This never gets old! I had a line on purchasing one of the switchboard key sets that I wanted to wire into my modern blue box circuit, but a collector grabbed it!
Great video- thank you for uploading this! When I used to live in Seattle some years back the EMerson CO had an old No. 1 Crossbar and you could hear the MF tones being sent- it was WAY cool. Up until quite recently my answering machine greeting told the calling party via MF which number they dialed (complete with KP and ST)- as if they'd really decipher it...! Maybe I'll restore that message. Thanks again, this was wonderful to see.
What a great video...it really showcases how ingenious these people were. I know everything became completely digital with the ESS switches but it wasn't too long ago that you'd walk into a C.O. and hear the constant clicking being produced by wall to wall equipment.
The one thing that I wish Judge Green would have done in the break up of the Bell System would have been making the Brand "Touch Tone" public domain. For years I input Translations into1ESS and 1AESS offices. Some vender would want DID(direct inward dialing) trunks for a PBX. Reading there instructions it would say they needed DTMF(generic for Touch Tone) Signaling. The Tell co would ask, "Do You want DP(Dial Pulse), TT(Touch Tone), or MF(Multi-Frequency) signaling". The vender would say Make them MF. I would build the Trunk Groups. Then on the first day of service I would get a call "Hey these trunks don't work". It happened so may times that the first thing I would do would be to change the Signaling from MF to TT(DTMF) and say "Try it now". Almost every time that would fix them.
@gnutelliums Yes. Area codes as we know them were invented in 1947. But there were operator routing codes used before then for the #4 crossbar switches and Crossbar Tandem switches that handled long haul and short haul long distance calls. Operator toll dialing was one step away from customer toll dialing, which started in 1951.
DTMF is the Generic Name for Touch Tone. Touch Tone used 8 tones. 4 low and 4 high. MF used 6 Tones on a 2 out of 6 code. The lower 5 Tones would code the numbers 0 thru 9. The 6th Tone plus one of the other 5 Tones would be used for special control codes (KP,ST). See the Key Set at time 02:30 and at 05:20.
That looks like #1 Crossbar (Xbar) switching. And this presages DDD (Direct Distance Dialing) which really kicked off in earnest in the mid 1950's. #1 Xbar is a 1930's technology. So this had to be more like late 30's to the 40's. Now the #4 Xbar was a toll switcher and could do routing, record information, etc. All eletro-mechanical. Now we're all digital.
As a former employee of Ma Bell - I salute this film
Having once worked for AT&T, I found this amusing.
Welcome to BountyCon 2022 - Whistlr
From BountyCon as well! How's it going so far for you?
This never gets old! I had a line on purchasing one of the switchboard key sets that I wanted to wire into my modern blue box circuit, but a collector grabbed it!
Great video- thank you for uploading this!
When I used to live in Seattle some years back the EMerson CO had an old No. 1 Crossbar and you could hear the MF tones being sent- it was WAY cool.
Up until quite recently my answering machine greeting told the calling party via MF which number they dialed (complete with KP and ST)- as if they'd really decipher it...! Maybe I'll restore that message.
Thanks again, this was wonderful to see.
Hey, do you know what year Seattle got ESS? I grew up here in the 80s, EMerson 7
What a great video...it really showcases how ingenious these people were.
I know everything became completely digital with the ESS switches but it wasn't too long ago that you'd walk into a C.O. and hear the constant clicking being produced by wall to wall equipment.
The comments are as interesting as the video. Thank you for them. :)
This is like an early router!
You want to go to a certain IP, and the routers in the path find the shortest and quickest way.
The one thing that I wish Judge Green would have done in the break up of the Bell System would have been making the Brand "Touch Tone" public domain. For years I input Translations into1ESS and 1AESS offices. Some vender would want DID(direct inward dialing) trunks for a PBX. Reading there instructions it would say they needed DTMF(generic for Touch Tone) Signaling. The Tell co would ask, "Do You want DP(Dial Pulse), TT(Touch Tone), or MF(Multi-Frequency) signaling". The vender would say Make them MF. I would build the Trunk Groups. Then on the first day of service I would get a call "Hey these trunks don't work". It happened so may times that the first thing I would do would be to change the Signaling from MF to TT(DTMF) and say "Try it now". Almost every time that would fix them.
@gnutelliums Yes. Area codes as we know them were invented in 1947. But there were operator routing codes used before then for the #4 crossbar switches and Crossbar Tandem switches that handled long haul and short haul long distance calls. Operator toll dialing was one step away from customer toll dialing, which started in 1951.
It's incredible, now I can call a cell phone outside of the united states with my cell phone and it dials and connects within a few seconds.
Now switching is packet based via soft switches. We really have come a long way!
Foi uma grande evolução essa tecnologia.
The tones are DTMF tones. Dual Tone Multi-Frequency.
DTMF is the Generic Name for Touch Tone. Touch Tone used 8 tones. 4 low and 4 high. MF used 6 Tones on a 2 out of 6 code. The lower 5 Tones would code the numbers 0 thru 9. The 6th Tone plus one of the other 5 Tones would be used for special control codes (KP,ST). See the Key Set at time 02:30 and at 05:20.
No those were MF tones that showed in the video it’s a different set of frequencies then DTMF
And now all this functionality fits inside that little blue linksys box next to your computer.
If you want to hear real audio of the way a call went through before this, search RUclips for to 'dragnet long distance call'.
That looks like #1 Crossbar (Xbar) switching. And this presages DDD (Direct Distance Dialing) which really kicked off in earnest in the mid 1950's.
#1 Xbar is a 1930's technology. So this had to be more like late 30's to the 40's.
Now the #4 Xbar was a toll switcher and could do routing, record information, etc. All eletro-mechanical. Now we're all digital.
I diffucult to believe able to smoking in waiting time for old telephon excange system.
So this is the present day Area Code, Exchange Code, and Telephone Number system.
wow! early dtmf!
DTMF is the generic term for Touch Tone. MF was used for interoffice signaling.
lol #4 crossbar
nope. its MF, the same frequencys used in blueboxing
I bet you anything that factory WE - is the old Omaha one.
i miss having a name exchange for my telephone number: Dearborn, Lakeview, Sunset...
not really, do you know what a TANDEM is?
I do. I worked in one for five years back in the 1970's. But my TANDEM was a SXS TANDEM.
Thank God you don't have to dial a operator anymore. My router does that for me, because I have VoIP.