Like, a manual switchboard that somebody sat at and patched cables?
Yep. Plug in this name to that name. I'll try not to eavesdrop; have a nice day.
2: that's rad. Can you steal it? Or at least score some old patch cables with braided sleeves?
also, there was a slight echo on the line.
We just got recycling bins two months ago, which was exciting (to me, because I can stop hauling all that stuff home.)
Some US states still used system 5 electromechanical switching systems into the early '90s (and local exchanges occasionally had even more primitive setups, which I won't bite another commenter's story by discussing), but an actual switchboard that you had to pay somebody to sit at? That's truly rad.
PBXs were still relatively expensive in 1988, and I knew of offices that had e.g. manually programmed single-number call diverters in, like, the early '90s, but again, dude, an actual physical switchboard somebody sat at?
I mean, the poor woman (I imagine) that got fired from that job might be still alive!
It didn't occur to me to ask who she was, since she probably continued to work here in another capacity. I might work with an ex-switchboard operator.
They might not have had somebody working it full-time, of course, or that person might have been moved over to a receptionist-y job where they answered calls to the general number and then transferred people as requested. It would have taken a while before word of direct-dial office extensions got out, if the PBX they installed even had direct-dial office extensions.
9: If there is a Maybell or a Flo around, it was her.
Just to reinforce the awesomeness of this again, the electromechanical switchboard that replaced manual switchboards was invented in 1888.
I just bumped into my department chair, and asked him, and he said "Oh yeah. She used to listen in on all the conversations. You could even set her up by calling and deliberately saying certain things and she'd spread it all over campus. She retired when they switched to the new phones."
I said, "But seriously - 1988!"
He said, "Yeah...we were a little behind."
Surely you don't have the details right.
This seems like the topic for your next non-fiction children's book.
Little behinds doesn't seem very appropriate for a kids' book.
Little behinds doesn't seem very appropriate for a kids' book.
It seems more appropriate for a kids' book than for an adult book.
12: Yes. Found this article from 1991 on California's last manual switchboard being replaced. A quote from the article: "You probably could count on your hands the number of manual boards still used by phone companies across the nation," Ross added.
That's cool. re: switchboard. Old tech like that is lovely. We have lots of old stuff around at work that still occasionally gets used -- medieval printing presses, etc -- but it's largely not electrical. So less cool in some way.
Gallaudet switched to online course registration since I've been here. My first few years* it was all paper forms. Paper timecards too.
*beginning fall 2005
Actually I still have to do paper timecards for some things. And fill out papers to change grades from incompletes to the actual grade.
Last semester they finally signed up to the loan processor clearinghouse, so for the first time I didn't have to fill out the paper deferment form for undergrad loans.
[B]ut it's largely not electrical. So less cool in some way.
Is it steam powered? Because that's totally in right now.
re: 22
More massive cranks and bits of wood. Although the electro-mechanical conveyer just got removed which was a cool thing.
I filled out a form yesterday at the doctors office that made a carbon copy, as in, I wrote on one page and a carbon image was made on the page below it.
In 2000 I temporarily immigrated to France, and at the police registry, they pulled up my literal file.
The Library of Congress is still sending call slips internally from the main reading room via pneumatic tubes.
Either that or a recent request of mine got rolled up and thrown into a tiny rubbish bin.
27, 28: I assure you, Mrs. Buttle Accent, the Library is very scrupulous about following up and eradicating any error. If you have any complaints which you'd like to make, I'd be more than happy to send you the appropriate forms.
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NMM to John Hospers, not that anyone of you cares.
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In China, if you go into a bank, each teller has a desktop, a terminal, and an abacus.
Russia too - well, I can't remember about the banks, but certainly shopkeepers.
I wrote on one page and a carbon image was made on the page below it.
Yes, that's how carbon copies worked. Back in the 90s there was a magnificent text game written in part by Douglas (Hitchhikers' Guide) Adams called 'Bureaucracy' which came with all sorts of physical goodies in the box. This included a form in quadruplicate to fill out, with the questions altered on the lower copies to make you look increasingly stupid. On the top copy it said, "Circle the correct answer"; on the fourth carbon it said, "Draw a square".
I'm a little scared to ask what "computer room" means at Heebie U.
what "computer room" means at Heebie U
My university still used a lot of those mutli-color carbon-copy-creating forms, especially for things like getting all your advisers to sign off on, "Yep, this guy can graduate."
I'm still convinced that someone over in the admin building is having a laugh by naming the one color "goldenrod".
34: When I first got involved with oil exploration geophysics in the '70s a lot of the training and reference material still in use was based on the concept that Soylent Green "seismic computers" wasere people.
A local nonprofit I volunteer with sends architects to do consultations with homeowners (and businessowners). Until last winter, we filled out triplicate forms documenting the consult - white for the Owner, Yellow for the nonprofit, and Pink for ourselves. I had to be sure to bring a ballpoint so I could press hard enough without damaging the penpoint.
someone over in the admin building is having a laugh by naming the one color "goldenrod"
This former Kinko's employee can aver that the paper companies themselves call it goldenrod. The lighter yellow is canary.
that the paper companies themselves call it goldenrod
After the highlighter-based prank that kept them all from falling asleep at their desks.
