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We Haven't Had A Telephone Thread For A Long Time
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cehalstead
Well-known member
wonderful vids
As an employee of the Bell System prior to divestiture and still an employee of a "good old telephone company" that has moved into the twenty first century, I certainly enjoyed the vids.
thanks!!!!
As an employee of the Bell System prior to divestiture and still an employee of a "good old telephone company" that has moved into the twenty first century, I certainly enjoyed the vids.
thanks!!!!
beekeyknee
Well-known member
I remember talking to the operator in the late '60's and early '70's before direct dial. I was never mean to them and always said thank you, but I was only 10-11 at the time. We lived east of Kansas City and my cousins lived in Jefferson City and we would take turns calling each other on Saturday night at 11:00 after the reruns of Star Trek to discuss the episode. We could talk longer after 11:00 because the rates went down. Funny the things one remembers. That was a big deal back then. Shortly after that d/d came.
I heard a few ring signals in the beginning that sounded like the mechanical switch type I knew as a kid, but I swear ours was slightly higher pitched. I certainly heard it countless times and it's etched into my memory. Mr. Doorbell even notes and provides an example of a higher pitched signal, but it still sounds lower than the one I remember.
Busy/re-order signals sounded pretty much like what I remember, and Doorbell was correct in stating that one day all ring signals would sound like that of the ESS switch. No matter where I call today, be it local or Long Distance, all rings sound alike. It used to be that one could tell certain offices apart based on the ring signal, as Doorbell mentioned. Since our house was situated on the very edge of the "CYpress" exchange, many of our neighbors were served by the "AXminster" exchange, which provided a double ring pattern heard in a few of Doorbell's examples, although not using those same tones.
Calls made to GTE subscribers several miles away sounded completely foreign, with a buzz instead of a burring sound.
Busy/re-order signals sounded pretty much like what I remember, and Doorbell was correct in stating that one day all ring signals would sound like that of the ESS switch. No matter where I call today, be it local or Long Distance, all rings sound alike. It used to be that one could tell certain offices apart based on the ring signal, as Doorbell mentioned. Since our house was situated on the very edge of the "CYpress" exchange, many of our neighbors were served by the "AXminster" exchange, which provided a double ring pattern heard in a few of Doorbell's examples, although not using those same tones.
Calls made to GTE subscribers several miles away sounded completely foreign, with a buzz instead of a burring sound.
They quite possible were higher pitched. The ring, busy and other sounds you heard on older switches were generated using motors to provide the tone frequency and cogs switching tones in and out.
There were slight quirks from switch to switch that could lead to different sound characteristics. Each one was quite individual although they all complied roughly with the standards.
Here are some UK tones and announcements, the tones here in Ireland are similar, but not identical -busy, reorder and dial tone are more like ETSI (European Telecommunication Standardisation Institute) norms, but the ring tone and the format of the announcements is very similar.
One or two of these tones (particularly the continuous ringing tone) are from another era. The rest are fairly modern (digital switching) but may be a bit of a crackly or peaking recording.
It gives you a good idea of what the UK telephone network's announcements tend to sound like.
One of the Irish ones actually says "Ooops! You seem to have dialled an invalid number! Please check the number and dial again!)
www.telephonesuk.co.uk
There were slight quirks from switch to switch that could lead to different sound characteristics. Each one was quite individual although they all complied roughly with the standards.
Here are some UK tones and announcements, the tones here in Ireland are similar, but not identical -busy, reorder and dial tone are more like ETSI (European Telecommunication Standardisation Institute) norms, but the ring tone and the format of the announcements is very similar.
One or two of these tones (particularly the continuous ringing tone) are from another era. The rest are fairly modern (digital switching) but may be a bit of a crackly or peaking recording.
It gives you a good idea of what the UK telephone network's announcements tend to sound like.
One of the Irish ones actually says "Ooops! You seem to have dialled an invalid number! Please check the number and dial again!)
