Keeping 50yo Tech Alive Is Difficult!

Keeping 50yo Tech Alive Is Difficult! - Telephone Tuesdays

Рет қаралды 7,845

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 70

@davecharles7040 Ай бұрын

I worked in a north London TE and when bank leaning we were told never to use any form of lube in the banks as the oils trap more dirt and cause noisy connections. Great video. Keep up the good work.

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Ай бұрын

@@davecharles7040 makes a lot of sense cheers!

@iamhandy-man Ай бұрын

This Yank knows where he wants to visit on his next trip to the UK! Thanks for the WONDERFUL videos; I love each and every one of them. It's so much fun to learn about the technologies and your presentation skills and relationship to an unseen audience are absolutely top notch. Well done!

@chrisd4987 Ай бұрын

My father began his career in a small, country exchange on the wild west coast of New Zealand's South Island So we always had ex GPO bits lying around the shed. One of his more memorable projects used a relay with a large capacitor to make a 2 sec pulser to drive a uni selector that fed a set of traffic lights he made from car parts and installed on the path beside the house to regulate the "traffic". The duration of each colour light determined by how many uniselector contacts were wired together. My first introduction to electromechanics

@Omegaman1969 Ай бұрын

Back in the early 70s my Father figured out a way to call anywhere in the country for a local charge by chaining local codes together. Eventually a lot of people heard about the trick. Some Bath uni students were prosecuted for making cheap calls . The judge stated that it was likely a high level engineer that was being protected by the admiralty, that was responsible for it 🤣 He was an ICBM guidance systems engineer. His friend at work used the trick and accidentally called east Germany from an MOD secure building and was fired.

@madscientist159-real 7 күн бұрын

Thoroughly enjoying all of the telephony content from both Sam and Mitch, and mad respect for all the work that's going into fixing and preserving the exchange, associated equipment, and all of the history surrounding it. If the museum was in the States I'd be dropping by to help, but it's a little far away for that right now ;) Keep up the good work!

@isaacplaysbass8568 Ай бұрын

LOVE The test modes! I reckon working in a busy exchange must have been quite fascinating rhythmically.

@tychosis Ай бұрын

I work on submarine sonar systems and frankly we still have a lot of really old front-end kit out there kicking about. Unfortunately, Navy training is still stuck in the 50s where people are only taught "if you see X do Y" but the combination of new and old today (and the fact that training and documentation isn't on the forefront of naval priorities) means we simply can't document every single edge case. You have no choice but to *truly* understand your system and localize problems by the symptoms presented. It's a struggle to get the fleet to understand this. It's great to see this sort of rational troubleshooting.

@wolfgangmcq Ай бұрын

I was reading recently about how Xerox techs "back in the day" had the same problem, management was of the opinion that their job should just be to follow the instructions in the troubleshooting flowchart, but that didn't work since the copiers were so complicated that there was no way to predict all the interactions that could go wrong in advance. They ended up trading tips under the table and eventually an anthropologist went in and got several papers out of the culture that developed without anyone in HQ noticing...

@tychosis Ай бұрын

@@wolfgangmcq Yeah ,100%. This is what I'm talking about. This body of "tribal knowledge" develops. Problem is, some of it is *good* information, some of it is *bad* information--but it's completely uncontrolled. (And some of the "fixes" that go around the grapevine--while maybe providing temporary relief--are ultimately actively harmful in the long run...)

@zaca211 Ай бұрын

That is absolute madness. Today, the same can be accomplished with a single small server and digital call routing.

@markedis5902 Ай бұрын

That’s the point. A museum of obsolete equipment. In my day a small server would be a midget that takes your lunch order

@AJB2K3 Ай бұрын

Back in those days, a small server was the size of a small house.

@dcallan812 Ай бұрын

Old phone exchanges were great places for geeks. I got into a couple of small local exchanges. I can still remember having a shared line (party line) with the house next door and a 4 digit phone number.

@sparkyprojects Ай бұрын

"The first exhange to go automatic was in 1912" The last to go automatic was 26 June 1975 (Abingdon) where i worked I had one of those hook tools, no idea where it is now

@misforyoutube8452 Ай бұрын

I love how all this complicated mechanical stuff is thoroughly documented, built to be serviceable and basically transparent how everything works. The relay noise in an active telephone exchange back in the days must have been absolutely deafening during peak hours.

