Hotel's rotary switchboard so retro it predates the concept of crashing

There are occasions when flicking a power switch can send a user into a world of bork-related pain, so it is sometimes worth taking a step back and reconsidering one's life choices. So it is with this elderly hotel switchboard, spotted in Italy by an eagle-eyed Register reader. An old telephone switchboard next to a fax …

[jonfr400]

Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

I see a this area had a lot of smokers. It needs to be cleaned up a little. There's also a good chance that the internals also need to be cleaned up a little from all that smoke dirt.

[blu3b3rry]

Re: Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

Quite. Imagine coating the inside of your lungs with all that crap.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Re: Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

I worked in AM Top 40 radio back before workplace smoking was banned in California and, because a lot of the jocks were chain smokers,¹ the electronics would get gummed up with the noxious products of hours upon hours of exposure to unfiltered Luckies. It was especially hard on the volume control potentiometers² where crud would build up to such an extent that there would be non-conducting spots, causing annoying dropouts.

Ick!

____________________

¹ Lung cancer took two of my favorite LA Boss Jocks, Robert W Morgan and The Real Don Steele, among others, before their time.

² Everything was analog, even the clocks. I remember seeing my first Nixie tube timer sometime around then and thought that, like digital watches, it was a pretty neat idea.

[Ossi]

Re: Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

Upvote for the Hitchhikers' reference.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

Somewhere around, I still have an official GPO file for cleaning the contacts on those switches...

[spacecadet66]

Re: Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

That was my basic reaction: that this is a thing of beauty--or at least it would be if you cleaned it with a toothbrush.

[elDog]

Re: Smoke dirt and no cleaning done in decades

If your teeth were like mine back in the 60s the toothbrush wouldn't be the best cleaning tool.

Now, the toilet bowl swabber...

[Bebu sa Ware]

who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

Really know how to make a chap feel old !

When I was a student, the residential college in which I lived required each resident to man such a switchboard a couple of evenings per semester.

Outgoing calls (4 lines) were initiated using the same switchboard rotary dialer and patched to the requesting room.

I wonder how many recall how to cancel a misdialled digit ? Or the function of the A/B buttons on public telephone boxes ?

Although it is sobering to consider how resilient this technology was; often survivng intact, at least at the exchange level, fairly major natural disasters

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

Indeed, what little magic smoke they had was very well contained. Not easy to release even under extreme conditions, unlike much of today's kit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

In older kit, it was often possible to release a part of the magic smoke but leave the rest in place and keep the equipment operational, once the cause of the smoke generation (short circuit on anoutput, for instance) had been removed. No hope nowdays, it's all the smoke or nothing.

[Antony Shepherd]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

Or the function of the A/B buttons on public telephone boxes ?

To give small children the hope that if they pressed button B they might get sixpence the previous caller didn't bother to retrieve.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

Did it every day for years on my way home from school. Only won once though.

[CorwinX]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

I'm old and decrepit enough to remember that.

As a kid I never walked past a phone box without punching the buttons to see if it paid out.

Which they did surprisingly often.

[Ken Shabby]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

Couldn’t you call for free on the old A and B button phones by tapping the number out on the cradle?

[Cynical Observer]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

Indeed you could...

Zero and Nine could be dialled via the rotary dialler¹ , all other numbers needed to be tapped.

¹ Presumably to accommodate those users who needed to dial the operator or the emergency services.

[The Organ Grinder's Monkey]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

In the US that (& other telco subverting activities) were collectively known as "phone phreaking" iirc.

15 minute radio documentary from BBC R4 about all of that stuff linked below, (downloadable) :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012fjh

Another one, this one more about the community of teenagers that were heavily into phreaking, 30 minutes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hlnjq

[Dave559]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

I only know of this Button A, Button B thing from the historical references [sic] in the uk.telecom FAQ, and even that's a looong time ago now…

And these days, kids will barely even know what a phone booth is/was!

[Evil Auditor]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

And these days, kids will barely even know what a phone booth is/was!

...or what coins are

[Sam not the Viking]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

I feel old, therefore I am.....

My first employment had a switchboard manned by three telephonists, and a telex-room manned by three formidable ladies. Plus half a dozen pensioners employed as internal-mail collectors/delivery men. And tea-ladies. I can't bring myself to mention those in the typing-pool.

As a fresh graduate, I was terrified. I'm not sure that the scars have yet totally healed.

[agurney]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

" Or the function of the A/B buttons on public telephone boxes ?"

