I saw an interesting picture of a central office cord switchboard, taken about 1950 or later. The board was somewhat circular, wrapping around the edges of the room.
The picture was in a community history book (Ambler, PA), part of Arcadia Publishing series.
The operators seemed to be younger women, perhaps high school girls. They were using the modern Type 52 series headsets. Judging by the jackstrips, I think this was a manual exchange.
My guess this was a manual office about to upgraded to dial. It was overcrowded due to postwar suburban growth. I suspect the curving board was done to fit more positions a rather constrained space. When the Bell System planned to convert an office to dial, it froze hiring and filled vacancies with temps (such as high school girls) so that permanent employees wouldn't get laid off.
In some Bell System publications of that era, they had office workers in trailers, truck backs, or other oddball spaces to fill the need until permanent quarters could be built. Some new communities had long waits to get service. In the big development at Levittown PA, residents had to make do with tempoary corner pay phones until a new Levittown central office could be built (and cables run from the homes to the office, telephone sets manufactured, and a new jumbo crossbar switch manufactured) to handle 17,000 residential lines plus new business lines.
Any stories about services in the postwar era would be welcome. Thanks.
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