@nigelballard6897 Ай бұрын

It certainly was! We were provided with ear defenders, especially when working in Group Switching Centres.

@curtishoffmann6956 Ай бұрын

"And *that* my friends, is pure Vogon poetry."

@ToTheGAMES Ай бұрын

Lets be honest, this wouldn't be in the category of worst poetry in The Guide :)

@sphinxverdant9649 Ай бұрын

Thanks!

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Ай бұрын

Thanks!

@TheDistur Ай бұрын

This stuff is beautiful. So many little precise parts playing together. (When they're working of course)

@nec3f Ай бұрын

That it has, what is essentially, a built-in soldering iron speaks volumes to the amount of maintenance these machines were expected to require.

@ThatSockmonkey Ай бұрын

Awesome. So glad you guys are doing what you do.

@tammymakesthings Ай бұрын

I’ve seen an argument made that the (mechanical) worldwide telephone network was the most complex machine ever made. And the fact that we built all these telephone exchanges without computer control is astounding to me. (Even the first few generations of computer-controlled crossbar switches used relays for their switching fabric.) Such a shame that more of this technology wasn’t preserved in museums. I hope that the digital switches (Lucent 5ESS, Nortel DMS, Ericsson AXE, etc) get preserved as everything moves to VoIP.

@padders1068 Ай бұрын

Great video, definitely interesting! Keep up the good work! 🙂😎🤓

@crunchyfrog555 Ай бұрын

The only simple contact cleaning tip I have is one I've used to service my pinball machine for many years - straight up white printer paper. Though given that these contacts here may have precious metals like Palldium on them I'd urge caution as I don't know how abrasive it would be on them. Maybe some testing first? It's amazing how simple white paper offers enough abrasiveness to simply swipe a few times between a contact to clean it up adequately. Of course you can squirt a bit of contact cleaner or isoprop on it too if there's something a bit more stubborn. But for pure ease and cheapness, it's about the best recommendation I have.

@firenado4295 Ай бұрын

the actual GPO contact cleaning strips they supply is about as abrasive as a thin bit of hard wearing carpet. The cleaners for the banks are just cloth on a jigg pretty much.

@mickcoleman5396 Ай бұрын

A simple claening tip for the guys that worked in the exchange was use the apprentice..IE me

@crunchyfrog555 Ай бұрын

@@mickcoleman5396 Lol, some things are universal and do not change. First job I had out of school was in a computer department. It was a great job, but I was the one who always got to do the shredding and unload boxes of paper.

@crunchyfrog555 Ай бұрын

@@firenado4295 I don't dispute that one bit. However that wasn't the point- I was answering what they asked in the video - do you have any other easy methods of cleaning?

@ancipital Ай бұрын

That''s really cool - good to see this technology being kept alive, such a bit piece of history that across the whole country was a mix of these electro mechanical exchanges that all meshed together so you could call people across the other side of the country (and beyond) and it generally all worked, when I was a kid I don't remember any instances where we had issues calling people, line quality could be really bad but I don't remember ever having failed calls. It was a fantastic technical achievement of the day based on what was technically feasible so should be belittled what they managed to do with what they had.

@retrozmachine1189 Ай бұрын

Yes, many telcos around the world dropped a lot of staff when SxS and xbar was replaced with fully digital equipment simply because they didn't need an army (not a small one!) of technicians constantly performing maintenance. SxS was the most intensive. I applied for an exchange tech cadetship a little before the changeover period, missed it the position by 'this much', which turned out to be a good thing considering the numbers of staff shed by the then named Telecom Australia after being split out of the post office and now named Telstra.

@imark7777777 Ай бұрын

I know big Clive likes to talk about cleaning relay contacts with paper. And I have actually tried that and it worked fairly well, I was able to restore a relay within a piece of AV receiver equipment. And I can't remember if it was one of those videos that suggested pencil erasers as well.

@Lethgar_Smith Ай бұрын

My father (deceased) worked for GTE (General Telephone and Equipment) in Florida all through the 70s and working on and maintaining this very same sort of equipment was what he did every day. I recall somewhere around 73 or 74 he having to go through a lengthy correspondence course as they were switching to tone dialing, I believe was the issue.. GTE would eventually become Verizon, which is now a global telecommunications company and government contractor.