Sounds - Telephones UK
www.telephonesuk.co.uk
We had the double ring at home as a kid,. Then 1 long, 1 short, 1 long on the 12 party line at our camp where I moved to and have lived year round for 20 years, and there is no party line now but the same phone number. I have several of those old Bell phones and 2 desk rotary dials still hooked up. My mother was one of those operators and couldnt wait till her shift was over. I worked for Verizon that sold to Fairpoint (another story). But I had a job at a switching station one day and found casette tapes labeled "If you want to make call, please hang up and try again" and "the number you reached is not in service or has been changed" The company Dodge Caravan had a casette player and we took them out and listened to them. What a blast from the past.
A Sorry State of Affairs
Most telco recordings used to begin with, "We're sorry" and then explain the trouble.
These days, the telcos aren't sorry about anything, except the fact that they still have to provide and maintain (I use that term very loosely) land lines for residential subscribers.
Most telco recordings used to begin with, "We're sorry" and then explain the trouble.
These days, the telcos aren't sorry about anything, except the fact that they still have to provide and maintain (I use that term very loosely) land lines for residential subscribers.
Those were OLD recordings. These were original Ma Bell casette tapes made way before any merger when the phone company was the only phone company. They didnt have to say sorry for anything and obviously dont now.
Telephone World
You all may have been to this site before. It is fun! If you click over on the left on "telephone sounds" there are interesting calls that were made in a 25 year period from all over the USA at phone booths and such. It is interesting to hear how each states telephone system had a different sound for busy, rings, switching and such. Evan Doorbell's tapes are a lot of fun. He made so many recordings over the years of his life.
www.phworld.org
You all may have been to this site before. It is fun! If you click over on the left on "telephone sounds" there are interesting calls that were made in a 25 year period from all over the USA at phone booths and such. It is interesting to hear how each states telephone system had a different sound for busy, rings, switching and such. Evan Doorbell's tapes are a lot of fun. He made so many recordings over the years of his life.
Telephone World: A hobby website dedicated to the Telephone.
www.phworld.org
nurdlinger
Well-known member
When I bought a new house in the booming northwest side of Tucson in 1978, the phone service was not keeping pace. I mean the poles with 6 lines or so per crossbar, five crossbars. We had Direct Distance Dialing, Sort Of. You could dial all the numbers (e.g. 1-517-3379712) but you were greeted with an intercept operator who had to ask you for your number because that was the only way you would be identified for billing. By around 1980 a new office had been built, intercept operators went away, and phone service was cutting edge again. Until, of course, DSL appeared for internet usage. Few lines were up-to-par for that service. Eventually that got fixed as well. A long, strange trip.
There is a real cool place not far from where I live with tons of old telephone related things. Check it out at (thetelephonemuseum.org)
ovrphil
Well-known member
fun thread - thanks Launderess...my neighborhood buddy's dad worked for Michigan Bell as did my other friend, but later, on Microwave towers(ugh!). I remember phone rings being different when calling outside our area codes or beyond.
These pre-merger days of phone communications were the best (and worst) in phone service. I miss some of those old days.
Tim (wayupnorth) - neat site, and I'd like to visit Maine someday, to include that venue.
[this post was last edited: 10/7/2014-17:56]
These pre-merger days of phone communications were the best (and worst) in phone service. I miss some of those old days.
Tim (wayupnorth) - neat site, and I'd like to visit Maine someday, to include that venue.
[this post was last edited: 10/7/2014-17:56]
michaelman2
Well-known member
Tim (Wayupnorth),
I took a look at the great site in which you provided the address. Very, very cool...I would love to see this. We have a museum in Atlanta that is at the base of a highrise (former Bell South building). It is not as hands on as the great place depicted in that site. I found this in Rockland, Mass and if I ever get there I would love to see this switchboard. The link is below and you have to get to about 03:50 in the video for the really cool part to start. They have converted PBX boards into a "central office" board. While a CO would never have used this type of board, it is still a working board. Sooooooo cool.
