What to do with a switchboard [telecom]

A friend has just bought an old house. Therein, among sundries too numerous to enumerate, is a telephone switchboard. Wooden case, about

30 plug cables, new enough to have a 50s-type (?) dial on a pedestal to operator's right, hand crank to operate a ringer magneto(?). Maybe 6' tall by 24" wide. No immediately obvious external maker's tag.

Is anyone here eager to buy such a thing? If not, are there many people elsewhere known to be keen to have one? Any advice on how my friend could profit from disposing of this lovely but unwanted object?

Or should he just procede directly to eBay?

Reply to
Mike Spencer
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There is a Yahoo group named singingwires devoted to telephone collectors. Switchboards get traded fairly often there.

Reply to
Jim Haynes

One challenge with selling is shipping as these things are very heavy and bulky (been there, done that).

If you do post it for sale, could you let us know where it was posted? Thanks.

How could you tell it was a 555?

Very generally speaking, there were five types of Bell non-multiple PBX's. (This doesn't count specialty boards, answering service boards, or boards used in a C.O.).

--551--cords arranged in two rows, front and back, with two rows of little levers plus lights; manual service-- station jacks had lights

-- 552--cords arranged in two rows, front and back, with two rows of little levers plus lights; dial service-station jacks did not have lights and there was an attendant strip.

--555-- cords arranged in one row, a row of knobs, and a row of push buttons plus lights; manual service-- station jacks had lights

--556-- cords arranged in one row, a row of knobs, and a row of push buttons plus lights--dial service--station jacks did not have lights and there was an attendant strip

--608 beige instead of black background, push buttons.

Reply to
Lisa or Jeff

You might find interested party(ies) in Great Britain, try Telecommunications Heritage Group, tel #44(0)20 8099 1699, e-mail snipped-for-privacy@thg.org.uk .

Richard Powdehill, Birmingham, England

Reply to
Richard Powderhill

Some amplification of the above:

A PBX ("private branch exchange") serving a subscriber's organization may be classified as _internally_ dial or manual. That is, within the organization, dial service meant extensions could dial each other and optionally outside calls without going through the PBX switchboard attendant. Manual service meant extensions were always served by the PBX attendant at the switchboard. (This was completely independent of whether the central office serving the PBX was dial or manual. Indeed, there were many dial PBX's served by a manual C.O.)

PBX switchboards serving manual systems had a lamp above each extension jack to signal the extension needed service. Switchboards serving dial systems did not have such a lamp. If an extension wanted the attendant, they would dial 0 and the call would come up on a special jack strip "attendant and intercept".

Switchboards serving dial systems also were equipped with a "click test" to check for a busy line. The operator touched the tip of the plug against the rim of the jack. If she heard a loud click she knew the extension was busy. This was also used on large multiple switchboards.

Manual PBXs were cheaper to rent since there was no dial equipment. However, the subscriber's attendant may have had to handle more calls. Also, extenstion-to-extension calls required an attendant be on duty to handle them. Depending on the nature of a subscriber's business this may not have been a problem. For instance, in a small motel/hotel, an extension seeking service would go through the front desk where the switchboard usually was, and the front desk clerk would be handling most requests anyway. Also in a small motel/hotel there were usually very little room-to-room calls.

Around 1970 Bell Labs developed a new manual console PBX to replace the 555. Presumably it was inexpensive. However, by then dial PBXs and more sophisticated key systems were desired by subscribers so I don't think many were made.

Manual PBX systems today are extremely rare if they exist at all. But some PBXs still have a few manual (dial blank) extensions in the facility, such as a house phone in a building lobby, a customer service phone in a waiting area, etc. Naturally the system should be set up so that a human answers calls from such phones and is equipped to provide the necessary service.

The 555/556 design came out just after WW II (the war delayed their introduction). Certain levers were replaced by push buttons, and internally the board used modular plug-in units. However, the older style remained in service for many years. From a functional point of view, I don't think they offered anything the older models offered.

There was also a 600 line of cord boards intended for larger installations but functionally they were similar to the 551/552. There were special boards for certain applications.

The 608 came out in the late 1950s and was the last Bell System cord PBX switchboard. It had a more modern appearance and automated certain functions (for example, ringing started automatically when the plug was inserted into a jack, rather than the attendant manually pushing the ringing key.)

Almost always ringing power was supplied by a power supply. But if commercial power failed, the attendant could ring extensions by turning the ringing crank (rather tiring after a short use.)

In the late 1950s the Bell System came out with a new line of cordless switchboards that appeared similar to a Call Director. These were generally used with newer dial systems and could have new features, such as "camp on". They had the advantage of not needing the attendant to take down the cords after a call was completed which improved accuracy and productivity.

Years ago the organization's PBX attendant was seen as a greeter to callers and customers. The Bell System provided attendant training and literature that constantly stressed the importance of high quality PBX service. Many of the customer service functions performed by PBX attendants in the past are now automated. There are far fewer attendants who can page someone for an urgent call or provide other specialized assistance. If the desired party doesn't answer or their line is busy the call gets dumped to voice mail and that's it. Today, it's not uncommon to be placed in a queue just to reach an attendant, too bad if the caller is on long distance, a cell phone during peak hours, or making a quick call during their coffee break from work.

Reply to
Lisa or Jeff

Yeah, and we're far from the places where potential collectors hang out.

Well, as a blacksmith, I think of things of the same size but made entirely of cast iron as "rather heavy". This toy/project of mine:

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is "very heavy". :-) But I take your point.

Yes, will do, unless the owner tears off in all directions and disposes of it without further consultations with me. Unlikely.

And I'll have a look to see if, based on *** Moderator's *** criteria, I can determine which model it is and post results here.

Reply to
Mike Spencer

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