Telephone Operators are still plugging away in Rockland, Massachusetts!
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- Опубліковано 18 лют 2014
- Yes, believe it or not, switchboard operators are still playing a role in the town of Rockland, Massachusetts. This has all come about because of a historical lecture and exhibit that I am putting together, being hosted by the Historical Society of Old Abington. This event is entitled: "The History of Early Telephones & Switchboards" This will take place on Sunday, March 2nd at the Dyer Memorial Library, 28 Centre Avenue in Abington, MA, starting at 2:30pm. This is free and open to the public.
Part of the exhibit that follows the lecture is to have phones of all different eras and styles out and available for people to use, which are connected to these switchboards and encouraging people to pick up the phones and call one another through the operators, as they had done in our town of Rockland, MA until 1957, when the switchboards were replaced with a dial service.
In organizing this, I was able to get 2 delightful kids to volunteer to be trained as switchboard operators, using the old cord and jack style switchboards. We got a group of friends and interested town folk together to come together play a series of games, sharing riddles, trivia & gossip and stories to one another via telephones that we had hooked up through these old switchboards, as a way to help generate telephone traffic to help train these operators.
What transpired from this was an amazing group of people coming together to share in laughter and in the spirit of community, friendship and good fun!
This video was filmed during our last switchboard games practice session which took place on Sunday, February 16th. 2 Western Electric 555 Cord switchboards are the equipment used to connect these calls.
We hope to host more of these game parties in the future as a way to help keep alive this piece of history, to help keep this old equipment alive and running, and most importantly, to bring together a community of people and friends experience first hand a piece of history of what it was like to be on the telephone back in the days before you could dial your own calls.
After watching this film, if you have any interest in the technology side of this project, or have an interest in helping us to develop more engaging and challenging games for this, or if you would like to be trained as a telephone operator, or have stories of being a telephone operator that you would like to have documented, I would love to hear from you!
If interested please contact Chris Ricciotti at (617) 852-4042
or by email at Ricciotti@aol.com.
Many thanks for your interest, and I hope you enjoy the film!
I love how the kids were able to experience the unique sound of carbon microphones and experience old phones and switchboards!
Its Feb 2023, I don't know how I ended up here but I'm glad I did because this was really cool. Thanks!
How interesting! I was one of the first male operators in the Bell System in 1972. Worked on a local toll and assistance cordboard and was cross trained to work paper Directory Assistance and dreaded working CAMA (boring). My favorite though was working as an overseas operator on the cordboard in the Jacksonville International Operator Center (IOC). All these decades later still the best time I had working and look back on it fondly. I could still put a call through, ticket and time, flip through a multileaf for rate and route. The training is ingrained. Good job kids!
I'm glad you liked this. I'm actually working on getting my cord switchboards set up on line so that people can call into them, and then can be connected to others who are interested in this kind of technology, and to have an internal call generation system set up to replicate what it would have been like to be a local operator in a town as well as toll, long distance and overseas. I would very much like to hear more about your experiences as an operator, and hear more about the routing codes and other connections you made as a long distance and over seas telephone operator. I was a long distance operator back in 1980 and I just LOVED my work! I really like hearing from other male operators as there weren't too many of them.
Chris Ricciotti Sorry it's taken so long to reply. I'm going to send you a direct message through UA-cam.
+JR Snyder Jr JR Snyder, really envious of that great job you had. There is a website somewhere with an interview with another one of the very first male operators. I think he worked in Arizona. I wish there were a video that explained in detail how long-distance calls were routed and placed before dialing became possible. What an incredible past!
+Jeschbac That interview was quite possibly me. You can go to privateline.com/Snyder/index.htm and read some of my writings of how long distance calls were routed. Also search here on UA-cam for "long distance operator" and "switchboards" and similar search terms. There are old Bell System videos that explain the dialing and routing system used from the forties up through the late seventies.
+JR Snyder Jr Fantastic. Yes, I was referring to your interview, and I wondered if
you were one and the same. What an incredible job! sometimes
have wondered if an 8 hour shift could have gotten monotonous, and if super
visors pressured you to handle a certain number of calls. know some
exchanges could time their operators.
I have watched all of these videos, but I don't know all of the terminology
. For instance, what is a tandem? On more updated systems where
an operator dialed, were you connecting to a specific piece of equipment t
hat completed the call? How were those jacks labeled? I suppose
that certain rows of jacks were incoming lines from customers?
Did you ever see the older relay system at work where a call got moved from=
city to city until completed?No wonder my parents shuddered at plac
ing long-distance calls. I remember the tone in my dad's voice when h
e picked up the receiver and said, "Operator, give me long distance."It was a tone I never heard otherwise.Serious business. An
elderly friend I had in Michigan years ago had worked for Michigan Bell and=
told about routing books. Someone had to research every call to see =
what cities would be involved. I suppose it was a question of rates.
And to think that I could have been trained as a long-distance operator whe=
n I went to college! I just never thought about it.
.
