7 DIGIT CALL THROUGH WECo PANEL OFFICE SWITCH - MUSEUM OF COMMUNICATIONS - SEATTLE, WA

Les 'Andy' Anderson demonstrates a 7 digital call (722-5634) through Seattle's PARKWAY Panel Office (In service from 1923 - 1972). This historic Panel Office provided Seattle with its first dial tone and direct dial calling (no operator assist) in September of 1923. This video shows the call as it is set up from the Line Finder through the District and Sender frames to the Final Frame. The Sequence Switches are shown at each stage (you'll hear an overlap of sound).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• WECo
• PANEL SWITCH
• VINTAGE TELEPHONE
• BELL SYSTEM

[kd1s]

How cool! I've never seen a panel switch in action, I got into telecom when the electronic side was taking dominance.

[OldGuy0003]

Yes. It sure was a learning experience. Working in a Panel C.O. you go use to the usual sounds but could pick out by ear a sound out of place and locate it.

[telecomguy10]

If you guys have a cordboard in your museum, could you please make a video of a call coming in and it being routed through your trunks? It would be really cool to see. Thanks!

[phattieg]

It's a damn shame this museum is all the way in Washington. Would have probably been cheaper to put it in the middle of the USA (cheaper as in cheaper to mail vintage parts to the museum). Plus, more people would visit Tennessee, or Kentucky, before they'd go to Washington state..

[alterman156]

@kjfitzgerald593 I recall those old telephone sounds as I live in Westchester County, New York. Where I live, I might have had a #5 crossbar switch.

[AlohaWulf]

@kd1s they have since replaced the motor with the bad bearing.

[enigma800]

That's an awesome video. C.O.'s back in the day were "alive", compared to today's digital systems.

[kjfitzgerald593]

Thanks very very much for posting this. I was a telephone operator in metro Atlanta starting in the early 70's, and I was used to the sounds of step, crossbar, and ESS because that's all we had in Atlanta at the time. But now I know what I was hearing when I would place calls up to the northeast U.S. and hear unusual noises sometimes. Now, I know I was hearing revertive pulsing! I was calling a Panel office! I hope I can visit this musem in person someday. Way to go!

[toresbe]

What role do those wheels in the panel with the F in it play? Is that the originating register?

[zappatx]

Omaha was the first city to have this system installed. When I was a kid they still had that at 90th and Western.

[kd1s]

My experience is in the I.T. field and I've been around computers long enough to know what the various noises and visual signals indicate.

You never miss the sound of a bearing failing on a hard drive.