In the February 1961 issue of Computers & Automation, the Bell System placed an ad for its Data Phone. The photo shows a Call Director like telephone set but without any line buttons. It's overimposed on a montage of paper and magnetic tapes.
The text reads as follows:
Have you heard about the new Bell System service that lets modern business machines talk with each other over regular telephone lines? Its name is DATA-phone
Something new has been added to the art of data processing. Business machine data can now be sent in a new "machine language"-automatically, from machine to machine--by telephone.
A new kind of telephone service- Data-Phoneis the connecting link.
You can send any kind of data-from punched cards, paper tape or magnetic tape-at Super-Phonic speeds. And you pay for your data transmission just as you do for regular telephone calls. You simply place a· phone call to the distant machine location, switch on your Data-Phone at both ends, and the machines start "talking." The Data-Phone unit takes little more space than a typewriter, and the monthly rental charge is small.
Data-Phone can speed the handling of accounting and billing information, inventories, payrolls, invoices, sales orders and numerous other forms of business data. And it is compatible with an ever increasing number of data-processing machines in use today. Many business firms already have it.
Call your Bell Telephone Business Office and ask for a Communications Consultant. He'll show you how new, versatile Data-Phone service can streamline your data processing and improve your profit picture.
BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM THE ONE SOURCE FOR ALL BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
(the entire Feb '61 issue may be viewed at: