Nerdspedition to the JKL Museum of Telephony
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- We are invited to visit the JKL Museum of Telephonh, an amazing private collection of telephones and early electro-mechanical central office equipment. Here is a link to their website: www.jklmuseum....
WOW! That switch room was amazing!
Strowger switches. Allso called the "click and bang" system if my memory serves me right.
@@curious5661 Step by step is what I remember them being called. I'm sure there is different slang depending on where you are in the world.
@@curious5661 I thinks it's the Brits who used this term.
@@MLX1401 I think you are correct. I think I heard it being mentioned in "the secret life of machines"
@@curious5661 Most likely :D SLOM is/was such a great show. The fax episode is my favourite! Very thankful for the people who put them online
That was absolutely awesome.
I'm so glad the world has such great collectors and restorers like yourself and John from the Telephony museum and not just junk hoarders like myself.
Love the wall of green phones! And the old wind-up wall-mounted phones have a place in my heart from seeing them on shows like Lassie when I was growing up
This is absolutely beautiful, not only having the original phones but to have them functional. Great work to the curator of the museum
For me this is like a visit on the candy store. Wow, the phones are alive! Congratulations from Romania!
This switching room is insane, yet another inspiration for drawing, thank you very much for sharing Marc!
Fantastic museum. I love the sound of Strowger exchanges. My grandfather ran an exchange in a small town in the UK until the mid-80s so I remember going to see him and hear the racket they used to make. It's very easy to visualise how the system works!
My (ATT) internet connection dropped halfway through this... so we're not much better now than then! Love your content Marc.
On that ring generator, you can still buy the switches as brand new current parts, used for railway signalling systems. I still occasionally use a 1939 Ericsson phone, originally meant for local battery use, but which is happy after some jumpers to accept line power instead, and it works well, just that of course it has no way to generate DTMF or LD to dial, as it has instead the hand crank generator. But does ring quite well, and interfaces nicely with modern POTS lines.
Also have some older phones, from the 1980's and 1970's, though they are not in as good a condition. Wonder if they have any of them around in the collection.
Well done John! What a fantastic Museum!
A Truly impressive achievement to rise like a phoenix from the ashes in such a short space of time!!
It is a testament to the spirit & tenacity of all concerned !
Long may it continue to be so
Notice at 5:50, the candlestick, front, right, is equipped w/ a "Hush-a-Phone." The was an early privacy device, but was famous for violating Ma Bell's "no-foreign-equipment" rule. That is, if it didn't come from Western Electric, it couldn't be connected to the network, acoustically (which is how it connected) or otherwise. Led to a lawsuit years before the Carterphone.
Yup I saw that in there. I wonder if there are still some active phone lines in the nation with a phone rental/equipment line item. It was spelled Carterfone for anybody wishing to research it.
I was going to comment about this too!
Thanks for pointing it out. I didn't know about it, but an interesting case for sure!
I remember the sad day when it was announced that the JKL museum had burnt, they have done a great job rebuilding the museum. Nice to hear the sounds of the Step By Step switch working, along with the old Step by Step dial and ringing tone, one does not hear that nowadays with the Nortel DMS-100 and Western electric 5ESS switches.
The Picture Phone is an interesting failed product from Western Electric/Bell Telephone. Thee engineers overcame many technical challenges to make the system work, things like making a camera tube that would not suffer image burn in, since it was always on and normally looking at the same background, or how to make a system that was (somewhat) practical to integrate into the standard telephone system.
There is another very impressive telecom museum in Seattle, which is open to the public and is in an old switching office, one of their current projects is getting a very rare Western Electric 3ESS switch.
Yes, Ken went to the Seattle Museum of Communications and highly recommended it. Maybe in afuture video?
@@CuriousMarc Absolutely maybe!!!
CuriousMarc
I particularly like your IBM restoration vids.
Have you seen the George Lucas student film
THX 1138 4EB? (The short film that predates the theater film “THX 1138”.)
The 1967 short had a lot of IBM hardware as set design. And the Navy Student Workshop is credited in the film. So I assume the computers are Navy hardware.
