1950s Switchboard Operations

This 1950s Switchboard is on display in The May-Stringer Museum (Heritage Museum) Brooksville Florida.
Starring- Mary Frances Griffith
Recorded and edited by Jesse Lisk

[@broccodoggo8363]

My grandmother was a southern bell, she absolutely loved the job and retired from there and has stayed with AT&T since then. She recounts always hating mother's day because of how overwhelmed the lines would become with people moaning and complaining to be connected faster. To these people she said she said "Well, why did you just need to wait until a holiday to tell your momma you loved her?".

[@Bibaby2599]

She’s right though you know if you’re mama is truly something special you cherish her and tell her how much you love her every day

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

A bell, eh?

[@drunk_by_noon9231]

@@mikeymcmikeface5599 Southern Bell was a telephone company

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

@@drunk_by_noon9231 Right. But can you say it like that? If he worked for GM could you say that your grandfather was a general motors? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that should have been "belle".

[@drunk_by_noon9231]

@@mikeymcmikeface5599 I just assumed him calling her a "Southern Bell" was kinda a pun/slang for someone who worked for Southern Bell.

[@the1digitalwizard]

My grandma is 102 years old and is a retired switchboard operator. She retired in the 1980s. And that's the type of equipment that she started out on in the 1940s

[@someguy9778]

What has she been doing the last 40 years?

[@the1digitalwizard]

@@someguy9778 living in extremely good life. I actually knew my great-grandparents also they lived to be close to 100 themselves. Nana will be 103 in a few months. I live a block away so I see her everyday lol. She still lives at home, by herself, she still Cooks and cleans. She just doesn't do laundry anymore.

[@brandonoconnor1079]

My great grandma was a switchboard operator in Asheville, NC she started working on the first telephone switchboard in our city.

[@defeatSpace]

My mom and my grandmother did this job, and they both have fond memories from working the switchboard.

[@shanen2432]

Wishing many more years to your grandma 😊

[@Sweetpea1128]

My Dad was a hotel manager and I started “working” the switchboard when I was 13. Anytime I had some free time, I would go to the front desk and let the switchboard operator have a break. When I graduated from high school, my first job was switchboard and desk clerk at a hotel. It was the MOST fun job ever!! I’m 75 years old. ❤

[@James-xo4uv]

It is great that older technologies like this is saved, to show future generations and show today's generations how things were done

[@Osteoja]

That if most of the future generations still retain what's left of their current attention spans.

[@rexjolles]

@@Osteoja that's quite rude

[@ghhhp]

wish the pyramid makers did the same thing

[@zeektm1762]

@@rexjolles but its true, I hope that the generation after gen alpha will realize how much damage has been done

[@zackakai5173]

@@zeektm1762 huh? People *today* already realize how much damage has been done, that's why so many younger people are in favor of things like mixed-use zoning, public transit, and generally making things more sustainable in the long run.

[@RishayanPorMexico]

Yep, that's basically how it was. I sat in front of a switchboard exactly like this one back in 1978 in Dallas Texas. I was the long distance operator for many small towns in North Texas that still, in the late 70s, did not have direct dial. That told us that we were working at the last operating switchboard in the state of Texas. I was also the Dallas Mobile operator for people who had phones in their cars, long before cell phones. It was sort of fun, in a way, except that the Southwestern Bell supervisors were very strict, walking back and forth behind us to keep us on the ball.

[@Jupe367]

That’s great information. That job must have been high pace and long distance calls was not cheap then. So when you connect the calls do you stay on the line the entire time the call is active? The way she describe it sounds like you stay on the line through the call until they hang up. Do we even have operators these days?

[@RishayanPorMexico]

@@Jupe367 No, it was strictly prohibited that we listen in on the calls, although, just like she showed in the video, there was a little lever that we had to close once we made connection to whom they where calling. It would have been easy enough, to silently lift up the lever and listen in. We knew they had hung up when the light when out, and so we disconnected the cords. I will never forget one time when a man called in saying his neighbors house was on fire, and while I was waiting for the fire company to answer their phone, I had to stay on the line, and this man was all excited, yelling at people to keep filling up some buckets of water to throw on the fire. It really made me feel that I was right there!

[@Jupe367]

@@RishayanPorMexico I love to hear stories like this, it makes my mind think about what it was like back during the good ole days. If there is such thing as a Time Machine, I will be the first to volunteer.

