will give your phone records to any old one, if it suits them! Classy

@jimmyhuesandthehouserocker1069 3 года назад

This makes me think of Sarah in the Andy Griffith show, where Mayberry had a switchboard instead of a dial system. Although I think there should have been a number of different operators at different times, instead of always Sarah.

@bonniemoerdyk9809 Год назад

At one time these operators were a specially trained housewife with a switchboard system set up in her house. Small towns would have had them that way back in the 20's-50's apppx. So, when they talk about Sarah on Andy Griffith, she was probably a housewife with a desk or table set up in the corner of the living room. I've seen quite a few when watching old black/white movies and tv shows.

@gerhard6105 11 месяцев назад

My mother was a swtchboard operator in the 60s. My father was a maintenance man of these swithboards. That is where they met. He worked at Bell ITT, AT&T, Alcatel, B- catel and then on Schiphol airport at KLM Cargo to buil up the computer network and later he was responcable to keep that running. He was highly educated in electronics ans also made a home switchboard. This all.was here in the Netherlands.

@JerryEricsson 4 года назад

Back in 70, I was in the Army, while in Vietnam, I operated a switchboard for a Brigade Headquarters. It was a boring job at night and ran us ragged during the day, I was glad to transfer to teletype so I could have a bit of time for relaxation.

@patton303 3 года назад

9:22: Can you imagine a hotel employing 24 operators just for that hotel?

@dergluckliche4973 4 года назад

This seems far more impressive - if confusing - than just doing it electronically. All the stepped switches and plugging wires in all over the place seems like more of a technological feat.

@Tmanaz480 3 года назад

When the telephone was first invented there was no switching at all. you had to order a pair that only talked to each other; more of a simple intercom system. Manual switching and interconnection came later. When a network or town outgrew its switchboards, then it was automated. Later, local networks were interconnected with each other for long distance calling capability. It's a great example of how one invention spurs another in a kind of evolution. No one envisioned the entire system from the beginning.

@JohnAK72 5 лет назад

That looks complicated!

@nancyterrywhittemore2015 3 года назад

My mother was an operator for New England Tell &Tel . At very young age she had taught me to use the switch board . It looks very complicated, but actually it was fun once I got the hang of it. That seems like so long ago, but I'm so glad I was part of that era .

@mariekatherine5238 Год назад

In the late 1970’s, I used to work the switchboard at small hospital in rural New York state.

@madamerotten 11 лет назад

Loved this! Thanks so much for posting it!

@sondrayork6317 2 года назад

teletype has short hand, TTY is the initials,. ham radio allows for such facilities, and i've heard such data bursts on the HF bands too,. it'd be kinda neat to start a service like that using ham freqs where you have a central operator, who then connects your calls via tty, like the phone companies use to do lol. bery interesting video though. i didnt know tty for the telephone existed as far back as the manual switchboard.

@RonJohn63 9 лет назад

11:44 200,000 operators... You'd need 20x that many today!!

@ucheucheuche 2 года назад

Imagine being in a film that won't interest people until many decades later!!!

@tom7601 3 года назад

My grandmother was a “Hello Girl” in the early 1900s.

@johhue Год назад

3:28 "Hello, what do you want"

@angrycatowner 4 года назад

Teletype was the original text messaging.

@useridgaf-p6b 9 лет назад

So is AT&T going to switch to a new system anytime soon or still keep this one>

@garymckee8857 4 года назад

And the new phone books will be out soon.

@MickeyMousePark 4 года назад

@@garymckee8857 YEAH!!! I hope i am in it! (reference to The Jerk movie)

@MrAquinas1 3 года назад

The Obama administration mandated this retro system as an economic fix to ""create more jobs."

@garymckee8857 3 года назад

@@MrAquinas1 Yes now that we have a revised edition Obama administration.

@snoglydox 3 года назад

@@MrAquinas1 : Sounds more like a Republican thing, like bringing back coal.

@Concetta20 7 лет назад

Teletypewriters! The first text messages. :)

@jamesslick4790 6 лет назад

Anna Ferrara Basically, Yes. Technology changes,but concepts remain. I had a "kid" tell me he listens to Spotify on his smartphone RATHER than listening to the radio. LOL - What he doesn't consider: Streaming audio on a device that uses a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is still listening to the radio!

@haweater1555 4 года назад

The first text messages were telegraphs by Morse Code in the 1840s.

@anotherkat4u 4 года назад

@@haweater1555 well......telegraphs WERE code, sending , yep, CODE not texts ,,,,=^..^=,,,,

@anotherkat4u 4 года назад

i wonder what was the first EMOJI this :)

@dwfake 4 года назад

@@anotherkat4u Technically, that's an emoticon

@carlw.8671 2 года назад

Born in 1982... wish I was alive back then

@blairwilliams136 4 года назад

The magneto board is amazing !