@stevepelham Ай бұрын

I worked in New Cross TE for my 3rd year of apprenticeship (1984/5..ish). The days when an apprenticeship was a proper job. Loved it. Love Telephone Tuesdays. The bank cleaning brings back memories and so does putting the selector back in the rack, without having the wipers in the home position. How I laughed..........NOT 😭😭

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Ай бұрын

We’ve all done it!

@devttyUSB0 Ай бұрын

I found this very interesting. It is amazing to see the mechanics behind all this from up close. I wonder how many Watts of power the entire installation pulls. Must be insane.

@Colin_Ames Ай бұрын

Very interesting indeed!

@Brian3989 Ай бұрын

Did they have ear plus to work on a main exchange? Knew they were noisy from tour years ago. That exchange was moved to new building which now has lots of free space. Exchange had five digit numbers and several UAX satellites.

@robinadderley6755 Ай бұрын

Hi in Australia we did not use ear plugs ,you got used to the noise and would not notice it,that is until a fault occurred that caused a different sound and you would notice that straight away. I was first in one morning at a cross bar exchange there was total silence, that was a bad day as we had a major fault that took the whole exchange out of service.

@mickcoleman5396 Ай бұрын

I worked in two seperate 10,000 line director exchanges in central London, the noise was not defening, but in the din you could hear a single switch sticking or jammed

@traumgeist Ай бұрын

It would be kewl to use the exchanger as an electromechanical sequencer for a drum and bass synth. Different phone numbers could be used to configure different drum/bass patterns. You could make it interactive, allowing anyone to call the exchanger and program a tune.

@matloo Ай бұрын

Would love to see Mitch go to the Science Museum in London and do a tour around their communication exhibition.

@TradieTrev Ай бұрын

Can you adjust the wipers like you would the gap on a spark plug with a feeler gauge set? The whole setup reminds me of mechanical & relay logic, would be fun to service!

@mickcoleman5396 Ай бұрын

yes had a complete set of feeler gauges and there was a wiper and spring set adjustment tools to do the job.

@erdekind Ай бұрын

Bank cleaner tape makes great laces for your trainers!

@paulstubbs7678 Ай бұрын

Spent my early trainee days at a telco doing banks and wipers, all went well until I accidentally dropped a switch I have just unjacked, of course I was up a ladder at the time, and when it hit the floor, the lid was snapped shut so fast that is hooked a pile of relay contacts and bent them down the side of the switch, what a mess, kind of surprised I didn't get the bullet

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Ай бұрын

Oh dear! Some engineers swore by that method for repairs ;)

@nutsnproud6932 Ай бұрын

I found this video very interesting.

@erickvond6825 Ай бұрын

While substantially more expensive than the contact cleaner you're using there, DeOx-it is a far superior contact cleaner. It actually removes the oxide from any metal without damaging it further than it already is.

@richardandrews6754 Ай бұрын

Hi, That was cool!

@RichardCarlsson Ай бұрын

Best ASMR video ever

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Ай бұрын

@@RichardCarlsson funny you say that, there is an actual museum ASMR video coming out this week!

@RichardCarlsson Ай бұрын

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Catering to a very special category of people. ;-)

@projectartichoke Ай бұрын

I think you're using appropriate and optimal methods to clean contacts. Just avoid any contact cleaner that includes oil or other lubricants. lubricants are not necessary on the contacts themselves and cause more problems by trapping dust and dirt than they'd ever solve. For where you do need lubricants on other parts, be sure to use they type and amounts specified. Never mix lithium based lubricants with petroleum based lubricants, it can cause some nasty problems.

@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Ай бұрын

@@projectartichoke cheers for the advice =)

@karlramberg Ай бұрын

Maybe you should get a asbestos test kit so you know what stuff to handle with great care

@Simple_But_Expensive Ай бұрын

On the two not working, check the wiring to the H relay. That is the first thing to activate.

@luketalkin5000 Ай бұрын

To be honest, you should wear gloves when handling any old electronics as everything from the wiring to the capacitors are PCB based. Lead is everywhere, along with cadmium. That wonderful old electronics smell is one of my favorite, but it also carries some notable hazards.