[@Carlene333]

@@Jupe367 I retired after 33 years in 1999. I Started out as a Local & Long Distance on the Cord Board at SWBT in 1966 (as they called it then) after graduating high school. One call I’ll always remember is trying to connect a Person to Person call to Walt Disney but he was in the hospital…

[@2024301]

Thanks for sharing this

[@Ater_Draco]

In the 90s, I worked with an older woman who had worked as an operator for the British GPO in the 50s and 60s. They were extremely strict about etiquette, diction, and required telephonists to minimise their regional accents. There were strict dress codes, even though the operators couldn't be seen by customers. She still had a beautiful, formal telephone manner 40 years later.

[@CheshireCat6639]

True, it was a very respectful job,I worked at the GPO in the 70's,no smoking there long before it was banned from the workplaces. The older supervisors were strict !💯

[@mikefogarty110]

Had a customer and friend up in Cheyenne Wyoming that I did tech support for him , His company was Home telephone Co , When he passed away at the age of 87 , he put me in his will and his daughter called me and asked me to come up and pick out what I wanted out of his collection of Nortel equip. and antiques , there was 2 of these switchboards in his storage , one of them was still wrapped in oil plastic , never opened ! I couldn`t find a way to get it to Denver because of it`s weight , we ended giving it to the Wyoming telephone museum . Jus a little history I wanted to share . RIP Bill Boyd , you were loved by many !

[@loveisall5520]

I can remember meeting a switchboard operator in the seventies when I was a teenager; she was in her sixties and the space between her thumb and first finger was permanently red from so many years of pulling and pushing plugs. Amazing women.

[@1953childstar]

My great-aunt became deaf from the clicking headsets...

[@donaldlampert331]

In the early 1970’s, I was one of the first male operators at Illinois Bell, in north side Chicago! Good memories!

[@georgewaring7168]

I remember youse guys. People would call the Operator or Information (not called Directory Assistance then), get a male voice and panic. Usually hanging up.

[@kasession]

I heard a story when someone got a male operator, the person on the other end of the phone started cracking up laughing. The operator thought it was all good fun, and just waited for them to stop laughing.

[@kenp3L]

The way I heard it, actually, was that way back around the turn of the century, the operators were men. But the phone company replaced them with women, who, it became apparent, were more polite to callers and more tolerant of drudgery.

[@ruben3305]

Thank you so much for the explanation. I’m really fascinated by the telephone bygone era and how intricate it was. Operators literally connected the people around the country/world

[@Carlene333]

Yes, we did.

[@jaminova_1969]

I certainly miss hearing, "Operator, how may I help you?" And responding with something like, "I'd like to make a long-distance call, please!"

[@user-jp7ni5xv1r]

everything was manual before it was automated! We take so much for granted these days its actually insane.

[@blesschacko3264]

We learnt in Engineering College why ultimately these switch boards became obsolete. There was an undertaker (Funeral event manager) by the name of A B Strowger whose clients were rerouted to another Undertaker who was the operator's husband. When Strowger found out, he was determined to find a solution, to automate or digitalize switching altogether. His hard work paid off. His invention was patented and sold to Bell, & AT & T. Which eventually paved the way to digital telephone exchanges we see today.

[@spankyharland9845]

A.B. Strowger indeed built the first device for customers to select who they wanted to call, but his dial device took several years to be perfected before it was sold to Bell Laboratories. Amazing invention that was created due to unfair business practices, thank you for mentioning this little know factum.

[@vk2ig]

@@spankyharland9845 My father's last job as a technician in charge of a telephone exchange was at one of the last step-by-step exchanges serving a rural town in Australia. I grew up being taken into these sorts of exchanges on after hours call-outs, and I think I will never forget the sound of a step-by-step exchange.

[@Synthwave89]

That is fascinating. To think that a corrupt operator stealing customers for her husband was the driving force to innovate modern communications, and would eventually make her job obsolete. Karma, baby.

[@chriscormac231]

Kansas City has another claim to fame

[@lukerinderknecht2982]

Plot twist: the operator was offing people on the side to drive even more business for her husband

[@alanhuff3417]

I give these ladies credit I saw one of these at our local museum yesterday and the amount of plugs was just mind blowing

[@theaccidentalhousewife]

Like how did they keep all that straight?

