British Telecom Engineer Visits The Museum! - Telephone Tuesdays

[@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE]

If there are any ex engineers out there who have stories or want to appear on an episode of Telephone Tuesdays, please get in touch!

[@freeitstafford]

Hey Sam, been trying to get a hold of you regarding some GPO memorabilia left by my late father who was a BT engineer for many years back to the GPO days. There's a couple of immaculate condition staff hand books and a heap of original exchange engineering manuals I'd like to donate for display or your own study. Sent some deets to museum@ but may have gone to junk.

[@David-k6t3i]

Hi Sam, I have been trying to contact you about the UAX13 via your website contact form and the email shown on the site but have had no reply. Wondering if it is all going into junk mail???

[@markedis5902]

I remember when I worked for BT, there was one guy, Alan, who always lost his tools and “borrowed” everyone else’s. One day when he was off, we superglued all his tools to his desk. There was another guy who always had a nap at lunch time. On one occasion we set the clocks forward to night time, covered the only window with black paper, all left the workshop and then rung every phone there briefly to wake him up. We had a lot of fun but we worked hard.

[@mickcoleman5396]

The amount of effort put in to pranks far exceeded any effort to do any work

[@terrybailey2769]

We had someone like that, he would never use his own tools. We tried to prank him once by welding the corners of his toolbox shut. The prank fell flat as it took him 3 months to realise that we had done it.

[@markedis5902]

Mitch would have made a good BT engineer. He has the right attitude and level of humour

[@padders1068]

Mick and Mitch, thanks for a great episode. 🙂😎🤓

[@Vladimir-hq1ne]

This deserves quite a lot MORE views... Thank you, gentlemen!

[@firenado4295]

Nice to hear about register translators, never thought I would hear them mentioned on youtube lol. I only know about them because my father just finished rebuilding one. Was a nightmare as you can't get any info on them other than diagrams. But it works now and is really cool to watch as there are so many relays and uniselectors all going at once. Its almost a direct analogue version of address translation on modern router used for networking.

[@firenado4295]

we also have a working one of those docket printers. It needs about a racks worth of equipment to work, half of it is just a mechanical calendar to work out the dates. There is even a leap year relay!

[@thebiggerbyte5991]

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks!

[@loopinnerthe]

these just get better and better. thanks chaps

[@FreejackVesa]

Great episode, fascinating stuff. I love the tales of old school British blue collars.

[@sparkyprojects]

I was trying to rectify a problem on the wire wrap block on the end of a rack, imagine a v shape with a block on each face and my head between, my forehead touche a block that had ringing current, i jolted back and the back of my head hit the 'bed of nails' block behind (crossbar system) The Butt full name is 'buttinsky', i always assumed it was named after the inventor, but just looked it up on wiktionary, it has no mention of a person, but is an interesting read, buttinsky is also used for a person butting in, which the but can do i suppose

[@isaacplaysbass8568]

So cool to hear the stories. I'd love to hear a group of engineers/technicians/other all reminiscing over an extended episode sometime.

[@Simple_But_Expensive]

If it is working, don’t touch it is the very first thing I was taught as an instrument and controls tech. This was directly the opposite to my training as a stationary engineer, where you are constantly tuning the equipment for better efficiency.

[@Richardincancale]

23:10 X.25! Hi Mitch! In 1982 I wrote a best seller on the subject! X.25 Explained! I also worked with lots of BT International guys in projects around Europe building mobile networks. Maybe we worked together somewhere? Telfort in NL, Blu in IT? Thanks for the good memories!

