© Mark Ollig
As Jim Croce sang, “Operator, oh, could you help me place this call?”
In the early 20th century, small-town telephone switchboards were often located in the home of the telephone exchange manager so calls could be answered on a 24-hour basis.
The manager and his family usually operated the switchboard.
It is Sept. 1, 1923. Mark lifts the receiver from the switch hook and holds it to his ear. He hand cranks the Western Electric Model 317 wall phone’s side-mounted handle connected to an internal magneto generator, initiating the ringing voltage that signals the local telephone exchange switchboard.
Seeing the incoming signal on line 104, the operator inserts a talk patch cord, toggles the switchboard key backward, and says, “Operator. Number, please?”
“Hello, operator. Please connect me with Henry at 105,” Mark says into the telephone’s long-neck Bakelite mouthpiece transmitter.
“Of course, Mark. Hold the line momentarily while I check to see if he is available,’ replies the operator.
The operator plugs an associated patch cord for line 104 into the jack labeled 105 and toggles a switchboard key forward, which rings Henry’s telephone.
Henry picks up the receiver on his telephone, speaking into the transmitter. He says, “Hello, this is Henry.”
The switchboard operator toggles the key backward to talk with Henry.
Operator: “Hello, Henry. I have a call for you from Mark.”
Henry: “Thank you, operator.”
The operator connects a switchboard patch cord from 104 to 105.
Switchboard operator: “Mark. You are now connected with Henry.”
Some switchboards did not indicate when a call ended, so the operator would periodically check the line for silence before pulling the patch cords out and reusing them for another call.
In the early days of telephony, people were assigned new phone numbers when they moved because phone numbers were associated with the wired lines for particular locations.
Signaling methods used with early switchboards depended on the type of telephone exchange, subscriber telephone, and the switchboard model.
Telephone switchboards incorporated various methods for signaling the operator of an incoming call, including audible bells, a lamp light above the round metal connector jack on the switchboard panel, or hearing the clicking of and seeing a small spring-loaded metal cover dropping above the connector jack.
Early telephones used magneto generators and talk batteries; later, some phones would connect with a “common-battery” arrangement so that when a phone went off-hook, it completed an electrical talking voice circuit and signaled the switchboard. These phones would be wired with an internal or external ringer to hear incoming calls.
On Dec. 9, 1878, just two years, nine months, and three days from when Alexander Graham Bell obtained the US patent for his telephone, the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper announced the inauguration of the new telephone central office switchboard.
“The object of the exchange is to place as far as possible the stores and residences of our citizens in instantaneous and complete communication with each other, as desired, by means of telephones, so that conversation between remote points may be carried on as freely and unrestrainedly as though the parties were in the same room,” the newspaper reported.
The telephone switchboard became very busy whenever the fire siren sounded or the church bells rang, as townspeople wanted to know where the fire was or who died.
A 1930s-era small-town telephone switchboard averaged six feet wide and four feet tall, with its frame and outer panels made from oak, walnut, or mahogany.
Metal for the switchboard panel’s telephone line cylindrical jacks, usually about half an inch in diameter, having a hole in the center through which a patch cord could be inserted, was made of brass or copper, and was sometimes plated with nickel.
The jacks were arranged in rows and columns, each representing a telephone line, a different part of the exchange area, or a connection to a switchboard in another town.
The jacks were wired at the back of the switchboard to carbon-fused “arrestors,” which protected the switchboard from voltage surges from the outside wiring connected to the telephones.
The materials used with an average eight-foot-long telephone flexible switchboard cord included rubber, stranded copper wire, metal connector plug, and insulation to protect the copper wire from moisture and corrosion.
When asked to place a long-distance call to a telephone in a different telephone exchange, the switchboard operator would connect the caller’s patch cord plug into the connector jack of an interexchange tandem trunk line to the next town, establish and then converse with the switchboard operator in the other exchange, who would continue to process the call.
Switchboard operators recorded the talk-time of long-distance calls in minutes on paper cards for billing.
In 1931, the Winsted telephone exchange (where my family worked) provided telephone service using a Monarch switchboard to process calls.
In 1949, the Monarch switchboard was replaced with a Wilcox electrical relay-switching dial office, allowing subscribers to place local calls from their rotary dial phones without operator assistance.
The town’s switchboard was once the heart of the community.
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| Photo taken in May 1941 of the Winsted Telephone Company Monarch switchboard used during the 1930s and 1940s |
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| My 1915 Western Electric Model No. 1317 magneto wooden wall phone and 1920s candlestick telephone |
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| Jack panel lines 101 - 105 from the original Winsted Telephone Company Monarch switchboard. I inserted into jack 104 a spare, never-used, still-in-the-box switchboard cable from 1960. |