[@billgreen1861]

@@theaccidentalhousewife Dedication and commitment to do the work they were hired to do. Today it wouldn't stand a chance, people now don't even look up, their heads are buried in their smartphones. I worked as a telephone operator for twenty years not once did I make a mistake and I'm proud of myself, never was I acknowledged by my employer. Cheers ! Here in New York City.

[@theaccidentalhousewife]

@@billgreen1861 You amaze me, sir! Cheers!

[@billgreen1861]

@@theaccidentalhousewife Thank you, Catherine McDonald !

[@Claydood]

@@billgreen1861 I'm curious, did your employer have very strict quotas for how fast you helped customers and have a mandatory number of interactions per hour back then? I tried working in a call center 10 years ago and the strict quotas and management getting angry when people failing to meet the required number of interactions, all on top of every other customer cussing and harassing you because something went wrong on their end, made it difficult to be dedicated and committed to doing the job. If telephone operator employers were like that back then, it seems like the job would be miserable trying to keep up with all the plugs and what goes to where. They probably trained you properly though. Nowadays employers will have you watch a video or read a few things on a computer then send you out to work with little hands on training.

[@orangejjay]

THIS. IS. AWESOME. It's so fascinating how there was an actual human element to the technology we see automated today.

[@kami3000]

@tiredofpc K I'm glad you added 'almost'. House building and making paper was invented by animals ;)

[@josephgaviota]

_It's so fascinating how there was an actual human element to the technology we see automated today._ I completely agree. My career was "workflow automation." The secret was to WATCH how things are ACTUALLY DONE before making any proposals of how to automate with computers and programming. [edit: fix typo]

[@predictorbibulous3327]

I'm glad she's keeping this switchboard intact and on display. It's hard to appreciate things in life if you weren't there experiencing their lesser forms. Kids that are born with cell phones in their hands have no reference to how convenient that is because they never had to use a rotary phone or call the operator to find out the time and temp.

[@kubotajordan9502]

My aunt was a operator in Jacksonville Fl till she retired . She always said the supervisors were always listening in while they worked. I remember calling Jacksonville Beach from Orange Park Fl and I heard hear voice on the line when she said operator . thanks for doing this video .

[@jimhansen5395]

I worked at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base (NORAD) in the mid-1980's. While waiting for my security clearance to go through (3 months or so) I worked at the switchboard. This is the exact model of switchboard we used there. We had three positions side-by-side, and actually used these to coordinate world wide Space Shuttle Launch Conference Calls using these.

[@josephgaviota]

Super interesting !

[@higgme1ster]

I bet you were a Tech Controller, right? I was a 30770, mate but never as heavy as that assignment.

[@karenroy9045]

It’s fascinating knowing that equipment was used in the 1980’s.

[@FirstLast-jm4dx]

A few decades back, I used to work the switchboard for our high school for the semester. Got so efficient at it after a few weeks, callers were often surprised at how fast I got them patched to whom they want.

[@Spitznock]

This is the most simple and concise explanation of what a switchboard is used for and generally how it is operated that I've been able to find. Thank you!

[@theotherdave8013]

my mom worked for AT&T back in the early 60s, she told me it was a crazy time and a challenging job.

[@maniacdaddy8047]

It's wild to think about all of the stuff we take for granted not knowing what goes on behind the scenes.

[@josephgaviota]

💯 correct on that. There's LOTS of interesting stories about how _mundane_ things are handled.

[@greggybada]

probably more so for people born after 2000...

[@josephgaviota]

@@asanokatana _You know, phone calls aren’t really switched like this anymore, right?_ Do Tell!

[@dayzemae9015]

When I was young, I was a PBX Operator. This was the best job out of all my jobs in my life. I loved that job. They use to call me The Singing Operator because I use to almost sing when I was paging your name over the loud speakers that you had a call. One day a young man came up to the Operator Room to see who was singing and introduced himself. We have been married for almost fifty years now.

[@DoloresSeurat]

💖 Congratulations! That’s a sweet story 💐

[@joemclaughlin995]

Wow! Incredibly demanding job,well explained. Looks like a busy flight deck area.

[@spirtwalker3283]

THANK YOU MS MARY FRANCESS GRIFFITH

[@SummerRain368]

That was the best job ever! So much fun talking to a variety of people daily. Having to figure out overtime with the coin pay phones really helped keep your brain sharp. No calculator. lol. Southern New England Telephone Co.

