Nation At Your Fingertips

[James1toknow]

Punishment for this video is Englewood gets cell phone technology last in the nation! and fiber rings 5 years later!

at 10:14 I see BORG,,,, you will be assimilated!

If that isn't work pace torture what is!

[James1toknow]

She has something going on with the Mail man!! you know it!

The letter is a diversion!,,, she is really calling the mail man on his Cell phone!

[Teflon65]

The lettered, or abbreviated, exchanges were phased out in the 1970s, but for a long time, the first two numerals of your telephone number still indicated what part of town you lived in. Then, Ma Bell created an exchange that did not indicate what part of town you lived in, and if your phone number began with those two numerals, which were different in every community, you could move across town, and keep your old phone number.

[v1fly1]

1951... That was an $80 phone call....

[traffety]

remember when america was like this? heheh

[imajika2]

Some of the information is sent by electrons floating through spaaaaace! LOL! That line cracked me up.

[Spock1971]

@imajika2 The "electrons floating through spaaaaace!" referred to microwave radio ("R-Carrier" Systems) that A.T.&T. used back then for long-haul toll. Actually, the A.T.&T. division was called "A.T.&T. LongLines" that was in charge of microwave systems for long-haul toll. These systems in the beginning actually used single-side band (SSB) like ham operators use on HF frequencies now. These systems were "multiplexed" to form many channels, broken down by Supergroup, Jumbogroups, etc.

[jamie1707]

I wonder why the boys were replaced with "alert girl operators" and why it was well into the late 70's before men could work as operators again? I kind of have an inkling why - woman could be pushed around more easily.

Having know ladies of my mother's generation who worked for ma bell, it wasn't the best of work places. Very strict rules, even having to use the rest room required permission from a supervisor.

[Alprazolam]

@jamie1707 very true...the reason they replaced the boys with women operators was because the teenage boy operators were rude and would use foul language with people. if people got short with the boy operators they would mess with their calls...but ma bell did push around women and gave them "greenies" when they got out of line the greenies had valium in them...so if you had a bad day at work they drugged you...oh the totalitarian bell system

[jtel]

Very nice.

[GelandnaleG]

10:08pm Sunday (CDT) - Time in Mississippi, United States of America

we know

[lukebccb]

Of course this Ma Bell film ain't gonna tell anyone that the phone call to Sally in San Francisco cost the equivalent of $25/minute in present 2010 dollars.

How do you think the old Ma Bell AT&T go so wealthy...... (HINT: MONOPOLY ON LONG DISTANCE)...... wonder why telegrams stayed so popular WELL into the early 1970s?

[lukebccb]

Maybe they should bring back the manual switchboard if it'll help the piece-of-shit iphone from dropping calls.

[rxblair]

Why was the Louisiana area code (318) used to reach the caller's daughter in San Francisco?

From 1951 to 1953, area code 318 was temporarily used to specify San Francisco and areas north of the Golden Gate, while calls with destinations in Oakland and the East Bay continued to use area code 415, until 6-digit translations were accommodated by a new electromechanical Card-Translator box implemented in 1953. Area code 318 was then reserved for its future use in Louisiana.

[OldsVistaCruiser]

@rxblair - Also, Oakland is no longer served by the 415 area code. The 415 was split several times, including the 707 in northwest CA, which was done in 1959. Oakland is served today by the 510 area code, which was introduced in 1991.

What's so coincidental is that Philadelphia, which has had 215 since the beginning, had its original area code split to 610, which handles the western and far northern suburbs, and west of there is the 717 area code!

[jsteiger2228]

0:57 - Now that's a good woman.... My wife could learn a few things from this video ;-)

[jsteiger2228]

3:45 - Will alert girls take over the world? What will happen to all those poor boys??

[xylenol15]

"Well, now, measles. That's not so serious. All kids get em sooner or later." Daaammnn. 1990 was a good year to be born! =D Still had to deal with one of the poxes though. ;)

[ruzphi]

Brilliant, thanks for the posting .Just remember the very latest cell phone with no matter what else it can do is going to look pretty silly and get people laughing in 25 years

[tammyroxalot]

im doing a huge project on the telephone this really helps!

[marcioddf]

amazing...

[wiedep]

my ph # when i was a kid was - SPencer9-4391 779-4391

[BigTerKC]

Uhh, yeah, that lady in part 3:45 was a hoot! Trust me, I've worked for an answering service and regular headsets with a microphone on them was bad enough. If I had to wear something like that I don't think I would have made it through the training! LOL

[OneWayTrip1]

I never got why American Phone numbers had Letters in them, here in Australia it's two numbers for the state, 4 numbers for the area, and 4 numbers for the specific telephone.

03 9123 1234

[vintageappliguy]

The reason that phone #'s here in the states had 2 letters and 5 numbers from 1920 to ca.1963 was because those two letters identified the exchange (the local telephone office) you belonged to. For example PE6-5643 would have stood for PErshing6-5643 (if you followed Ma Bell's suggested list of exchange names). Pershing6 is the phone office your calls are handled by and 5643 is your actual phone(s) in your house. Phone offices in the US having names goes back to the days before dial service.

[OldsVistaCruiser]

@vintageappliguy - PE6 also had a very special significance in American music history. Glenn Miller made a big hit out of PEnnsylvania 6-5000, which was (and is) the phone number for the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The hotel is proud of the fact that they have had the number since 1919, when it was PENnsylvania 5000 (the third letter was made the corresponding 6 later), and it may be the longest-continuously-held number in history. In today's format, their number is 212-736-5000.

[vintageappliguy]

@OldsVistaCruiser IThanks for the info I am a swing music fan myself I was aware of Pennslyvania6 5000...I did not realize the hotel still had the # though

[SonAvitch]

3:45 best part thats so funny to me I could have a sick sense of humor.

[DramaticSoul77]

10:12 introduced the first BlueTooth system. Lol, what a riot.

[VertexCom]

...and we thought we had it first!

[retsoftware]

They caught the perfect pitch guy when he couldn't reproduce a 50 cent piece.

[dllewiszz]

What's with dialing NPA 318 for San Francisco? How did that slip by?

[dllewiszz]

Ooops -- Now I know! NPA 318 was indeed used for a short time for San Francisco in the early fifties.  It was later reclaimed and assigned to Louisiana, while San Francisco joined Oakland in 415.

[59phonebone]

That was REALLY great! And Cap'n Crunch had a fellow phonephreak friend rhat was blind and had perfect pitch, able to replicate the tones without the whistle. Then they figured out the cereal box whistle used the same tones.

I've got some old telco training videos from the 1980s I'll be putting on my page soon. They aren't as cool as this but they are really funny.

[Legend813a]

Joybubbles could only produce single frequency (SF) tones. The main one needed in the early days was 2600 Hz.

[tomcat5100]

"..chords that mechanical ears recognize.." lol

[superspiel]

Phreaking is born!

[freenewhampshire]

At 4min 14 seconds....One ringy dingy!

I miss Lily Tomlins routine as the operator.

I wonder what gave Captain Crunch the idea

of blowing the whistle into the phone in the first

place?