It’s a very interesting 15 min short. Thought I’d share.
ua-cam.com/video/GB3fbtUYgRE/v-deo.html
Such a tragic loss, especially for the wooden ones.
Well, this is the replacement museum.
I cried.
I remember the Post-office in town having a whole floor full with switching units for telephony when I was a kid. But I think those were done with relais already.
Quite an impressive museum, especially for a 3-year rebound from a fire. Fantastic.
Thank you for shearing your tour. I was at the old museum just a few days before the fire and met, among others, the photographer that shot the pictures you were looking at on the wall, and shot quite a few myself. I have not had the opportunity to visit the new museum as yet. I also manage the websites for Telephone Collectors International and Phil's website showcasing his personal collection and switch.
Thank you for taking us along on your trip to the JKL Museum of Telephony. It's fascinating to see the progress of something so ubiquitous in our lives.
It always amazes me that the Strowger step-by-step exchanges were so bullet-proof.
Yes they required constant maintenance, but at least if something went wrong a switch could be swapped out, stripped down and repaired.
Try doing that with a solid state switch. Replace and discard, that's the current method :-(
Those Strowger switches were an important component in early computers like the Harwell Dekatron computer from 1951.
Mind you, the Harwell computer weighed 2.5 metric tons, so I guess going to solid state does have some advantages! :-)
That is extremely pleasing to my eyes!
So many Telephone Exchanges in the UK still have test desks sitting unused in them. When I started in telecoms 31 years ago, strowger was still in use in some exchanges and one of my first jobs was upgrading all the cabling inside Pan Am’s Heathrow operation so they could remove the huge room PABX 4 strowger exchange and replace it with a Nortel boring box on the wall. Happy Days !!
That would have been cool and a bit daunting at the same time. I searched for Nortel's Boring Box, couldn't find that product anywhere! Bwaaahahahah!
Shain Andrews it was the Nortel Meridian PBX. I believe Nortel went bust a few years ago ?
My dad has worked with telephones for over thirty years, boy would he love to see that! Great collection and also great video thank you for the time you put in making these videos!
Aww man I love the sight of payphones at 08:26!!!
Again... thanks to the AGC video I found your work Marc. Loving every episode... new and old .
We had a neighborhood switching office two blocks from my house. And since my uncle worked for Ma Bell we got a tour. No idea what vintage the stuff in this video is, but the switching office I visited was more like the one in Three Days of the Condor.
If you ever visit the UK, go to the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, right at the sea where the actual first UK telegraph lines whent into the sea to control the commonwealth... Great experience, lovely, dedicated people and a stunning location... Great video btw ;)
That sounds excellent... do the phones work there, like in Marc's video?
When CenturyLink purchased Qwest, CenturyLink management liquidated (disposed of) the telephone history museum pieces at 250 Bell Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. The disposal coincides with the rebuilding of this museum and I recognize some of the same objects that I used to see every day in this JKL Museum. I can only hope that after CenturyLink was done, a place such as this JKL Museum picked up the items for their own display because CTL was just going to throw them in the dumpster. I really never found out where that old collection ended up, but I would like to think some of it landed at JKL.
Ouch about the fire, my regards. Looks like they've managed to get a pretty impressive collection going again. Including that electro switching room and with all the phones being hooked up.
(I love John, the owners slip of the tongue "to pervert history and have fun"
Another great UA-cam synchronicity.... I've recently acquired an old (British) 746 telephone (a green one!!!) and have been working on getting it working and then... along comes this video. Must be a morphic field resonance or something. ;)
Wow! A full central office in the back there! Very impressive!
That is simply *AMAZING!!!* I would love to be invited to that place sometime.
It is very tragic what happened in 2015. I really like how many of the phones are hooked up and operational, and the switchboard in operation, unlike lots of museums that just have stuff on display, never ever operated.
Exactly, what's the point if you can't play with it! When I go to the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest, they use a switch for Phones and Computers. So you bring your collections of both and get to use them as they were intended.
Shame about the initial loss. Already a stunning display, and I love how they have the phones all wired up and working too.