That was one of our challenges when I was in the scouts in the 60s .. there's a phone box in Ayrshire that still owes me 4d because the B button didn't do what it should have.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

As a kid you’d always try the A/B buttons looking for money. We used to stuff a sock up the coin return chute.

Come back later and pull it out to see if we won.

[Albert Coates]

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

"All lines to Bristol are engaged, please try later."

[SVD_NL]

Hotels are retro telephony treasure troves

Hotels tend to have very dated telephony requirements for a bunch of reasons. This is a combination of analog phone cables that are very difficult (and expensive) to replace, large analog PBX's being expensive, and local legislation often mandating that guests should always have a phone available to dial the emergency number.

While modern telephony platforms won't have as much trouble with 100's of phones, the expense of replacing all of those cables in an old building and all of those new phones is often too much to bear. So much so that we once came across an old comms room with hundreds of ATAs to convert SIP to analog phone signals.

[J.G.Harston]

Re: Hotels are retro telephony treasure troves

I was once replacing the network switches in a comms room in a bank that was also the phone comms room. At some point the telephone equipment had been updated - but the old switchgear had been just left in place and a chainsaw had been put through the incoming cables. The old switchgear was the size of a double wardrobe, the replacement was the size of an ethernet switch/hub and was just plonked on the top of the cabinet.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Hotels are retro telephony treasure troves

My mum worked as the switchboard operator at a hotel doing the evening shift (3pm to 11pm) which also meant I had a key to let myself in after school.

It was located quite close to the hotel bar and in the 1970's these were very smoky places so not surprised at the state of those in the picture.

[GlenP]

Planning

patience and planning were needed before placing that call

You also had to be aware of the time of day - forget "evening and weekend calls" there were three tariffs - Premium (IIRC 09:00-13:00), Standard (13:00-17:00) and Cheap (outside those hours including weekends). I worked at one place where the FD would scrutinise the phone bill and request an explanation of any premium rate calls made which probably wasted more time and money than the call had cost. It wasn't helpful when we had to summon a hardware engineer and phoning after 13:00 meant next day rather than same day service.

[R Soul]

Re: Planning

"I worked at one place where the FD would scrutinise the phone bill and request an explanation of any premium rate calls made which probably wasted more time and money than the call had cost."

Indeed. However from the beancounter's PoV, costs were being controlled and KPIs were being met. That would have mattered much. much more than the costs to the business of enforcing all that finance theatre and the reduced expenses it supposedly delivered. The costs from a day's downtime of the IT systems would be someone else's problem. The FD "saved" the company a few pennies on the phone call to get field service to show up. And that was what was important.

The careers of a vast army of mediocre middle management depend on that sort of logic(?).

[David Hicklin]

Re: Planning

I remember that well and the edict in the office (I was in the sales office then before my IT days started - hell computers did not exist then !) and the edict was if you need to phone someone always call after 1pm unless it was very urgent.

The mornings were usually quite quite and that is when we got most work done.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

You know how to dial, don't you?

You just put your finger in the hole, and make tiny little circles.

Mine's the plaid one.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: You know how to dial, don't you?

Well played, sir!

[agurney]

Re: You know how to dial, don't you?

Arcs, not circles.

[PCScreenOnly]

There are 2 worse hotels in lisbon

It is #21 or 23 !

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Just after we'd finished panicking over the Y2K Bug, I was working for a large retailer.

During a store refit, which apart from remodelling the sales floor, involved dragging the shop and staff kicking and screaming into the late 20th century, by installing a new computer system, and a VOIP phone system.

Replacing the phone system meant we could remove the chest freezer sized BT box and replace it with a small, dedicated PC for the phone system.

When I cracked the BT box open, I found a row of 60cm square circuit boards, 10 in all from memory. This system provided 4 enternal lines and 6 internal lines. I don't know how much power it drew, but it was connected to a 30 amp fuse...

[Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward]

Eternal or external lines?

[David 132]

Enternal. From "enteric (adj.) - relating to or occurring in the intestines."

When you have a gut feeling that you need to make a call.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

The eternal lines were probably why it needed a 30 amp power connection...

[Jedit]

"An old telephone switchboard next to a fax machine and typewriter - click to enlarge"

Dear God, I'm not clicking to enlarge that image. I could catch something horrid just from being on the same website as it.

[Pete 2]

Just connecting you, caller

> Today, anybody can be connected to anybody else.