[@josephgaviota]

Kind of off topic, but when I was a teen, even the counter people at McDonalds used paper order sheets and pencils. They had to add the prices up, look at the tax table taped to the counter, add that manually. Now, they just push the picture of a hamburger; everything else is done for them. Making change? fuggadaboutit.

[@wallychambe1587]

I had a touch tone phone in 1973, moved to a small town in Texas and was shocked to find touch tone wouldn't be available for 3 more years!!

[@josephgaviota]

The company I worked for in the mid '70s still had rotary phones. There was an upcharge for touch-tone. The owner said he'd run the lower-cost dial phones. "Someday, they'll have to switch to touch tone, and they'll upgrade us for free." I wonder if he lived long enough to see that. Pulse dialing was supported for DECADES after that.

[@Zebra_3]

don't mess w/ Texas.

[@bdavis7801]

😊 My grandma was a switchboard operator. Thank you for this!

[@alisoncleeton877]

My lovely Mum used to do this in her youth in England!💗

[@matteng2332]

What an absolute treasure, thank you for sharing this.

[@Sennmut]

Very cool. My mom was a telephone operator, back in the early 50's. Interesting to see the technology of that day.

[@meffffy]

Great description of how things worked. Makes sense why it used to cost so much money!

[@karenrich9092]

Thank you for this wonderful video. My husband was a telecommunications engineer and he would have LOVED to see this. It really shows how far our technology has come.

[@7cats4me]

My mother was an operator for Ma Bell from about 5 years in Norton VA. My father also worked in the central office, and they moved from Wise County to Lee County where they continued to work. Mom stopped working in 1953 or 54. When the local office was converted, my Dad brought home one of those plugs you see sticking up. Mom carried it on her keychain from about 1965-66 until she passed away in 2015. I have carried it on my keychain since that day. I also carry the circuit tester Dad carried to and from work in his pocket protector for as long as I can remember. I carry it in my purse as well. Both items mean nothing to anyone else, but I view them as two of my most precious treasures. Thank you for this museum and this video. I had never seen what my mom had described to me many times.

[@Hopeless_and_Forlorn]

In 1967 the city of Irving, Texas was served by, if I remember correctly, General Telephone. Long after Dallas had direct dialing for long distance, we in Irving still had to call an operator to complete a long distance call.

[@muffs55mercury61]

Same in Phoenix that far back. We only had 420,000 back then (the metro area has over 4 million now) and almost all the outer towns were still long distance.

[@Carlene333]

In Houston Texas it was SWBT. Southwestern Bell

[@squangan]

That is amazing seeing all that went into making a phone call. I’ve seen switchboards in museums but never had the method of operation explained like in this video.

[@sara31773]

The complexity of the switchboards is astounding and was incredible technology for its day.

[@mhoover]

That brings back memories. In 1973 I worked a similar board as the first male operator in Pompton Lakes, NJ.

[@lsr2937]

My grandmother owned an Answer America switchboard in the first floor of her home up until the early 70s. When we went to her house the switchboard ladies would let us sit with them with a pair of headphones and and listen in, they would also patiently explain what they were doing. Great memories, thank you.

[@martymiracle2254]

In the mid 60’s I was in high school and worked part time at Northwest Bell. I saved all but $5 a week. I was able to pay for my nursing school. Was great place to work.

[@lucycarin]

My dad’s sis had polio and was a switchboard operator in Amarillo at the VA hospital. As a kid in the 1950s-it is what I wanted to be when I “grew up”…

[@karenroy9045]

I loved being a switchboard operator. I loved working in the call center too. It’s amazing how the job was done years ago.

[@steelman86]

We had those switchboards in our small town in Central California. I got to be friends (on the phone) with a younger operator who had the night shift and boredom made us chatty cathys late at night., we got to be good enough friends that she would connect me to calls in progress with my side being muted so i got to listen in. One neighbor who wasn't very honest had some interesting late night calls!!! It was a fun time in the old days with several neighbors around our ranch on party lines!! A local museum has a couple of these great old switchboards, one from a smaller private phone company eventually forced to go with Ma Bell.....when my mother and aunt would fly their balsa wood airplanes on the main highway, the on duty operator would come out of the office and tell them their mother (my grandmother) said to come home for dinner!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@MrShadowpanther3]

My dad worked for Bell Telephone in Pittsburgh for 41 years. One day he asked if I wanted to go with him down to work as they were doing an ESS cutover. It was 1am when he looked at the clock on the wall and said "well, that's it, lets go home". I was a bit disappointed but he explained that in the office, someone typed "ESS CUT" and the entire system switched from electro-mechanical phone relays to a computerized system (Electronic Switching System). The fact that no chaos happened by like 1:01 am meant everything went according to plan. Amazing how far we have come literally in 1 lifetime.

