[BC] putting phone calls on the air

[Harold Hallikainen]

> In the small town of Chincoteague Virginia in 1955 we still had operators
> and a peg and cord switchboard and three digit phone numbers.
>
> In some ways the systems was superior to what we have today.  We had voice
> recognition "may I have 369 please".
> Also you could pick up the receiver and say my dad is sick and the
> operator
> would send an ambulance (pre 911?).

And, when you asked the operator to send an undertaker, it was the
operator's husband who showed up. That's how automatic telephone switching
got started. The other undertaker in town didn't want the operator
diverting calls away from him. See http://www.strowger.com/history.html .

Also, for a little more telephone history, see
http://www.hallikainen.org/BroadcastHistory . A ways down the page are
links to some telephone history sites. One site is devoted to Strowger
step by step switches and has audio recordings of various sized step
offices.

Harold



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