Provided both parties are not in the middle of a forced update. And that every weak link in the chain between them feels like cooperating. And that they don't have to wait for the ubiquitous adverts to finish. Nor wade through a mass of "we value your privacy" options to switch off first. (Which screams exactly the opposite)

Although, talking of privacy, while it was eminently possible for the operator of such exchanges to surreptitiously listen in on any call they fancied, nobody seemed particularly concerned with preserving their security.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just connecting you, caller

As a child when wireless telephones were just coming out I could hear people's conversations over my old black and white television set.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Just connecting you, caller

Or the Early Private Mobile sets in the 1980's (size of a small suitcase) in cars that used clear analogue transmissions just above the FM radio band, I had (still have!) a communication receiver and would often listen in.

[Wily Veteran]

I actually ran a switchboard

I actually ran a switchboard (a Western Electric 556 to be exact) at a car dealership while I was in college in the late 1960s. When my classes were over for the day, I'd go to the daler and take over the switchboard duties until the dealer closed for the night as well as all the time the dealer was open on Saturdays. That particular installation had "dial 9 for an outside line" capability so I rarely (actually, never) connected an outgoing call. The only "magic smoke" that could be let out would be the coil of one of the electromagnetic relays that operated the thing.

While this may seem primitive, having a human as an interface between the caller and the callee was a Really Good Thing since a good operator could often soothe an irate customer to some extent before handing them off to the object of their ire. The operator could also handle small, routine tasks such as giving the hours of business or looking to see if sale paperwork was ready without interrupting other employees who were (presumably) doing something more important such as serving another customer. Indeed, when I went to PBX Operator training at Michigan Bell, most of the lesson resolved around dealing with the callers rather than the mechanics of using the equipment. It was drilled into me that the person who answered the phone was The Business and how the operator responded to the caller could easily make or break their desire to do business with the organization and could also affect all the people they told about their interaction.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I actually ran a switchboard

having a human as an interface between the caller and the callee was a Really Good Thing since a good operator could often soothe an irate customer to some extent before handing them off to the object of their ire.

True, and better than the modern "press 1 to be jerked around, press 2 for an endless wait, for help try the Samaritans, etc." system.

Then again, the first automatic exchange was developed by an undertaker called Strowger, because his rival's wife was the local telephone operator and when someone called in great distress because a loved one had died she would kindly and helpfully pass the call on to her husband's business...

[David 132]

Re: I actually ran a switchboard

True, and better than the modern "press 1 to be jerked around..."

What infuriates me there is the systems that prompt you for input, with multiple options, but don't allow you to make a selection until all the options have been read to you.

"Press 1 for Sales, press 2 for Supp.." 2 "Press 1 for Sales, press 2 for Support, press 3 for Billing, press 4 for Administrative Affairs..." 2 "Press 1 for Sales..."

Aaargh!

A special mention for those systems that do that, and have pauses in the stream of options, thus tricking you into entering a choice prematurely.

I rarely use this icon, but today... --->

[The other JJ]

Re: I actually ran a switchboard

There's a special circle of Dante's hell for "Tell me, in a few words, how we can help you today".

I wonder whether they listen to the responses as they'd be educational (as well as expanding their vocabulary).

[Sherrie Ludwig]

Re: I actually ran a switchboard

Tell me, in a few words, how we can help you today

That request unleashes in me a stream of words, in the most "dotty little old lady" form, to explain, with a lot of circuitous detail, and a discourse on the birds at the feeder by the window, until it interrupts and tells me "an agent will be with you shortly".

[Anonymous Coward]

Real High-Tech Stuff

That's the original Plug-and-Play, mate!

[Roland6]

Re: Real High-Tech Stuff

It will still be working years after the digital stuff…

[Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward]

Why not start up a new Reg column titled Old Hardware, and let us old farts wax nostalgic over photos of old equipment?

[Anonymous Coward]

They might have to put in age verification if people get too excited over it.

[abend0c4]

Anybody can be connected to anybody else

Back when I worked for British Shipbuilders, the function of the switchboard was to avert any such anarchy. The operators had to place all outside calls and listened on the line to ensure that it was work-related and they'd abruptly disconnect it if they suspected otherwise.

[Snapper]

Re: Anybody can be connected to anybody else

Same when I worked for the M0D in the 80's.

[Blackjack]

I used electric typewriters and fax machines, but they belonged to my parents.

Good times, save when you had to unplug the fax machine or remove the paper because you where getting printed fax spam.

[RobThBay]

I'd forgotten about fax spam. The fax machine we had back then used rolls of thermal paper.