[@StephSancia]

My Mum was a PBX Operator at the Home Office in London so this looks familiar. Happy Christmas and New Year from New Zealand 🙏

[@penquinn6942]

This was really helpful. I'm in a musical about WW1 switchboard operators. We have scene where we pretend to use these. It's called Hello Girls.

[@robertfish6617]

This brought a tear to my eye. Dang I miss the simpler times. So much more personal.

[@avalanche9026]

Incredibil how complex the operation was. God bless you lady Made it to modern world

[@djackmanson]

I've worked in paging/message taking and directory assistance, but only in the computer era. My supervisor when I started in 2000 still called taking calls being "on the boards"; she had worked in the era of plugs and switches. It's fascinating to see this old-school analogue equipment. The thought that every long-distance call record was manually handled is incredible. And the thought that every number for directory assistance was available in 20 or 30 pages is amazing.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

It is a great treasure to have an actual operator explain how the system worked. People took pride in their jobs then too. Great video! Thanks very much! ~

[@debco12]

Thank you for this. I always wondered how those switchboards worked. My mom was an operator for the phone company in Louisville, Kentucky when she was in college and first married to my dad. She said the operators all had to take diction classes to remove any trace of a Southern accent. I wish she were still with us so I could have showed her this and heard her stories about those days.

[@valleygirlgg]

This so so neat! My Mom worked as an operator back in the 60's and then she got married and had kids and life went on. One day 23 years later she divorced my dad and went to work in a hospital and one of her patients was also an operator and told her she could go get on with the phone company since she had been an operator when she was 19. The hospital didn't pay well so she went and applied and got on at pacific northwest bell. She worked there for 25 years and retired with a good pension and was paid quite well. I was so proud of her. Ma bell is all closed down now but it's really neat to see what my Mom's switch boards looked like. She had to learn MSDOS in 3 days when computers were introduced into the phone company. Thanks for posting this

[@bluewinterwolf]

As someone who loves technology, I always wondered how these machines work. Thanks for the history lesson.

[@naomimartinez7395]

I started on one of those as a base operator in Asia. Then got a job with MA Bell and worked a little over 4 years ob cord boards until they went to the consoles. Interesting times.

[@criox250]

its always so interesting seeing old tech and how stuff were handled back then

[@MrTimFarnham]

Back in the 1960s I was a technician at a central office that had 3cl toll operator switchboards (about 50 switchboards). It wasn't my job to fix them; however, those little lights would burn out so I replaced the bulbs. Sometimes the operator would miss the jack and push the 310 plug into the light and break it. I fixed the broken calculagraphs (they recored the answer and disconnect time of a toll call {revenue}).

[@IN-tm8mw]

wow, sounds like you always had workorders on your hands. thanks for your service.

[@Paublo79]

So fascinating how things used to work. Technology has come such a long way. Great video!

[@MrMenefrego1]

My mother-in-law was one of the first operators in The Kingdom of The Netherlands after reorganization just after WWII; she said that working at the phone company at that time was barely organized chaos.

[@smalls9852]

Wow, so much respect for those who worked on these. I have to answer phones and transfer calls for my job. It is way less complicated now.

[@anthonyb7064]

I would have lasted one call and fled screaming in terror. I have always had the most respect for the operators to do what they did. The volume that must have come through each day.

[@AnthonyWW68]

Priceless to hear from someone who actually worked one of those.

[@omarscomingyo651]

i dont know u lady! but u brought tears to my eyes! 😍 there's no better drug than nostalgia! Thank u!!!

[@1971bdott]

That’s very interesting thank you my mom was the switchboard operator when she was in her early 20s. Amazing how things have changed so much and not necessarily for the better.

[@achong007]

Thank you for showing us how those switch board works. I was always curious about that.

