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[YouTube] At the Connections Museum: the insane telephone technology that led to
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eti:
Marc's curiosity brings me great delight, as it does many others:
GLouie:
Been there several times and it is great for the techies. Really crammed full of stuff, much if it still running.
globoy:
Always amazing to see those electo-mechanical wonders. Thank you.
Does anyone know how the billing worked for the operator controlled calls with the very old machines? Specifically how did they bill for long distance calls? It doesn't appear there was automation running to handle it.
jpanhalt:
How old is "really old." As late as early 1950's in many smaller towns, all calls were by an operator and most phones were party line (more than one household per line). If you picked up the phone and heard your neighbor, the line was busy. Billing for home phones was on paper as it is today, except you saw the charges by call for any call that was a "toll" call (i.e., out of your immediate service area). You could also call collect. That was useful when using a pay phone; otherwise, you had to deposit coins for so many minutes and the operator would interrupt when your minutes were up. In small towns where all calls were operator assisted, phone numbers might not be 7 digits. In larger cities, I don't remember a time without 7-digit numbers. My home # in LA was Atlantic (AT)2-8441. Don't bother calling that number and asking for me.
In college, calls home (and to girl friends in other areas ;)) could add up, so the "twanger" was invented. It was usually made from a bent clothes hanger. I kept mine for many years -- maybe still have it. You inserted it through the coin return box and held a certain lever inside the phone that would return any coin that was deposited to the depositor. Operators became wise to that scam and would listen for the coins to drop. We then added cushioning to deaden the sound. Addition of the lever-protected box killed that activity.
bsdphk:
The system was very simple: The operators wrote the information on a small slip of paper which was sent to accounting.
How else could it work ?
There is a glimpse in the video of a machine with approx 4" wide paper on huge rolls.
That is one end of the "CAMA" system: Centralized Automatic Message Accounting system, where the automatic switches punch the accounting information on huge rolls of paper, which is then automatically processed.
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