One morning we came in to and found some arse had sent a bunch fax spam overnight and used up an entire roll of thermal paper.

We ended up unplugging the fax machine overnight after that.

[Bob Royal]

Spam, spam, spam

I was the victim of TELEX spam!

I paid through the nose for a telex at the only place in Pattaya that still had such a device.

It was to inform my office I would be late back from hols, for personal reasons.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIwkvybNYk4)

When I got back to work, it turns out the office telex had been spammed and run the paper out!

[Missing Semicolon]

Ah, but....

.. I bet that machine still works to some degree. And a quick blow with an air-line on the contacts would see it right at rain!

[DaemonProcess]

Y2K banking

Back in 1999 when I was doing some Y2K work in the European banking sector, I encountered a unit like this inside an Irish retail bank. YES! Every call was placed on the analogue phone system through the operator and that was the only way to get an outside line. Not too many Y2K issues with that device.

[martinusher]

That unit is modern!

That's quite a modern unit (the blue and gray paint job got a sixties look to it). The picture's not high enough resolution to decode the maker's label on the top left which positively identify it for us. I don't think its actual analog exchange, though -- the keys and jacks look as if they're for testing rather than routing calls.

"Old" is a relative term. If you're passing through Albuquerque, New Mexico, then AT&T has a phone museum with a lot of interesting old kit in it. The museum itself is a bit of a museum because it was obviously put together at the end of the Bell System, just before the mandated breakup, so it doesn't have any modern networking technology in it (the breakup dates from the 1980s) and, of course, no cellphones. (There's bound to be something similar in the UK...)

[n-j]

Dolls eye switchboard

Our office in Covent Garden had one. There was often a delay getting an outside line after lunch as the guy manning it always had a liquid lunch!

We also used it for dial up (300 baud) but the pulses caused the doll's eyes to flicker so the guy would clear the call. To avoid this he made up a jack lead which we requested him to plug in when we wanted to dial the mainframe..

This was early 80's.

[heyrick]

You may mock it...

...but I bet it's been more reliable than any modern offering, may well still work (after a bloody good wash), and won't need to periodically reboot, or hang up while dealing with upgrades, or turn into a potato if it can't contact the mothership. Not to mention your standard telephone will work just fine and you won't have to try to deal with getting equipment from manufacturer A to work with stuff from manufacturer B (both of whom claim compatibility and blame the other when that's clearly false). And, finally, it doesn't require monthly dues in the form of the ever growing subscription model.

It simply hangs there on the wall and does what it does, the only fuss and trauma will be entirely down to the ambient conditions (but that's the fault of the people, not the machine).

[Paul Hovnanian]

For those who ...

"... have not seen such a device in the wild"

Some here probably still remember Ernestine.

"A gracious hello. How may I, in all humble servitude, be of assistance? $12.50 a month doesn't buy perfection."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: For those who ...

But we're the phone company. We don't care, because we don't have to?

[ricardian]

Project Emily. 1959-1963. RAF stations housing Thor missiles were Driffield, Feltwell, Hemswell & North Luffenham. All state of the art stuff.

Thor guidance system provided by the AC Spark Plug Company.

Each station had 3 subsites which interconnected via GPO cables laid in WW2. Each station had a CB9 (doll's eye) telephone switchboard.

[Bob Royal]

Step on it

I was still an apprentice when I worked on the last Strowger switch design our company made.

(Possibly the last ever anywhere.) It was a PABX hunter for 2 to 100 line hunt groups.

In the days of dial phones and Strowger switches, it was usual to hear ring-tone immediately after dialing the last digit.

I hope the switches were installed with special grading, it would have taken at least 20 seconds

to hunt through all 100 lines to find a free one. Would have seemed strange to the caller, having to wait.

(I case anyone's interested: it stepped up to the required level, pulsed round to scan for a free line out of 10.

If none found, it tried the next 10 by stepping back round to the start, stepping up the to next level, and repeat.)

[Bob Royal]

Plug and Play

I worked on telephone exchanges during the evolution from Strowger to System X.

One early step (ho ho) forward was an electro-mechanical thing called Crossbar.

Every job seemed to be a one-off, there were at least 6 unique designs, some with several versions.

One was for the International gateway in London. This called for 4 wire switching with Plug Board control!

Imagine this scene with the fashions of the '70's:

https://culturexchange1.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/sans-titre.png

Read all about it: https://www.lightstraw.uk/ate/main/woodstreet/