@Claroboy911 8 лет назад

This is amazing

@JawTooth 4 года назад

that one at 3:15 would take forever to make prank calls. I would just give up and go tip over a cow or something

@James_Knott Год назад

One of my aunt's was a switchboard operator in a hospital around 60 years ago.

@nitramluap 5 лет назад

6:47 - Looks like one of Terry Gilliam's creations! 😆

@theairbusdriver546 5 лет назад

These people say “What do you want?” as if it is not already quite obvious. “Why else would I be on the line?”

@dennismartin4659 3 года назад

I don't know... watch the AT&T archive 'The Life of a Telephone Operator in 1969' and you realize that 1. that might be a legitimate question and 2. Just how much the American Public has always sucked!

@waltman333 4 года назад

Great video, ex AT&T HF Radio Transmitter Tech.

@zawir_usaodpowiadausa3354 4 года назад

Hello . I looking for some info about radiocommunication services made by ATT. Pokaż więcej Pokaż mniej

@waltman333 4 года назад

Pis sfałszował wybory Hi Pis, send me your eMail addr. and we can discuss HF radio communications system. Walt

@zawir_usaodpowiadausa3354 4 года назад

TKS Walt. My email is hf8v@interia.pl

@rickharold7884 2 года назад

Geeze crazy to see these switching system.

@KeithOtisEdwards Год назад

I am of an age where I remember the Bell Telephone building on Cass Ave. in Downtown Detroit. When the shift of operators changed at midnight, there was a row of taxicabs waiting to take the operators home. Bell paid for the ladies transportation. Somehow, I doubt if AT&T pays for anyones cab fare these days. AT&T offered free services such as the weather forecast, available by dialing WEbster 2-1212. The correct time could be had by dialing GR 2-1212. Directory assistance was also free, but with the advent of other providers and then cellular phones, the Detroit phone directory shrunk to the size of a J.C. Whitney catalogue, then disappeared. When I tell young people that I have always been listed in the public phone directory, they think me foolish for making my phone number available to all or ask, “What’s a phone book?”

@larrygall5831 5 лет назад

When I was young, right up until I believe the early 90's, you could get a real operator by pressing zero, but also a real human being for information (411). Now, not only do you have to deal with the annoying automated system, but many people contend with ads before you can ask for a number. Total BS.

@ivanv754 4 года назад

Larry Gall early 2000’s here!

@ajc5869 4 года назад

The fact that 6:33 to 6:52 made me giggle just further proves the fact that im still a child

@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 3 года назад

“Hello what do you want?”

@danksmokaz 11 лет назад

in downtown sacramento on the roof of the big att building...the old microwave long wire system still sits proudly..with its 4 huge waveguides ...i have always thaught they looked like huge lazyboy chairs lol

@jgiza8888 4 года назад

Nice little upper arm work out for the operators.

@juliam.mallen9019 Год назад

Phenomenal we all know it's only a switch away to go back to commonsense 101 family let's roll👌🇺🇸🦅

@user-kn6my6yv2t 2 месяца назад

Retired from ATT a year ago, frustrated and tired the company just would not replace defective lines. Not the company of old that took care of their customers.

@themagus5906 4 года назад

From the movie "Office Space" - "Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking......just a moment" "Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking......just a moment" "Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking......just a moment" "Corporate Accounts Payable Nina speaking......just a moment" Multiply something like this by 25 women in the same room, times 24 hours a day. Now these CO's are halls of silence with a few blinking lights here and there. No more live operators or "Number, please". Very creepy, especially at night, and the lower the floor, the creepier.

@robertmartens7839 3 года назад

Everyone knows about Bell and Watson, but who knew that they brought it all to market in less than a year. 1877!

@mhoover 4 года назад

I operated a cord board at the phone co. in 1973-4.

@arthurdevain754 Год назад

The ladies who sat at the switchboard and said "Number Please" were employees of the "Traffic" department. The character of Ernestine the Operator was only half a joke!

@abc-ni9uw 4 года назад

Fantastic

@MrBiscuit04 4 года назад

Who else just got this in their recommended? 2019

@vylbird8014 4 года назад

How does the operator know when the call is completed though, so they can unplug their patch cable?

@JerryEricsson 4 года назад

The boards we had would close the eye on the circuit when the call was finished. We also had a check switch so we could listen in without clicking on the receivers of the users and it muted our microphone so they could not hear us. In the Army, we had to ask before removing the plug, like "are you working? are you working? BREAKING DOWN! then pull the plug.

@harrycoffeynield6941 5 лет назад

I thought this was quite advanced for this time.

@jholttn 3 года назад

Not sure if the person that runs this page will see this or not. But; does anyone know how specifically they billed for long distance calls back then? I'm assuming in the very late 60's or early 70's is when it became somewhat computer automated. Especially with the AT&T Development of Linux. I would like to hear an answer from the beginning to around the 60's/70's. If I had to guess, there was some sort of a timer and a card that the operator wrote everything down on. I would think if she connected the long distance call, then she was responsible for keeping up with the billing on a card and put the start time and the end time and passed off the card to a supervisor. But again, that's just a wild guess.