I took a look at the great site in which you provided the address. Very, very cool...I would love to see this. We have a museum in Atlanta that is at the base of a highrise (former Bell South building). It is not as hands on as the great place depicted in that site. I found this in Rockland, Mass and if I ever get there I would love to see this switchboard. The link is below and you have to get to about 03:50 in the video for the really cool part to start. They have converted PBX boards into a "central office" board. While a CO would never have used this type of board, it is still a working board. Sooooooo cool.
I really appreciated watching the video about operator's in 1969. I worked as an operator for PT&T in Santa Rosa, Ca. from 7-76 until 10-78, first as a DA (Directory Assistance) operator and CAMA (Centralized Automated Message Accounting) operator. After the first year I moved to the Toll office in the same building where we used cord swtichboards to place operator assisted calls, overseas calls, mobile calls, (there were no cell phones then), coin phone calls, person to person, collect calls and calls for all the hotels and motels. We also placed all the calls for the Bohemian Grove. This video is a very accurate picture of what it was like to be an operator then. It was a fun job, but there was a lot of very oppressive observation of the operators by managment. The CAMA board was for every long distasnce call placed in Sonoma Co., except for Santa Rosa customers. If you dialed an LD number, the CAMA operator came on the line and said, "Your number please", keyed in the customers number that they were calling from, and said "Thank you" and then the next call came on the line, about 600 calls pre hour. This was how PT&T obtained the billing info for the calls. When Elvis died in August of 1977 I was working CAMA and I received the 1st call in the office where the customer told me that Elvis was dead. The board lit up like a Christmas tree, we did more calls that day than on Mothers Day,which was always Ma Bell's busiest day. The company had to bring in extra help for OT. And you could always tell when there was a full moon without looking at the sky, believe me the customers were crazy during the full moon. We even still had some phone numbers in the remote areas of 707 area code that had to have their phone manually rung from the switchboard, ie. one long one short, because they were on a party line. In fact where I lived as a teenager our number was Russian Gulch 3, our ring was one long one short and we had 5 homes on our party line. All of our outgoing calls had to be placed by the operator and the operator had to connect all the incoming calls too. The phone system that we have today is worlds different than it was in those days, and not always for the better. Calls are less expensive and phones more accessible, but customer service has gone right down the toilet. Sorry that this post is so long, but this video very took me to the way back machine.[this post was last edited: 10/8/2014-17:34]
ptcruiser51
Well-known member
Smithsonian Institute
In the 1980s my late husbear and I took a vacation to D.C. I'm not one for sightseeing, but one day he insisted, so we went to the Smithsonian. The theme at that time was "communications". Lots of early TVs, radios, telegraph, etc. We came to one exhibit that had a big panel board like I used to work. Of course, not connected to anything; it was just "there", not cordoned-off or anything. He said he always wondered how those things worked. So we walked over and I showed him how you used the back and front cords, how to ring and collect coins. Incoming signals and outgoing local and long distance tandem trunks and other stuff. It wasn't until I heard a sneeze behind me that I turned to see about 30 people standing behind me, watching my demo. I took a few questions and we moved on. We both had a good laff later on.
In 2003 I retired after 31 miserable years at the telco. Micro-managing and observing and criticism. If it weren't for the good pay and benefits (thanks to our union) I would have been out of there after a year max.
In the 1980s my late husbear and I took a vacation to D.C. I'm not one for sightseeing, but one day he insisted, so we went to the Smithsonian. The theme at that time was "communications". Lots of early TVs, radios, telegraph, etc. We came to one exhibit that had a big panel board like I used to work. Of course, not connected to anything; it was just "there", not cordoned-off or anything. He said he always wondered how those things worked. So we walked over and I showed him how you used the back and front cords, how to ring and collect coins. Incoming signals and outgoing local and long distance tandem trunks and other stuff. It wasn't until I heard a sneeze behind me that I turned to see about 30 people standing behind me, watching my demo. I took a few questions and we moved on. We both had a good laff later on.
In 2003 I retired after 31 miserable years at the telco. Micro-managing and observing and criticism. If it weren't for the good pay and benefits (thanks to our union) I would have been out of there after a year max.
