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Articles on telephone switching

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
A while ago we were treated by Jerome to three wonderful antique videos about telephone switching.

In somewhat that same vein, I have over the past two months updated several of my technical articles on telephone switching in earlier eras, and have added some new articles.

For the benefit of those who might want to take a peek to see what this material is like, here is a list, with direct links to the articles.

Manual Telephone Switching
http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Manual_telephone.pdf

The panel dial telephone switching system
http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Panel_Dial.pdf

The Panel Dial Telephone Switching System—Interoperation with Manual Switching Systems
http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Panel_Dial_Manual.pdf

The Panel Dial Telephone Switching System—Tandem Switching
http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Panel_Dial_Tandem.pdf

The step-by-step telephone switching system: Overview
http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/SXS_Overview.pdf

This article discusses a closely-related topic:


These articles, and many others, are indexed here, on The Pumpkin:

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We take for granted the ability to communicate almost telepathically over amazing distances using shared mechanical systems. We even have pretty good chances of private conversations, but we always knew the switchboard operator could be entertaining herself, once in a while, or the FBI could be listening in too and connecting our line to a massive Grundig tape-tape recording machine!

Without this pioneering era of thousands of “girls” in white blouses with plug in cords and a giant array of holes to connect to, there would be no iPhone 10 or iWatch!

So thanks to girls in white blouses and their switchboards and thanks to you both, Jerome and Doug, for allowing us older folk to reminisce!

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Without this pioneering era of thousands of “girls” in white blouses with plug in cords and a giant array of holes to connect to . . .

Yes indeed. The full horror is that in a "B" (completing) switchboard with 100 operator positions (not at all unusual), and equipped to handle up to 10,000 lines (not at all unusual), there would be 500,000 jacks in the main jackfield, connected together by 30,000 leads running the length of the switchboard, involving 1,500,000 plus soldered connections.

Woof!

And just think of the number of white blouses involved!

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
There were all sorts of considerations to deal with. Initially, it was the practice that as operators reported for work they would stow their purses in small open cubbyholes in sort of a "ready room". But there was of course some concern with the possibility of pilferage.

Providing individual lockers would have been one solution, but even the smallest practical ones (the kind with a door about 1 foot square) would have taken up more space. In addition, management came to realize that when an operator went on break, the time to retrieve her purse (lest she need something from it while in the loo, or needed a smoke while in the break room) and re-stow it took away from the operators' overall productivity.

So it was determined that the operators should bring their purses to their switchboard positions, and a purse holder (made of enameled sheet metal with rather a J-shaped cross-section) was added below the rear of the seat of each position chair (yes, there was a gigantic amount of research and development devoted to this). We see these here.

Switchboard_supervisors_plugged_in-01-S800.jpg


Switchboard operators' position chairs with purse holders

The later type of these (as we see in the picture) were made in two sections, connected by a spring-loaded hinge, such that the "free" part would press a bit on the purse, preventing it from slipping out of place, adaptive to the thickness of the purse.

The supervisors' chairs (evocative of the referees' chairs in a tennis match) got the same.

Best regards,

Doug
 
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