How does one get an invitation? They mention just calling.
calling is the best way to reach them. It's a small museum, so that's why they have appointments set up through calling because they can only handle so many people at a time.
the switching station is awesome.. back in the days large systems filled whole buildings.. great that theý have one that still works
I don't live too far from the Alexander Graham Bell homestead, which has been turned into a museum. I've been mearning to go there for quite some time. I went once with my mom when I was a child, but I was too young to appreciate it. So I'd really like to have another go at it.
Thanks for the ride! That was a beautiful tour from out of the sickbed (in my case) :D
Get well soon!
That is some extremely cool (and phreaky) telephone gear!
Amazing collection and curation. Thanks Marc and John!👍
Thank you for sharing this. This is incredible!
I live near Alexander Graham Bell's homestead, which they turned into a museum. I went there once as a kid, but I was too young to appreciate it. I'd love to go back some time.
when i heard the dial tone on the speakerphone i thought "ok ok cool" but when i then heard the small doot of dial tone after the first digit my mind went straight to "no waaaay" territory
There is a good telephone museum here in Budapest, if you are ever in this neck of the woods it is worth a visit.
Yeah, Thanks John.. It's awesome.
that fire truly broke my heart.
I have been searching for an original candlestick phone for some time. It's a question of funds. But that collection is nerd heaven for me!
Absolutely beautiful collection!
Great museum. I spent some time in exchanges and they were always filled with equipment that was no longer in use. Too expensive to move it out so all they did was just switch it off when it was replaced by newer equipment. So pretty much the exchanges become museums themselves.
I had no idea there were gongs “beyond” the quarter!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Very cool.
If you find yourself driving along I-70 in MO, there is a small telephone museum in Blackwater. Has some old switching equipment.
Switching room was cool, I've seen similar I think in a bell laboratories video, I forget the name of it, switching step? Hook and lever, really escapes me
Step by Step switch, abbreviated SxS.
Oh wow I so want to visit ... :D
Guess I need to make it across the pond first, and then ask nicely!
Hey, Norwegian phone! That number plate looks normal to me. Epic museum!
Complete with operational instructions in the center of the dial.
Given the shield on the front, this must have come out of some government office or something.
one day we're gonna run outta all the exotics required to make fiberoptics and super hightech electronics, and have to go back to this stuff, and it's thanks to guys like these we'll still have working examples of what we'll have to go back to.
The raw materials aren't terribly exotic. Being made of glass, fiber optics are made from sand. Which is also where the silicon comes from for ICs. It's more the preparation that makes it difficult. But people can and have produced semiconductor components in their garage.
@@VoidHalo they mix in germanium and one other exotic (can't remember what) so that the light travels better over longer distances... it's glass, but not regular glass...
and while there are alternative semi-conductors, will we still be able to shrink them down to the size you can fit billions of them on 1 ic?
I would donate my time to repair items for this wonderous playground!
in switzerland rotary phones are the same way as the one you showed from norway, i guess this was an european thing as most phone numbers here start with smaller digits, you rarely ever use 8 or 9, like police is 112, fire 114 and regular landline numbers usually start with 03... the need for higher numbers started to come popular when mobile phones became a thing.
Do absolutely go to the Museum of Communications in Seattle, more of a switching focus, but plenty of newer picturephones.
The Seattle museum is unbelievable. Well worth the visit.
pretty cool collection holy but what's up with the high-frequency peep it's bad
"It's a magical system". Indeed!
Now that guy aint no phony!
Elegant telecommunications for a more civilized age
Astounding to what level everything is functioning. I can't blame the curator for wanting to protect the collection but what city is it in?
I miss my red slimline touch tone phone (1974) I had in my bed room. That was pretty high tech for the day.
Mai visto niente di più bello!!
Great work I love you Chanel
Fricken awesome!!!!!
I want one in my basement!
Very cool Marc, thank you!
Little typo in the description "Telephonh"
Thanks Grate video, I have a few older phone, and enjoy playing with wired phone system.
Nice museum. I don't live close enough to see it at least once. 😢
LOL, I did not know they had speakerphones that long ago!
I did some searching in norwegian sources, and it seems the norwegian telephone also sent the reverse signals of what was expected (which was a headache when connecting the entire country). If I'm reading it correctly, we actually know where the phone is from - Bergen.
