A look inside a Verizon switch location [telecom]

One of my first jobs in 1954 at the AT&T Long Lines Microwave Tower located in the Lincoln LaVeque building in Columbus, OH was to check the water level of the batteries and fill them up as necessary.

Youth-is-wasted-on-the-young department ...

Arnie, I was mocking the story: the young lady's breathless boast that she was in an "undisclosed location" reminded me of the psyops films that TV stations used to run on weekends during my youth.

BTW, I need your real email address for my "send_private_email_to" list.

Bill Horne Moderator

Here is a Bell Telephone ad from Popular Science, May 1939, inviting subscribers to visit their telephone central office (pg 5):

Historically, the Bell System always had tight security at all of its telephone buildings, including business and administrative offices. While visitors to central offices were permitted from time to time and there were even open houses, generally access was tightly restricted. In the 1970s onward, new telephone buildings were windowless or even constructed below ground.

That was a delightful trip down memory lane: not the bit about visiting a central office, but rather a look at one of the classic American publications, with lots of optimistic stories about how science would make our lives so much easier. They had roller skates that could trim the grass, a night-stick that included a flashlight, and an observation tower supported by a hydraulic lift so that officials at a race track could get a better view.

There were wiz-bang stories about a train that "flies" just enough to lift its front wheels off the track, and a cornucopia of ads promising that readers could make a good living sharpening lawn-mower blades or as a specialist in "Swedish Massage".

I used to read them at the library: they had every one ever published, and the librarian liked me because I never tore out pages for book reports.

Bill

Google books may be reached via:

They have Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and LIFE going way back.

MAD Magazine did a spoof of P/S and P/M with exaggerated home workshop projects. One included a home-built airliners, using seats from a theatre converted into a supermarket, flattened tin cans for body skin, and vacuum cleaners for engines.

The Bell System used to run ads in all three publications. Some of the ads touted the high quality of Bell System service and Western Electric equipment, which in those days was true. A sad comparison to Verizon today. (During WW II, Bell ran ads asking subscribers NOT to call Long Distance due to war traffic overload).

In the 1960s, both P/S and P/M ran articles and ads for bootleg telephone extensions. They became rather popular in those days for subscribers who resented pay Bell's monthly $1 rental fee*.

However, Bell _and_ the regulators did not like bootleg extensions for two reasons: 1) it deprived Bell of revenue needed to support the universal service business model, and 2) even though the connection is pretty simple, lots of people screwed up and it resulted in unnecessary repair visits. A few people were even stupid enough to connect their phone line to house power. (Bell service techs back then told me stories of consumer screw-ups with bootleg extensions).

• The fee varied by region and class of service, but was roughly . A Trimline or Princess set had an additional charge of per month. While some of the revenue was used for cross-subsidy, it should be noted that back then Bell took responsibility end-to-end service. If you had any problem with any of your phones, they came out to fix it for free promptly. None of today's nonsense about which side of the Demarc box, inside wiring, or the set; Bell fixed everything.

The "war traffic overload" was real: many young Toll Test technicians had to learn Morse Code - the American Morse Code, no less - because "company" traffic, such as repair tickets, install orders, etc., had to be sent via telegraph circuits which were simplexed onto the trunk pairs, thus keeping the precious pairs available for paying customers.

Bill Horne Moderator