[@welcomestranger]

Amazing complicated analogue technology and the people that knew how to work them with ease.

[@deltasquared7777]

I remember when, in a small town in Illinois, we had a telephone without dials; you would lift the receiver and use a crank to connect to the operator. You would then tell the operator the name of person you wanted to call and she would connect you on the switchboard.

[@josephgaviota]

Very Andy Griffith!

[@normansilver905]

I worked a Switch Bord like this in a Fire Department Communications Center. We even had "Ring Down" ability to all 26 fire stations.

[@jerryfacts9749]

The wiring behind these patch panels was huge. The phone system being operated by the panel was complicated and with cross bar relays. Very well organized. The engineering behind this was amazing. Today all this is replaced by a computer unit with a number of circuit boards.

[@nokomarie1963]

My grandaunts were switchboard operators in Haverhill, Massachusetts, beginning in the late twenties and through the fifties. One of the perks was that it was easy to purchase stock in the Bell Company. They were both able to retire comfortably and, while not wealthy, could travel a little and never had to worry; even though they were single ladies, they always had an income.

[@Soturi92]

It’s so amazing how we still do a similar form of this but more advanced and even faster pace. I used to work at an answering service that still had these old switch boards in a storage room. I was always curious about how they really worked!

[@jeremylee1803]

I love this kind of history, kind wish we can go back to it

[@clrobertson13]

My grandmother and her sister were switchboard operators from about 1916 to 1920. I never saw the equipment they worked, but I’m sure it was similar. Thank you!😊

[@MsBrynnElizabeth]

My grandmother was a retired switch operator for Bell Atlantic. She was with them for 40+ years :) She passed away in 2018 4 weeks shy of her 90th birthday.

[@CubeAtlantic]

My grandmother used to be a dispatcher yrs ago until the late 90's switchboards are honestly retro & impressively dope :D

[@philosopher1a]

OH man how did they ever make phones calls lol wow we have come a long way ... Excellent explanation and demonstration

[@camronbitzer3159]

Spectacular. I've always wondered how these worked. Thank you!

[@exoressdelivers70]

I worked a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) board for several years at a major hospital. The setup is identical except instead of going city to city you connected office to office or department to department but the boards were the same.

[@IN-tm8mw]

that's interesting.

[@MoishHas]

This is a very important history documentation. Thanks!!!

[@MarcelStrucker]

Thank you for your very clear explanation Mary Frances Griffith!

[@Sctronic209]

That’s awesome love hearing about history.

[@florante4991]

I've seen this in action when I was maybe in first grade. My mom had a friend who was a switchboard operator. I was born in the 70s.

[@Big_Red_Wade]

My Grandmother was an operator in Australia and i always wondered how she did her job, Thank you for your video, its very much Appreciated and informative, Strangely enough im watching a movie from 1976 called Assault on Precinct 13 and a lady in the police station was using a switchboard and it sparked my memory :)

[@joshprado4353]

I always wondered how they worked. Super interesting. Thank you.

[@Roger__Wilco]

"Hello operator, I want to make a prank call. Just put me through to someone random please"

[@dfirth224]

Direct dial long distance began being phased in during the 1950s. But first the newly invented Area Codes codes had to be assigned to each area and two more digits had to be added to phone numbers.

[@palmercolson7037]

There is a video from a Bell Telephone movie short about long distance calling being tested in the 1950s. It's somewhere on KZbin. The second half demonstrates how the billing worked. The machinery punched holes on a tape for the start and stop of the call. That would be transferred to punch cards like the woman in the video showed.

[@wavedog23]

It's so awesome to see relics of the past like this - knowing where we are now and where we came from. Every step forward is a step off the back of those who came before us.

[@michaelmartin8036]

Brought back memories! I was an Overseas Operator based in Jacksonville. Started in 1972. Slight differences is our cords were 2 pronged and our dialer was what we called a key pulse. Calculagraph was there as well. Everyone wore the 52A headset that you had on until they started transitioning to the Starset. We handled calls to Caribbean Islands, Central America, Venezuela, UK and High Seas radio (Ship to Shore). Being a male, the callers were a bit skeptical that I was really an operator.