I found a 552 on Ebay several years ago and wanted to wire in a system like=
Chris, only to discover that the relay gate had been cut out. I gues
s finding one with all its "innards" is almost impossible.
All best,Jess
Wow! This is the type of cord board that I learned on, back in 1976. I ran one of these for four years. It had 8 CO Trunks and around 60 extensions. I had a blast doing it! Thanks for posting!
The key down at desk level by the cords, what did that do? I ran one of these here and there filling in as a radio operator when I was a firefighter.
Thank-you a million times - what a wonderful idea and what a great opportunity for all to enjoy. Old Telco family like my wife and I enjoyed this immensely !
This is just as cool as can be. Worked a 608 in HS and college...I have a Western Electric board that was used as a PBX but was very much like the boards used in a CO (toggle switches for each cord pair)....what a cool set up you have!
I learned how to operate one of these at an old hi-rise building in Chicago in 1985. The company had not updated its PBX system since 1939, and for anyone wanting an outside line in the building, they had to go through the switchboard.
I played with one of these switchboards once at a museum. It was kinda fun.
As a Canadian, I am very satisfied with all the pleases and thankyous
:-) I love your response on this. Back in the day, it was all please and thank you. Late in the era of manual switchboard telephony, Number please became "Number", and then eventually, "Operator", shortened to "Oprtr" Even then Thank you was the confirmation that your request has been received and you are being connected. I could only imagine what they would say now if manual exchanges were still around.
I am very impressed with those children learning a plug board. I learned one when I was five years old.
I noticed these operators, are mostly connecting local phones to other local phones. They didn't dial any outside numbers using central phone office trunk lines. Apparently the folks in Rockland don't need to make many calls outside of their local area, so it must be a nice place to live !
I worked on switchboards for about 15 years as an information & long distance operator. I started in 1964. Our switchboards were invited over 6' high, more positions. These were phased out for consoles where each call dropped into our headsets. Killed by computers. I loved the cord in my hand. Not as complicated as it looks once you get the hang of it. I used a dial to connect customers, as they show here. Still remember the standard "phrases" 50 yrs later.
For any interested parties, I have, on my channel, a 1951 wire recording of real telephone operators and callers. Video name is "1950s Telephone Operator and Call AUTHENTIC RECORDING, 1951".
I wish we could go back to this
Seems like alot of work, i hope they will find a way to automate this one day in the future.
🤣
O think this pbx does the auto ringing on the destination, the kids were terrific
Back in the mid 1976 I knew operator codes to many cities and states across the country. I was able to dial directly to these operator switchboards like the one shown here. I got in trouble with AT&T SECURITY not realizing I was tying up their trunk lines not realizing that I was doing so. I thought that anything you were able to dial into was all right to do so but it wasn't. I was told to never call inward operators again and those calls were not supposed to be going through that I dialed.
That looked like so much fun! I've always been fascinated with the old manual switchboards.
Jon, I'm not sure where you are, bud, but if you are ever in the Boston area, I'm starting a telephone museum where I live in the town of Rockland. I'd be happy to show you these things live and have you try them out yourself! Thanks for writing with your comments. Much appreciated!
This was great fun to watch, especially since my first job was to run a hotel switchboard of exactly the same model.
That is so cool!
I am so thrilled to see this mixing of historical telephony viewed by modern technology. My late husband would have LOVED to see this.
I love this!
Looks like a lot of fun! I hope I can attend if you have more of these in the future!
I am planning on doing more of these in the future. I'd love to have you be a part of this.
Very cool to watch the young generation learn and perform a skill that would begin to look old fashioned over a half a century ago. I had a great uncle that worked as a switchboard operator for Michigan Bell, straight out of high school, in 1953 or '54, because that about the time he graduated, I think. Though he has been gone for 13 years, I remember as a teenager, him telling me how much he loved that job, and at that time most of the operators were women, as many of the men were in the Korean war and just coming home when he started. Retired after 37 years.
I have some old step by step mechanical line finder switch devices pulled from the main exchange here in town years ago. They still work with a rotary dial phone equipment. and I actually did a closed line test a couple weeks ago with them and they still functioned as intended.
IDK how I accumulate some of this stuff though.. I usually find it at scrap yards or people drop it off i guess. Like some of the 1st generation cellular phone tower sector antennas from the late 80's.
¡Hermoso! Gracias por compartirlo, ve aprecia claramente cómo se operaban.
Alejandro Alba Realmente no muestran cómo el "número favor" centralitas manuales funcionó!
