  Bakelite telephone When you pick up your telephone, you have at your fingertips a communication system that is mainly local in its operations. Probably you will use it most of the time to talk to people in or near your own community, but wherever you wish, it can carry your voice across the continent or even across the seas to other countries. The telephone industry in the United States now includes: Telephones serving homes and businesses in 75,000 cities and towns, and more than 3,000,000 telephones in rural areas. A network of wire linking these telephones. About 95 per cent of this wire is in sturdy cables, and almost three-fifths of the cable is underground. More than 25,000 central offices in which telephones are connected by means of switching equipment. Over 9,500 of these offices are operated by Bell System companies. Literally billions of small parts—relays, condensers, resistors, vacuum tubes each carefully designed and finely fashioned so that it will work in harmony with all other parts, anywhere in the country. Radio-telephone links to automobiles, trains, ships, airplanes, and countries overseas. A growing system of radio relay routes used for transmitting both long distance telephone conversations and television programs. Highly skilled telephone people living and working in nearly every American community. The Bell System alone employs about 700,000 men and women, who are busy planning, designing, manufacturing, improving, building, operating—all working to fulfill the traditional telephone policy of providing the best possible service at the lowest possible cost. In the telephone officeEvery time you make a telephone call—either by dialing or by giving the operator the number—you first reach the telephone central office. This nerve center of your local telephone system contains equipment through which your telephone can be connected to any other telephone you wish to reach. In a small community there may be only one central office. In large cities there are many of them, all joined by trunk lines. The term telephone exchange means the whole local area served by one or more central offices. Over four-fifths of all Bell System telephones are dial-operated. Intricate machinery in the central office makes connections by obeying the electrical signals that you send over your line as you turn the dial on your telephone. Before you dial, the equipment in the central office tells you it is ready to serve you by transmitting a “hum-m-m-m” over your line. You should hear this dial tone before you start to dial. The dial tone serves the same purpose as the operator’s “Number, please!” Telephone company buildings are built to harmonize with surroundings in communities where they are located. A central office in California. Another one in Connecticut. Testing equipment in a dial central office in a large city. Telephones that are not dial-operated are connected with manual central offices, where operators seated at switchboards make the connections by hand. Switchboards differ greatly in size. In small villages one or two operators handle all calls. In large cities the volume of calls requires hundreds of operators working at large multiple switchboards. The term multiple comes from the fact that the end of each subscriber’s telephone line is duplicated or multipled at intervals throughout the switchboard. For example, a switchboard serving 6,000 customers might have positions for 20 operators. The board would be multipled so that each operator answering a call from any of the group of customers assigned to her, could reach his line and connect it with any one of the 5,999 others. Written as well as spoken messages are handled through switchboards. Teletypewriter Exchange Service (TWX) does for the written word what the telephone does for the spoken word. This service transmits typewritten messages over any distance through connections made by operators at switchboards. It is especially valuable for business firms; there are now some 37,000 listings in the TWX directory. Typical traffic curve City telephones are generally busiest between 9 and 11 A.M., when business is in full swing. There is another business peak between 4 and 5 P.M. Residence telephones are usually busiest about 7 P.M. Operators, who answer when you dial “O” (operator), will lend a hand if you need help in calling from a dial telephone. The courteous, helpful service rendered by telephone operators has become a traditional part of American life. Even in communities that have dial service, “the voice with a smile” is on the job to handle long distance calls, to provide telephone numbers not included in the directory, and to give any other help that customers may desire. Ever since World War II, the Bell companies have kept on installing new equipment in great quantities to meet the largest demand ever experienced for new telephone service. Where the wires goThe arrangement of wires that connects your telephone with the central office and with the telephones of other subscribers is something like a tree. Just as twigs lead to branches, branches to limbs, and limbs to the trunk, so individual telephone wires come together in small distribution cables. In turn, these cables come together in feeder cables that increase in size as they approach the central office. Often as many as 2,121 pairs of fine copper wires enter the telephone office in main feeder cables about as big around as a baseball bat. Splicers “cutting in” wires in a new cable, below the street in manhole. Bell telephone installer connects drop wire to new subscriber’s home. Most wire in city telephone cables lies underground in tile conduits and comes into the telephone office through a cable vault in the basement. If the At each telephone office the cables run to the terminal room, where their hundreds or thousands of pairs of wires fan out to terminal blocks on one side of a large distributing frame. Other wires run from the opposite side of the distributing frame to the switchboard or dial equipment. Cross-connections on the distributing frame bring each telephone user’s line to its proper terminal in the switching equipment. A telephone office is dependent on electric power, both direct and alternating. The direct current comes from storage batteries. These are kept charged by generators driven by the regular current supplied by the power company, which also provides the electricity needed for other purposes. Standby generators, usually driven by gasoline or diesel engines, are provided for emergencies in most large offices and in many smaller ones. Ringing machines generate alternating current to operate your telephone bell and provide the various signals you hear in your telephone receiver. These machines are installed in pairs so that there will be no interruption of telephone service should one machine fail to operate properly. Technicians check for trouble at a desk in a central office. Preventive maintenance, outside as well as inside telephone offices, helps provide good service. Preventive maintenance, both inside and outside telephone offices, is vital in furnishing dependable, satisfactory telephone service. Telephone men periodically check the condition of telephone plant. Using steadily Test desks, where testmen also track down troubles in the telephone plant, are essential to giving good service. These are special switchboards with equipment that enables the testman to diagnose the cause and location of trouble on a customer’s line. Teamwork to serve you wellIn addition to good equipment kept in good condition all the time, good telephone service depends on capable people who are well trained and skilled in their jobs. Telephone people strive to make the telephone company a friendly, helpful institution. This young lady is one of the courteous service representatives who assist the customers. Not only must these many people perform many different jobs to give you good service but they must work together as a team. In the Plant department, linemen, installers, cable splicers, repairmen and others build and maintain the plant so that the operators in the Traffic department can Good telephone service depends on teamwork of many people working together at different jobs. These girls are typing telephone bills in the Accounting department of a Bell telephone company. In every Bell telephone company there are staff people who are specialists in various phases of the business. They assist the front-line forces in meeting day-to-day problems. They find better, more efficient ways of doing things. The purpose of all is to serve you well and with unfailing courtesy. Telephone people have a genuine desire to make the company a friendly and helpful institution. Because telephone men and women are good citizens of your community, they take pride in conducting the affairs of the company so that the public will think of it, too, as a good citizen. A large proportion of the people in the Bell System make a career of telephone work. More than 245,000 of them have been in the business over ten years. Wages are good, employment steady, and working conditions are pleasant. The Bell companies’ Benefit and Pension Plans, among the oldest and best in industry, assist employees and their families in meeting the problems that arise from sickness, accident, old age and death. Opportunity to advance in the organization is open to all on the basis of individual ability. Supervisory and management positions are filled from the ranks. THE BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM The principal telephone subsidiaries of American Telephone and Telegraph Company serve generally the areas shown. The Southern New England and Cincinnati and Suburban are associated but non-controlled companies. In nearly all areas other telephone companies operate and connect with Bell System lines.
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