[@mickcoleman5396]

Richard, Iw orked with Concert Packet Services, originally Tymnet..I think its Me not Mitch.. This was the late nineties and early 2000s

[@markedis5902]

Butts were called Butts because the store’s catalogue entry was BT, Unit, Test, Telephone. Store code B.U.T.T Not sure if the B is right but I know it was from the stores catalog

[@mickcoleman5396]

Mark, you maybe right about the Unit Test telephone (no one seems to know, like 81's) The BT bit cant be right all the guys I worked with were ex GPO guys and were calling a butt before the concept of BT. The mystery continues 🙂

[@louis_makes]

@@mickcoleman5396 could be bakelite

[@terrybailey2769]

Wow, I worked at Holborn myself in 1973, 404/405/242 and Holborn tandem. I still remember spending hours cleaning the banks of the uniselectors on the Directors. Left in 1978 before the clockwork exchanges got the chop.

[@mickcoleman5396]

Did you know Larry, John OHara, Stan Sidthorpe (all 405), Will Rosser (Tandem), there were a fee old rota guys on 405 (cant remember their names but can visualize them)

[@terrybailey2769]

​@@mickcoleman5396 Not that I remember, it was way before the BT era. Also worked at the Internation Telex Exchange at Fleet Building on Farringdon Road. The building has been demolished years ago. I also got seconded to Judd Street for a while, where we had two of the speaking clock machines and the recorded message studios for things like Childrens London. I remember some of the silly stunts though, a favourite was the puting voltage dependant resistors behind plugs, so when the socket was switched on, the VDR exploded and blew the plug out of the socket. Scared more than a few.

[@andyknott8148]

Brilliant conversation with Mick. Do we know which area he worked in? (For my many sins, I started in 1968 and did Strowger, TXE2's TXE4's System X).

[@edgeeffect]

I think only Americans called bums "butts" in those days. In the early 80s, my dad brought a load of old switching stuff home from his mate with a scrap yard, so I could cut the platinum out.

[@cyberpholk]

This is amazing

[@colinstu]

I've also heard that it's called "butt phone/set" because you're "butting into a call". But yeah the first reason I heard was because it was worn on rear of work belt and hung off butt... but this was more of a thing for guys who went up on telephone poles, as they'd need to hang it somewhere secure while scaling poles. So if one were to mostly be working out of an exchange they prob have other names/reasons for it.

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Great listening! Back in the late 70s Telstra was crippled by a technician strike . I think it lasted 2 weeks. Anyway, within a couple of days Brisbane lost all long distance connectivity. Sydney dropped to 1/3 capacity and both weather and time had gone silent. The weather number became an open line. People could dial in and chat away. Time was 1194 and weather was 1196 in those days. In the early 80s there was a lot of trouble with crossed lines. I recall picking up the phone repeatedly and getting someone’s call 8 times out of ten. How do you get a line that’s in use instead of the dial tone?

[@mickcoleman5396]

Dirty or worn wiper contacts usually, the contact that is looking for an earth, the earth would complete a loop and the magnet step the switch/selector onto the next set of hoepfully free bank contacts. If this didn't happen you would connect to a swicth that already had a call on it...The misnomer was calling it crossed line, the actual line rarely was anything to do with the issue.

[@monktoncrew]

LOVING THIS SHIT, GENTLEMEN

[@smudge0161]

I think you should do a longer video with Mick, seems like hes got a lot more tales to tell.

[@mickcoleman5396]

Loads, some not suitable for youtube...I will do some more if the guys are up for it.

[@BTTT-c9q]

Can a selector process 2 numbers from different telephone lines at the same time, or do they process one number at a time?

[@aussiecaptsarcasm9100]

I did my time with Telecom here in Australia and the phone you called a "Butt" was called a "Buttinski" because you could butt in to a conversation lol

[@harrismagnum04]

Brilliant !

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Now that everything is switching to FTTP then optical switching systems.

[@BearbearbearbearbearbearRarrrr]

Yes please….more smart genius types who know how things work, please. SWAGGER.

[@deeiks12]

Are all telephone people so nice?

[@sitjar]

You need more mics. I'm straining to hear what's being said.

[@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE]

what?

[@AMPProf]

Really MI6 clearly knows now! You just happen upon an Engineer. Of the Telephony