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How Operators Dialed Long Distance Calls
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Lately, I've been delving into the history of how telephone calls used to be made. It's fascinating to see where things started--manual operators connecting cords--and watch the progression to where it is today--customers direct dialing their own numbers almost 100% of the time with no human intervention.
Of course, several decades ago, dialing anything outside your local area required human intervention. It might explain why long distance calling was so expensive. To get a sense for what the operators had to do, check out this training movie, voice by the late Jane Barbe, whose voice you might recognize if you had a land line in the United States:
Why was a human operator needed? Mainly because the entire Bell System was not at the same technological level. You can see this in the movie.
In larger cities, they switched over to the automated dialing and switching systems quickly. In some of the more rural parts of the Bell System, they still used manual operators and cord boards. The operator would have to figure out the right way to connect the call, depending on the location.
Another thing to notice about the movie was how they focused on the right way for the operator to dial. Oh no, you couldn't use your finger to dial, you had to use this pencil-like thing with a metal ball at the end and hold it perpendicular to the face of the dial, which was slanted. Not only did your form had to be right, you had to dial quickly and efficiently to save time on the equipment and circuits. Very important, back in those days.