@dcheryasov 5 лет назад

In central coast guard rail station somewhere in San Francisco the calls happens a lot of staffs had been talking on those switchboard telephones

@thedave7760 4 года назад

Sorry mate but that makes no sense in english whatsoever.

@adamantman3200 3 года назад

Working a full shift on one of these cord boards looks exhausting. I worked in a large call center with no sound proofing between the operators. It often was so loud that I couldn't hear myself think. I took roughly 200 calls a day. These gals look like they're each taking much more than that. I left this job in 1996 and still can't stand hearing a ringing phone.

@natewatl9423 4 года назад

I trained on a pushbutton console in 1967. Later I worked for a cheapskate lodge owner who had a corded Jack pbx. What a letdown!

@EV-wp1fj 2 года назад

3:14 Brass tacks here: The operator's a honey. Sure, he must be 253 years old today, but nothing a little time travel can't solve.

@thesteelrodent1796 Год назад

To think, inside a modern smartphone sits millions of switchboard ladies

@Namal23 2 года назад

I watched the entire video, but I didn't find myself wishing to talk to an operator, when I pick up the phone.

@Sperious Год назад

I understand that each operator only answered a selection of incoming lines/subscribers, but how were they able to connect that group of subscribers to ANY other subscriber? Was the call relayed to an operator at a part of the switchboard where that particular subscriber was wired?

@raxxtango 3 года назад

One Ringy-Dingy..Two-Ringy Dingy...is the party that I'm speaking-with?

@twitchuser3375 3 года назад

im gunna take the latest iphone back to the 1800s then come back to now see how far well advance then

@chrisnewman7281 9 месяцев назад

At Young manual, Switchboard operator is the spitting image of Harrison Ford maybe it’s his grandfather

@insocal6713 3 года назад

"Hello hello" guy was hot.

@Muonium1 3 года назад

and how! though he has most certainly been a corpse for decades at this point and thus probably not worth looking up.

@amberhillman8877 3 года назад

Product Marketing had be rough. Those types phones

@jamesslick4790 3 года назад

1:01 The second switchboard shown was withdrawn from service after 55 years. Holy shit, that would be the equivalent of a 1966 device being in use TODAY......Looks at my 1959 GE fridge in the basement.....😳😮🤷‍♀️

@amberhillman8877 3 года назад

Have her put them on RU-vid, especially one can talk.

@stevesims2243 3 года назад

i was hoping for iterations of the pbx. we had a toggle board which replaced the plug system.

@disoriented1 8 лет назад

I'm old....can you even reach an 'operator' today??

@sullivan3503 8 лет назад

You can, at least with AT&T.

@rtel123 7 лет назад

and with today's cheap fibre transmission technology, they save money by having the operator be in a low wage country overseas.

@venomrie 6 лет назад

Yes you can! I use them a lot at work for international calls. Especially when I can’t remember the dial-out code :)

@gorillaau 6 лет назад

More and more, the subscriber is the operator.

@bdodson5 5 лет назад

In hospitals when a patient can’t speak english, there is a number hospitals can subscribe to that allows staff to call for a translator. And it’s maybe the only option unless the hospital has a system of volunteers to use. I’m retired but I’ve used this in big centers in different states. Known as AT&T Language Line.

@jackdeath 2 года назад

550 Maddison avenue from 1984 to 1986??? Only two years, huh?

@rtel123 7 лет назад

For decades, we were used to the 0-9 key layout of calculators. Then telephone operators had to get used to key layouts that were two rows! Then some nut invented the touch telephone that had a key layout of a familiar calculator, except upside down! Why??

@jamesslick4790 6 лет назад

Joshua Sidell Yes, The "telephone" layout was designed to emulate the rotary dial. (lower numbers on top ). One needs to remember that the average person was immensely more familiar with the rotary dial telephone than they were with calculators (or even adding machines,for that matter). in the 50s and 60s. Even the "qwerty" keyboard was more familiar to "civilians" than the "calculator" layout. It wasn't until the middle 70s that inexpensive calculators became available and introduced the masses to the "calculator" layout.

@jamesslick4790 6 лет назад

Joshua Sidell I wasn't disputing anything of what you said, I was just pointing out the 1950s-60s consumer perspective and how it influenced Ma Bell's design consideration.

@jamesslick4790 6 лет назад

Joshua Sidell Yes, that's a "thing" especially among us "older" folks who are used to "telephone" format, It still "hangs me up" (pun intended!) when I use the numeric keypad on the PC!

@markheidt870 Год назад

Soon David's youngest will have to take control of the company.

@matthevert442 3 года назад

Imagine living in a time where audio leveling exists. Heads up, the film reel is quite a bit quieter than the guy talking at the beginning. If you're like me and you turn the volume up to hear the reel, turn it down before the next video starts or you might need to get your ears checked.