The Switchboard Operator
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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Any Man Can Supply Conversation For This Picture
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Got it through in 20 minutes!Report
‘In 1926, the average time of handling toll and long distance calls was two minutes. In 1927 this average was reduced to 1 1/2 minutes, with further improvements in voice transmission’
from a 1928 AT&T ad, “Kansas saves 20 years”
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/AT-T-advertising-proof-1928-Kansas-Saves-Twenty-Years-File-3-box-21-series-1_fig8_258184088
edit- this ad says to me that this was probably the highwater cultural mark of ‘classic Fordism’, before it would be superseded by ‘Operations Management’ (which in contrast to Fordism, mostly permeated the public consciousness in a negative way, e.g. ‘pencil necked bean counters’)Report
My grandparents Cain lived in a small town in the poorest part of Iowa with an operator for everything. The first time we were at my grandparents and the adults were leaving me by myself for an afternoon, Grandma gave me instructions if there was a problem. “Here’s the wall phone. Hold this part up to your ear to hear, speak into that part there. Crank twice and when Mabel answers, tell her you’re Thelma Cain’s grandson and there’s a problem.”
If I remember my Bell System history properly, direct-dial for long distance started being deployed at a time when service growth rates implied that within 25 years AT&T would have to hire every single woman in the country to work a switchboard.Report