ATT history.....interesting read......

[mrvette]

https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/the_att_telephone_story.html


My uncle worked for ATT back in the 20-30's engineer, followed Patton, fixing the .com crap as territories were retaken......

went PR/Admin after that, because of Heart attacks and on nitroglycerin tabs for many years....

:)

[VITE1]

I use to do a massive amount of business with the old AT&T in Merrimack valley ( 3-4 million a month) back in the day.Most of the day to day people were good to work with, Engineers, in most cases were top notch but thier management was the most self centered self serving political bunch of ass hole I've ever met.

During drinks with a few old timers and Bell lab engineers while in Taiwan with them they confided in me that back in the 1960's when engineering students made "Bread boxes" to cheat AT&T out of long distance revenue and after they were caught they were told they had 3 choice.

1) Pay up in full plus interest.
2) Go to jail
3) Work for AT&T.

Most if not all took option 3. They rose to managment quickly.

And now you know why they failed.

[Mike Mercury]

https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9216889856/h4EF4117D/

[Uncle Meat]

My Dad retired from AT&T years ago. He was the Chief Switching Systems Manager for the Lansing office at Michigan Bell.

U.M.

[StaticCling]

I worked Inbound (Call Center) Customer Service for AT&T in the 90's for a few years. Decent job for a kid, paid well back then...Union Gig, CWA. :yesnod:

[mrvette]

I worked Inbound (Call Center) Customer Service for AT&T in the 90's for a few years. Decent job for a kid, paid well back then...Union Gig, CWA. :yesnod:

Know what my uncle did in early 30's?? Case Inst. Tech grad EE.....started out planting phone poles.....went on to stringing lines/wires/installs.....switching stations.....

You know what a # ONE crossbar is/was??? I have a stepper relay from a station house.... I remember as a kid in elementary screwal, going on a trip to the local ATT swith house in walking distance of the screwal.....and in there watching the machinery working, and looking at all those dozens of 6 volt car batteries hooked in series as battery backup to supply the 48 volts to activate the phone system in case of electric power outage....

whole damn station house had less switching power than in one microchip today....running on 3-5 volts and drawing zero amp, thanks to CMOS tech....

been a few changes......:issues:

[Uncle Meat]

I remember my Dad taking me through the switching room when I was a kid. Thousands and thousands of relays all clicking & clacking as folks spun the dials on their rotary phones. Then we'd head to the basement where all of the batteries were. Hundreds of these monsters all lined up in rows. Then there was the room with huge dual gas turbines which would kick on during a power outage and keep the batteries charged. As a kid that whole building was mesmerizing.

U.M.

http://www.kilmer-family.com/images/1979/bell_telephone_old_step_equipment/image05.jpg

http://www.kilmer-family.com/images/1979/bell_telephone_old_step_equipment/image06.jpg

http://www.kilmer-family.com/images/1975/hartland_telephone_cutover/image02.jpg