[@NYCMNYBY]

I worked the OVS boards in New York (32 AOTA) in 1973. NY handled traffic to GITMO, and Havana (Relay) from US areas that Jacksonville did not. Transit calls from other overseas points came in through 151 inward. When I was transferred from the 11th floor where 151 trunks were located, and on to the 10th, the job for me became real routine and boring. I managed to collect a good number of gold colored plastic plates with country designations, along with the Green and Red plastic relief and go home cards. Too bad I tossed it all out back in the late 70's. I do however have a operator position plate that I removed from position 5225 when the operator boards were being removed around 1981. The last operating room to close was on the 10th floor. The 10th floor was modified with video terminals when the boards were upgraded to ISPS positions. I later went to work at NY7 PL Test board, then in 1984 at NYT at the split up. Today all the places where I once worked, even at NYT, are now long closed, and ripped out.

[@denislavigne223]

I had the pleasure of working on a very old switchboard at CFB Gagetown. No lights, just ivory balls that would flip white or black if I remember correctly. It was around 1980. We used the modern (for the time) version that used electronic cards in the field between HQ and the different units.

[@GnomaPhobic]

This was absolutely fascinating. I loved how the plugs were designed to pull back into their sockets when the operator let go of them; very pleasing. Also I was amused how the "ticket" didn't quite go into the slot too easily; it's a good reminder that life has always been filled with little annoyances, and rarely do things always go just way they are 'supposed to'. Thank you for sharing this.

[@NuthinButFlavaEntertainment]

Andrew Jackson H.S in Queens NY had a switchboard like this when I was a freshman student. We took turns learning and operating it as students in 78 and 79, memories

[@McRocket]

Fascinating. It was a lot more complicated/work involved than I previously believed. ☮

[@bikepacker9850]

Great... Great video. The last gives an amazing explanation.

[@robertwhelan9132]

This is awesome. Thank you for the peek into the past!

[@taylorfranklin85]

I work in IT, we still call a device the routes network data to different devices (laptop, tablet, phone, etc) a "switch". Cool to know that this is where it originated!

[@CheshireCat6639]

Fabulous ty Mary❤, i worked at the GPO in the 70's 🇬🇧 later to become BT, best job i ever had,once you had your 6 weeks training you were ready for the live calls.🙈 The cords looked like tangled spaghetti when your station was full, looked difficult to a by stander visitor but we soon got to know where all the correct lines were for the Country.also worked on 999 calls too,you nearly jumped out of your skin when the big red buzzer went off 😮

[@karenbecker7978]

Thanks for posting this. Always wanted to see someone explain one of these switchboards and how they were operated.

[@borderlander2260]

Always wondered how a switchboard worked. Very interesting.

[@alantaylor2117]

I was a TSPS operator for AT&T in Burbank in 1989-90

[@vk2ig]

As a kid I grew up on a rural property. Our nearest town had a manual telephone exchange. But for our telephone, they went one step further - we and all our neighbours along our road from town were on a party line. So someone calling us would ask to be connected to 8279W, for example. The operator would select our party line, then press the button for "W" which would cause all the phones on the line to go ring-riiiiiinnnnnng-riiiiiinnnnng - one short and two long rings, which is Morse code for "W". You could hear your phone ringing from out in the paddock, and know whether it was for us or not: "One short, two longs and a short, that's P, the new people about 2 miles back towards town ... a long, two shorts and a long, that's X, the neighbours to the north ... a short and two longs, that's W which is us, better get to the house!". The operators knew they were dealing with people who might take a minute to get to the phone, so they would let the phone ring for a while to give us enough time. And people on the line could -and sometimes did - quietly lift the handset and listen in on conversations, so it wasn't very private. 😊

[@nunca789]

Thank you, Mary, and everyone supporting the museum effort! That was the world when I was a kid. Fascinating amount of human knowledge and processing at every step!

[@kathimorrical9912]

Mary, I worked as a 'phone OPERATOR in the late 60s for a couple years. We were a college town, and when the rates dropped ( you had to pay x cent per minute, either the caller or collect to the number you called) the board lit up like Christmas! Sometimes you'd have a full board, and you could use the empty one next to you. I told some kids, teenagers, about this and couldn't comprehend. Thanks for the flashback!

[@mojave7604]

My mother operated a similar switchboard in the 80s for a US Naval base. It was her first job out of high school.

[@bobdevreeze4741]

My wife ran a board exactly like the intro well into the 90s. She worked for a small town answering service until 2012 when she retired.