Chris, I grew up in Warsaw, Indiana with United Telephone. We had local operators until November, 1956 at least. It was all "Number Please" and "Thank You", and those calls were completed FAST. I've read that there was an incoming and outgoing operator to place local calls, meaning that the operator who took the order had to relay the requested number to a second operator, yet we hardly waited at all. We also had automatic ringing. The service was incredible. Of course, larger companies always had PBX's, and as a kid, I could watch for hours and figured out how to connect calls. I always wanted to work as an operator, but by the time I was old enough, cord boards were going extinct. Still, when I think that Bell was still hiring long-distance operators in the 70's, I could have put myself through undergrad at least. Wish I knew that years ago. Fast forward: I found a 552 on Ebay years ago and picked it up for little. The cords and face are in excellent condition. It was the third station for what must have been a very large organization in Dallas. What I did not understand was that when these things were removed from service, the relay gates were cut out, so I can't resurrect what I have here. How I'd love to take a "stab" at your working boards. Are they 555s? The "buzz" is just an incredible sound - I remember it well from the days of Susy at the Dalton Foundry.
You are most welcome to come up any time and work my boards, and if you ever have a working model, I'd be happy to show you how to hook it up to make it live.Currently some of my switchboards are being loaned out to a movie set. Once they are back, I'm moving my collection to a storage area big enough to start creating what will be a real live working manual central office, where I'd love to have people come in and try them out for fun! Feel free to drop me an email at Ricciotti@aol.com if you'd like to chat more about our interests. Thanks for writing me!
+Chris Ricciotti Did you ever get the direct message I sent you via UA-cam?
You bet! And there will be more posted at some point once I get my collection set up and do some more video on all this.
Thanks for your interest on this!
Thank you for doing this! What memories it holds for me, when I was a teen I worked in a hospital, (night shift) I would relieve the switchboard operator for her 30 min lunch. I was the11 to 7 maintenance man. (goofing off)
Actually HAD a Rockland exchange number growing up. TRiangle8 (878). It was pulse dial in my time. Good old Ma Bell!
Hanover (826) next town over had 5 digit local pulse dial.
oh man, I hope to have a setup like this in my future telephone museum, very cool!
Will, I would like to hear more about what you are doing! Please drop me a note. If there is anyway I can help you with this, I'd love to be a part of that!
I have a fairly decent telephone collection, and love old telecom gear. I want to preserve this tech for future generations. I hope to some day have a switchboard setup with my magneto phones hooked into it and actually wired to work. As of now, I don't have the money or space to have a switchboard setup, but my dream is to have a telephone museum with such a setup. I have a few vids on my channel of my telephone stuff, check em out if you want.
This is a really neat idea, seems like a fun and educational community activity.
You should put the different exchanges in different buildings, more realistic. If both the boards have dials on them, you could have people dial toll calls, (maybe hook the dial trunks to a asterisk system or a step switch?) and have the operators mark a ticket.
All of this is quite possible. I'm working on getting connected to asterisk. I know it's not hard, but it's not my forte, so I'm looking at trying to make this work over time. Are you anywhere close to where I am in Rockland, MA?
I am now up on Asterisk, and would love some help with this.
+Chris Ricciotti alright, great! What exactly do you need help with?
That is awesome!
Looks VERY complicated! haha
And tedious
I'd love to do this
I hope they don't have a rodent problem in that shed 'cause they'd have a field day with all the wires in that old board.
it seems like a fun job...kinda therapeutic
I bet that would make a fun VR game. Sorta like Job Simulator.
are this like happening in real house locations? where the telephones called from.
Do you still do this? I would love to be an operator!
Unfortunately, I am located in Michigan, too far away to help. I am proficient in asterisk, so if you ever need any help, feel free to contact me. I really like the set up you have, and would love to help any way I can.
This is actually pretty cool! Those kids are lucky to tty it out. My grandpa had one but I doubt he still has it. I remember not being interested in a few years ago because I wanted to seem cool but it was awesome.
This looks fun!! :D
Thanks! It was great fun, and I'm looking to do more or this. If you are ever in the area, stop in and I'll show you my collection.
I am still a telephone oparaitor
It looks like a great setup. I'd love to see it. I belong to the Telephone Museum in Ellsworth, ME, and got to use a real switchboard. I was (and again am) the telephone tech for Attleboro if I can be of any assistance to you let me know.
Skip, I'm also a member of the Telephone Museum in Ellsworth, ME. I would love some assistance with all my stuff. I'm going to be doing a fair amount of work bringing more of this equipment back to life, in the spring of 2015. Let me know if you'd be interested. I'd love to show you my collection.
Absolutely, anytime. Feel free to contact me. It sounds like fun!!!
So that where the phrase plug away comes from
That is correct!
Chris Ricciotti I just realised it, after reading title.
I started back in 1981 when it was Pacific Telephone and Telegraph in Directory Assistance on paper records during the time technology was changing cord board offices were changing to the TSPS system and some offices closed, it looked like it was interesting then Directory Assistance, the operators that I had spoken to said that had worked the cord board mentioned that there were a variety of calls not just giving out numbers, darn I missed it.
Hello, Central? I'd like ASPinwall 2057, please.
With pleasure!
+Christopher Dean Surely.
Thank you. One moment please.
Aspinwall7, a Boston exchange
I want to do this lol
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I envy this kids, I am 40yrs old and nver seen a switchboard in my entire life..