I wonder if this museum hosts a network that uses the 2600 hz tone? If so, the blue box would work on it. That would be really cool!
Enjoy your work, thankyou
It IS a MAGICAL system! To think that with all of these electromechanical engineering feats, that mankind has very likely and sadly, possibly slipped through the cracks. Maybe more appropriate to say that our sad attempts at building anything that could stand up to the more rugged and rigorous gear of the past have simply cracked and served us disappointments while these old antique and marvelous wonders have often come to mind as a ‘Golden Age’. Days long since forgotten. It hurts my heart so badly to constantly be discouraged by the present day’s lack of interest in anything but the most current model iPhone or gear stuffed with this dainty flat flex. Where are the needs for service and repairs? Not supposed to have them. What about those jobs that once made data sheets and service guides necessary? Criminalized. Call me paranoid, but this is going on and on ad nausea and now I’m thinking there’s gonna need to be a grand upheaval from a sort of techno-political interest group. Seriously! I’m so so so happy to know that this museum was rebuilt after this fire. THAT is perseverance, and a real success overcoming forces of doubt and discouragement. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING!! Those clicking cogs are music to my ears!
Fantastic❤❤❤❤bravo
8:12 Was the piano music in the museum, or did you add it yourself in the misguided belief that we *need* lots of sound to survive?
Ha, "Do not touch"! You know what the first thing I do is when I see that kind of sign?
So the Norwegians numbered their phone dials the same way we did here in New Zealand. Interesting!
Only in Oslo, the rest of Norway had the dials the normal way.
Museum of telephony but can’t see any British or polish examples?
I have a couple my dad collected from the GPO, new old stock but batch sampled. Fish are welcome to have!
It's an exceptional museum, especially for that so much phones are connected; but I expected ad least a mention of Meucci who is the true inventor of the telephone as recognized by the resolution 269 of the United States Congress, I suggest everybody to read it because it's both short and gives a good idea of the story
4:18
And in 2019 we still call it ringing the front desk. :-) Your videos contain "an embarrassment of riches" in linguistic history as well. How many turns of phrase that we still use today came from just the Teletype?
how does one get to visit the museum and where is it? central valley?
Awesome
It was just for me, or was a high frequency noise on this video? (like a CRT noise)
Not just you. I have an interference pickup issue with my new mic.
Where could i learn some about old phone switches like the electromecanical pulse phone switching operator?
So, if I wanted to aquire a '95-'07 (southern) bell systems pay phone, would your museum contact be able to assist with that?
Edit: looks like there was some name flopping in that time. I remember both southern bell and bell south, and both seem to be actual baby bells.
Check eBay. A good portion of the museum, and almost my personal collection, came from eBay.
4:41 Has enough power in the dynamo to cause interference!
Where is this?
Im dialed in.. lol!
Wait! Wait!!
"When you look at how thin the [Norwegian] dial is ..." - Yes? And so? Why is the numerical sequence "backward"? Dialing a 9 will produce 1 pulse and dialing a 1 will produce 9 pulses, *presumably* . I *demand* an explanation! ;)
(Think of all the searching that an explanation would have saved me). :D
From what I can find it seems it did
3:55 lol, they look like faces
Well then, I invite you to the uk 🇬🇧
Awesome video, except for one thing. In the future, it would be great if you could filter out that high pitched CRT noise.
Omg John is a serial killer?
Hey, go back and tell Remco that it's easier to say "TWENTY-fifteen" than "two thousand fifteen," the same way as he said "NINETEEN-fifteen," etc., last century!
Can you really call it a museum if it's not open to the public? It's more of a private collection than a museum.
It’s a private collection indeed. But setup as well as (or actually better than) a professional museum and intented to be visited. So a private museum.
For all old computer lovers, i'm relaying a call from 4 french associations for funds to relocate very rare, heavy and often unique computer parts to preserve them: www.leetchi.com/c/amenagement-de-la-reserve-informatique-de-saint-antonin
This shows how the switching system operates
ua-cam.com/video/xZePwin92cI/v-deo.html
Pas très rigolo le proprio...