switchboard

Fantastic image. I simply love this weird tech they used in these days.

Before Direct Dial, any Long Distance call was handled by operators like these -- including inter-city calls in the U.S. Nearly every tiny town had someone operating a switcfhboard, often in a private residence. Night calls were handled by an operator who had a bedroom adjacent to the switchboard. And LD calls took a long time if they had to go through several relays, or if the receiving party did not have a dial phone. Furthermore, as recent as the 1960s, it often took up to a half hour to call from America to parts of Europe. An international operator in New York received a verbal request, and usually, the operator would call back when finally ther was an open line. Times have changed so in recent decades; but somehow the old "wierd" methods were more interesting than today's instantaneous automatic worldwide phone calls "untouched by human hands."

Thanks for sharing your fascinating insight with us, stoppuller! Jerry (U.S. National Archives)

This is an overseas 3CH board on the east coast. I was one of the first men hired about 40 years ago on the 3CL board.When I started with Bell I had to start on switchboards such as this. Rear cord for answer and front to key pulse out on. I also remember MX routing, npa, nxx, and terns like DA and BY. On the route and rate board I remember terms such as these; for numbers "218 plus 7D or for operators 218 plus 065 plus", as an example. Or for a ring down we said: 218 plus 065, Springfield will answer." Its been over 40 years ago but it seems like just the other day. Good memories!!!

With this picture I have discovered a third one on Flickr with operators wearing the apparatus where a woman had a mouthpiece to speak into right in front of her mouth. The scale is too small to see clearly, except fair with the nearest seated operator. The near-distance standing supervisor is holding on to her equipment. Operators having this kind of equipment stayed in my mind, and somehow I regretted changes. When I grew old enough, the position in front of her mouth seemed sexy, and in recent days I've wanted to search Flickr for the old equipment as a fetish. I discussed two other pictures I found yesterday, and this joins them in my faves. Tom Hart, Nashville, Tennessee, US

Four telephone operator positions. The person at right of frame has an old-school answering machine in their cubicle. The fan-fold printouts appear to be telephone directories. I can't read the name of the switchboard/telephone system.

This shows a young Kwame Nkrumah visiting a telephone exchange