Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!lll-winken!telecom-request From: varney@ihlpf.att.com (Al L Varney) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Early Days of Telephony Message-ID: Date: 24 Mar 91 16:28:24 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 65 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 235, Message 8 of 10 In article 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) writes: > In article , Jim E. Dunne dunne@uunet.uu.net> describes an old North Electric branded telephone.... > The book to read is: > "The Spirit of Independent Telephony," > by Charles A. Pleasance > ISBN 0-9622205-0-7 > Published by Independent Telephone Books > P.O Box 321, Johnson City, TN 37601 > Last priced at $29.50 plus $3.00 (domestic) > or $6.00 (international) shipping. > Visa or Mastercard orders accepted at (615) 926-0302 And the place to visit is: "Museum of Independent Telephony" Located in the back half of the Dickinson County Museum, Abilene, Kansas (just East of the Eisenhower Museum, also worth a visit). An interesting collection of old telephones, switchboards and other equipment that involve non-Bell companies. The curator/manager gives individual "tours" and will talk at length on about any "Independent" topic you want to name. She has the most complete collection of "Independent Telephony" books and magazines I've seen. Kansas was rife with Independents, and still has several. My home town was almost surrounded with very small ones. Some were just a switchboard, with maybe a 100 square mile territory. Short poles and 8 gauge(?) steel wire were common; my Dad purchased a mile segment of the wire when Southwestern Bell bought out one of them. (The wire was stiff and very rusty, but it made a good electric cattle fence.) One of the last Independents in the area was very modern, and had underground cable way before SW Bell put it in locally. Underground cable was very desirable, because ice storms took out wire/poles every year or so. We had 8-party Southwestern Bell service, went dial in about 1960. I still remember the "open house" of the little SXS CDO, about the size of a two-car garage. This had the battery plant, Dist. Frame, tone generator, etc. as well as those wonderful switches. (Little did I know that twenty years later I would be working at the Hawthorne Plant in Cicero, IL -- where the switches were still in production (or at least parts were). ANI was added around 1973, before that you dialed a toll call as 1+ ..., but the operator had to ask "Number, please?"; you KNEW she meant the number you were calling from! The little CDO is still in operation, but will be replaced soon by an Ericsson switch. That will signal the end of four-digit toll-free calling for the folks back home (and the number always starts with 3!). It took several visits to explain Divestiture to my grandmother (90+); how will I EVER explain why she has to dial 428- in front of her friends numbers ???? I did ask a former "farm boy next door" (1.5 mile walk) who now works for SW Bell why they couldn't make the whole town a Centrex group and retain the nine-digit numbers ... he didn't have an answer for me. { Hey, Steve, any chance I can get a old switch from the CDO? Please? } Al Varney, AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL