Switchboards: Please Hold While We Connect You | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh there's Chuck ring ring there's. Jerry and this is stuff you should know. that's right this is a Kyle joint. so a little British factor to in here. cuz Kyle likes to throw those in cuz. that's where he lives yeah he keeps. mentioning fish and chips every like few.

paragraphs yeah what's a chippy that's. right uh we are going to be talking. about telephone switchboards uh some. overlap with the couple of other. episodes we've done uh but this is all. about the you know the the advancement. of the telephone system and the United. States and abroad and how the telephone. switchboard was a crucial crucial part. of that uh yeah um first I want to give. a shout out if you ever find yourself in. the town of matland Florida go to the. maand um I think well it's the telephone.

Museum there's probably not more than. one telephone Museum in maitlin even. though I can't remember the name of it. just ask somebody for directions there. and they will tell you or ask your app. regardless it's really cute um it's not. the biggest Museum you'll ever find but. it's a very dedicated Museum I love old. telephones I would like to check that. out actually oh you'd love this there's. a bank of wall telephones from the 70s. probably and each one's a different. color it's very pretty oh my God yeah.

you would you would like this place. Chuck it it it it reminded me that. something that was just such an integral. part of our life is a completely. obsolete outdated antique technology it. does there's basically no reason for it. to exist any longer and it may not as. far as I know yeah I think you still. have to have it to connect some um uh. alarm home alarm systems maybe but.

that's the only application I know of. anymore actually you know what that's we. had that for that landline for that. reason for a while but no longer I mean. I don't I just don't think that there's. any reason for them to exist any longer. I'm sure I'm wrong but that's the best I. can come up with is home alarm systems I. guess Nostalgia is not a good enough. reason huh to keep this amazing network. of Technologies still around oh yeah man. I mean lots of it's dumb it's just my my. our genx selves like uh looking back.

with Joy about walking around your. bedroom with a long phone cord and yeah. or or your mom literally being able to. go to Every point in the kitchen with. like a 25- foot stretchy phone cord that. you're ducking under and it's knocking. things over and that's right yeah there. goes the flower Wireless is better I. know um it's I don't think it's just. Nostalgia I think there is some real. value or um there there's it's it's not.

pointless to to look at the telephone. system that was created over the decades. in the 20th century and just be. impressed like it wasn't a marvelous. technology and it did some amazing stuff. while it was around it's just we've. moved on technology wise but that. doesn't mean you can't appreciate it. yeah I wonder if they're they're safer. uh like uh for like government systems. you know because you literally have to. tap the wire physically it's not just in. the the Airwaves true that so I don't.

know I I don't know either but that's a. great point I'm curious surely someone. knows but let's talk about Alexander. granbell because he is the OG he's the. guy that invented or well patented the. telephone at least right uh and from. Boston in. 1876 where he was not trying to invent a. telephone he was trying to work out the. problem with the electrical Telegraph. which was it was just getting bunched up. too many people are sending too many.

uh you know. telegraphs and it it's a problem so. there's too much traffic so all of a. sudden Bell who was a a sound guy anyway. realized that you could send tones and. once you he realized you could send a. tone along a wire he was like oh forget. the telegraph I'm going to come up with. the harmonic Telegraph and one day I'm. going to speak to somebody on the other. end of a wire yeah not dots and dashes. but Hayes and how are you or a hoys yeah.

right um so he did this in. 1876 right he set out to to to figure. out the telegraph clogging and invented. the phone pretty quickly the next year. he found a Bell Telephone Company um and. the first permanent telephone wires were. in Boston I think that same year right. so we had telephone service set up. within a year of him uh inventing the. telephone one of the other things too is. he helped kind of spread telephone.

technology by giving lectures that. people would come see and then go off. and like build their own versions that. would work um but initially when you. were talking to somebody on a telephone. your telephone was physically connected. to their telephone which made a lot of. sense initially but if you want to talk. to more than one friend in town you need. another wire to connect your phone to. somebody else's telephone and so so on. and so forth and if you just kind of.

Follow That logical path you very. quickly realize like man we're going to. need a lot of wires to connect one. person to everybody else and everybody. else to that one person it just it. that's the definition of exponential. growth and so they figured out they. needed a different way rather than. connecting each telephone physically and. that's where they came up with the. concept of the switchboard that's right. uh what if all of the calls went into a. central location and there was a human.

being there that would connect those two. wires it's a very elegant very simple. sort of system MH uh it's you know it's. literally connecting two calls by you. know by connecting them by plugging them. into the same uh what would you even. call that switchboard Jack yeah the same. Jack um the first switchboard. commercially uh was in 1878 so. only uh geez like a year after the Bell. company was founded this is in New Haven.

Connecticut and it connected 21. different subscribers in this case and. this is a very old-fashioned primitive. thing uh before long they were like why. don't we wrap these cords uh in cloth. it's like insulated and why don't we. make the you know the board look a. little nicer and uh we'll call them a. cord board but everyone's still going to. call them a. switchboard yes um one one thing really. quick too when some of these first. commercial switchboards popped up in. towns like the one in um New Haven that.

I guess George Coy was the inventor of. um they would publish phone books and. the first phone books would be like one. page with like 50 people's names on. because when you called you would call. and your call would be connected by an. operator so You' pick up your phone and. the only person it would go to is that. operator or switchboard and you would. say I want to talk to Chuck Bryant. please and the the the operator would. look up where your Jack was that went to.

your house and then now connected the. call right so they would plug my phone. cord into your phone jack and connect. our call but first they would right. first they would they would plug in. themselves to you and say Josh Clark. calling for Charles Bryant and you would. say tell them I'm in the shower and they. they would plug back into mine and be. like he's in the shower he can't talk. right now and I would say tell him that. I know he's not in the shower and hang.

up. angrily you're not too far off uh that. is if my Jack is on that board um if it. was a big enough Community um that. switchboard operator might say I don't. have Chuck on this board but uh there. he's on another board so I'm going to. contact that switchboard and you know. patch it in that way so but first they. spend 10 minutes going down East Jack. like Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck no. Chuck Chuck no Chuck well early on they. just knew you know in in a 21 person. situation they just knew everybody in.

fact for for a little while they weren't. even saying phone numbers they were just. like Chuck Bryant right exactly and one. of the other things about a central. switchboard too is there's a phone. company employee connecting calls and so. now you can track things more easily and. hence Bill people more accurately too. yeah because this is when making a call. costs money and up until I mean not that. long ago in the grand scheme of things. making a long-distance call uh cost. extra money mhm so you had to build.

people and it was pretty ingenious uh. things started growing growing growing. you said the word exponentially and that. is the truth because between 1880 and. just 13 years later we went from 60,000. phones to 260 and then just. another 10 years later there were three. million phones in the United States only. uh Kyle points out and in the UK they. were a little bit behind us uh 1914 they. were fewer than two telephones per 100.

people compared to 10 in the US but they. eventually caught up two and everyone. had phones that's right um I'm sure. there's some listener that's like I. didn't have a phone when I was a kid. well maybe so as more and more people. had phones more and more Jacks were. required in switchboards so you're. getting bigger switchboards more. switchboards it became kind of a mess in. and of itself as we'll see that was. known as the switchboard problem right.

yeah but then finally they figured out. okay um there's some there's a few. tweaks we can do here that are going to. allow us to just to support this growth. because the phone companies weren't like. whoa we're good at 10,000 subscribers. let's just hold here they wanted. everybody to have a phone so they could. bill everybody for using those phones. and also America or the United States or. the world I think was like we really. want to be able to pick up the phone and. talk to people it was a huge enormous. technology that completely changed how.

humans interact with one another so. everybody wanted a phone phone company. wanted to give people phones the big. sticking point was how you can connect. that many people in an efficient way and. not just keep adding switchboard after. switchboard after switchboard yeah and. you know something else we should point. out too is this is a time where the. phone company um controlled the phones. themselves so you couldn't just go to a. store and buy some cool looking Mickey. Mouse phone or A Garfield phone man or.

uh what phone from Sports Illustrated I. had a I did get that for free actually. but those are always garbage those the. ones that looked like push button but. when you hit it it dialed oh really do. you remember those you know it had the. the keypad but when you hit nine it went. no I don't remember that it was a big. bait and. switch uh but you rented your phone at. the time I guess if you had a or maybe. they didn't sell them at all at first. but I know for a long time they rent. phones to people like into the 70s right.

yeah I mean like you used to rent your. some people still probably rent their. modem from their uh cable or whatever. their Wi-Fi provider you saying all the. wrong words no I think you got it. provider yeah or Internet is internet. service provider ISP that's okay uh but. yeah anyway they were they were. controlling the flow of money in more. ways than just the bill uh they wanted. as many people to have phones as. possible because they were renting those. phones and eventually I guess selling. those phones yeah remember Yumi has a a.

story from when she was a kid of going. to the phone store with her dad and. renting a princess phone like a remember. it's so weird that it is weird it's just. weird to think of but like you said that. was a way for them to control Revenue. even more um and also I think it made it. more available to more people because I. think even into the 60s and 70s phones. were still kind of expensive to make and. so they were expensive to buy so you. could lease them but I think ultimately.

it was it was really the phone companies. and they were able to get away from this. as we'll see because for years and years. and years there was essentially a. monopoly on the phone in the United. States that's right uh but I got us a. little off track you were talking about. some new um techniques because these. switchboards all of a sudden were. getting just more and more ubiqui us and. they started to get a little clunky in. like how long it would take to connect. calls uh so one of the things they did.

is came up with a concept of what's. called The Divided exchange uh which is. really just an organizational structural. thing where people got more specialized. you might have operators just answering. the phone you might have people just. connecting instead of the person going. oh hey Josh let me see if Chuck's. available like all of that was really. streamlined uh eventually until they. came up what was called the express. system uh that had a lot of um letter B. boards that converged on a letter a. board mhm and there was an operator.

linking between those two right yeah so. the a person the person at the a board. would be like oh yeah Josh is on bbard. 72 But Chuck is on bbard 3 so I need I. need to be the one that connects bbard. 72 and bbard 3 for this call these are. human beings doing this and expected to. do it really fast too as we'll see yeah. uh they also just improved the signals. like signal strength all of a sudden. operators weren't like uh yelling at.

each other and in a you know which can. cause just chaos in a room with a bunch. of switchboard operators yeah what's the. number for dominoes yeah exactly so just. improving the the signal really. optimized how those things function such. you know even just making the little. signal lamps the little lights brighter. right uh responding to the current in. the line like everything just got a. little better yeah and the current in. the line was a huge thing too Not only. would it light up the little light above. your jack showing the operator like oh.

this guy's trying to call right now but. it also allowed for telephones to carry. a little bit of a current which was how. the voice was was broadcast anyway but. it was one more thing that they. controlled they powered everything which. made the whole thing more efficient. rather than having a bunch of batteries. out by the lines there was a central. group of batteries uh and power. generation that came from the main. office too so when you put all this. stuff together um they got really good. at analyzing traffic to to to kind of. put resources you know where it needed.

in any given time they put all this. together for the next four five decades. uh the phone system just kept expanding. and expanding and expanding but there. was always a frontier there was this. these were individual cities individual. towns and if the town or the city was. close enough to another town or city. they would probably be able to connect. but for the most part these phone. systems are growing. intra well internally let's just say. that I almost got really fancy for a.

second but I'm just going to say they. were internal into each Town growing and. growing and growing connecting. subscribers but each town was kind of. like its own isolated island of. telepon yeah and so obviously the next. um thing to conquer would be the the the. LD long distance uh at the time if you. wanted to pick up a phone in New York. City and call San Francisco you couldn't. do it no but say we take a break leave.

this as a cliffhanger and when we come. back we'll say whether or not they were. eventually able to do it stet stet say. one I don't know you know it's stet is. that in this stet stet it's a great name. got St that's the name of it I know it's. a great name all right stuck net with an. with an X. [Music].

okay so uh when they finally did start. um connecting towns they would use. switch ports right so your your your. town would be connected to another town. by a switchboard they use trunk lines. these are like these longer stronger. lines that people would use to connect. one town to another and let's say that. you were in Topeka and you wanted to. talk. to um Tacoma Washington. okay to Great tea towns sure when you.

picked up the phone in Topeka and said. give me Tacoma uh they would this would. set off a chain reaction of connections. carried out by human operators who would. connect to this switchboard and the. switchboard connected to I don't know. Kansas City and then that switchboard. connected to um Erie pens not Erie. Pennsylvania that'd be going the wrong. way munchie in the Indiana is it mun. yeah boy this is going terribly but I.

think it really gets it really. illustrates how clui the whole thing was. uh and then it would go from m/ Munch to. uh gue Indiana uh and then to um I don't. know onwards and upwards until finally. switchboard after switchboard after. switchboard after switchboard town to. town to town it would finally connect. all the way through all these towns from. switchboard to switchboard you to your. friend in Tacoma who wasn't even home. that you were using the Miles Davis.

rebreathing technique oh yeah yeah. you're breathing through your nose so. you don't have to stop talking I just. didn't. breathe oh okay that's the Dizzy. Gillespie method yeah speaking of. dizzy uh yes it's it's amazing um I. guess we'll spoil it and say eventually. uh New York was able to talk to San. Francisco uh and in fact I think that. was uh well no the first long line was. between New York and Philly in 18 85 uh.

New York to San Francisco finally came. around finally I say in. 1915 uh which is incredible you know for. that call they um brought Alexander. granbell out of retirement because he. he' left a super big fat rich man by. this time and had him talk to Watson. remember the first phone call was room. to room between him and Watson he said. Watson kir I need you and on this huge. Monumental historical phone call from. New York San Francisco um Belle said.

Watson come here I need you again and. Watson said I will but it's going to. take me a week to get there Watson. that's so Watson it totally is Watson. classic Watson uh you know it didn't. just work um with like magic you can't. send something that's used to going like. a mile or let's say 100 miles um all of. a sudden sending it you know close to. 3,000 miles so they had um boosters they. had loading coils which are electri. magnets that would boost the.

transmission they had these vacuum tubes. that would regenerate a weak signal. those were called repeaters so it it. needed help along the way to finally get. you know across country but the fact. that they were able to do that by 1915. is is remarkable um while this is. happening I mean I think you said that. he was uh B was an old fat rich guy by. this point that is because through even. the late 1800s uh Bell consistent. swatted away Rivals with uh lawsuits.

with shutting people down with saying. like uh no you know I have a patent here. till 1894 so like there are people out. there building their own phones and even. their own switchboards but like I'm. going to go after them as fast as they. can build them yeah they had detectives. that would go bust down doors and. confiscate bogus phones which were. phones that weren't part of the Bell. network which again held the patent then. even after the patent expired they would. just Sue anybody and everybody they.

would bribe officials to keep new phone. companies from being allowed to develop. or found themselves um it was really. ruthless and one of the reasons it was. ruthless is because um JP Morgan by this. time was the head of uh either AT&T or. Belle's board of directors and Belle. eventually bought AT&T and just. Consolidated Consolidated Consolidated. they would either following JP Morgan's. typical example they would either buy up. the competition or crush them out of.

existence if the competition didn't want. to sell at AT&T Bell's price so um this. is just how it was like that I I don't. remember what year the US government. finally stepped in and broke up Bell. into smaller versions of itself but it. was a was Monopoly a government. sanctioned Monopoly for decades and in. some ways this is good um because in in. other cases where like local phone. companies were allowed to compete it was.

super cluey sometimes you had to. subscribe to two different companies to. be able to call two different friends. depending on who they were subscribed to. the rates were all over the place there. was very little regulation so uh having. this Monopoly was good in some ways but. in others monopolies typically overall. are not good for the health of an. economy yeah and uh AT&T American. Telephone and Telegraph um we should. point out that uh they were approached. before that patent expired and the.

reason they were initially approached. was I mean it was part of the plan just. to you know snap up uh other companies. but part of it was hey I need AT&T to. help me build these long-distance lines. because that's the future if we control. longdistance and no one else has it then. we can even if new companies pop up. after this patent expires if we're the. only ones doing long distance then we. can lease those to other companies or. not lease them to other companies huge. huge Point yeah can we talk about phone.

numbers real. quick uh yeah I think we should talk. about phone numbers because I don't have. a complete handle on uh because how. phone numbers expanded was you know it. wasn't just one exact uniform way in. every place it kind of depended on how. big the city was uh as far as how many. digits they were using and stuff like. that so what I've gathered is that uh. from the beginning it was two to four. numbers depending on how big your. community was so sure you could. literally be living in a community and.

your phone number was uh seven yeah it. could be 07 I guess well I don't know if. zero counts but let's just say 11 no I. want to say seven okay your phone. number's seven mine's 11 we should get. together and make a convenience store. but as things started to uh expand and. grow obviously you needed more and more. numbers and I remembered seeing in like. even like happy days and stuff and TV. shows like into the 60s and 70s when. they would say you know a a um a word.

followed by numbers give me Klondike. 56000 exactly and so from this how I. understand it is and if you found. something different let me know but. Klondike would have been the uh either. the switchboard or the central you know. hub for that town and then whatever the. numbers you said would be the actual. number that's 55 yeah as that got busier. City started using what they called um. 2L in 4N format so two letter four.

number okay so it would still be. Klondike 5555 or whatever but it would. be um KL and then you would use the four. numbers and then eventually it was I. think uh 2 l5n they just kept taking. away letters and adding numbers the. bigger and bigger your city got right. and the reason why like if you have four. numbers you can um accommodate up to. 10,000 subscribers but as you add more. and more numbers or even letters then. you can add more and more people and so.

I think that the numbers or the letters. eventually or initially were like that. went to this particular switchboard. station and that was this one group of. people in town whose connections were. all coming out of this one station so if. you asked for Klondike. 5555 it took you to this one switchboard. and then that switchboard operator would. find subscriber 5555 and connect it and. the reason also I keep going to Klondike.

five is because that's the original 555. fake number in movies like if you watch. movies they ask for Klondike 5 all the. time like that's the that's the phone. number because the apparently the phone. company set aside the 555 exchange for. use by um. movies yeah which I was told recently in. a script I wrote to take that out oh. really yeah did you tell them to go to. hell well I mean any kind of script note. is just there is no right answer but.

this person said yeah it just I don't it. bugs me because it always takes me out. and makes me feel like I'm watching a. movie so I was like oh okay so did you. or did you not tell them to go to hell. with their script notes did not I got a. lot of good notes from this person so. all right I was on their side is this a. bad. actor no it's a good writer okay there's. a big difference um so to to get a. little further to wrap that up so those. letters were were eventually overtaken.

by numbers because again if you or I. don't even know if I said it and we. edited it out but if you look at an old. phone I think even a new phone still you. said it yeah okay um the numbers are. associated with specific letter so two. is associated with ABC three is. associated with DF and so on so if it. was Klondike that's KL both of those are. on the five So eventually it just became. 555 whatever the rest of the the thing. is. um and when we went to all numbers that.

was a big step in the direction of. eventually phasing out switchboard. operators yeah then you went seven. digits and then eventually in most. places you needed uh the area code as. well and we went to 10 digit yeah but. area codes weren't around for a while I. think it was oh no oh I don't remember. exactly when it was but um I'm looking. that's why I'm still kind of talking a. little bit I mean we've talked about. this before because uh we we both have. our phone numbers memorized growing up.

and there was definitely not an area. code 981 9919 that was me I grew up with. an area code oh really yeah for from the. moment you could remember it was no. you're right I'm sorry I'm sorry there. was just an exchange it wasn't yes. you're right mine was. 38294 all right sorry what if those two. numbers called each other like and some. weird portal opened that would be pretty. awesome what would be through the portal. either gnomes or robots it's got to be. one of the two really earthy or really.

futuristic Adam Curry wait wait which. one oh Adam Curry dressed as a gnome. okay thank you okay I knew you weren't G. to be satisfied until I pick one of here. too uh should we talk a little bit about. who the switchboard operators were all. right um or should we take our break uh. I don't I feel like we went long before. the first break so it keep going all. right well most of these uh switchboard. operat were women um initially they.

tried teenage boys but I love this. little factoid KY dug up um apparently. there was a quote that said uh. Unfortunately they matched insult for. insult uh for Canadian boys that were. operators so if like and as we'll see. there you know people call up and be. sirly and or in a bad mood or if it. didn't work right they'd be cussing. right these teenage boys would give it. right back to them yeah and so customer. service is suffering in the 1880s. because all these you know Wise mouth. kids so they started hiring uh mostly.

women in the early 20th century I think. 80% of all operators were women um here. and abroad they were called hello girls. uh ironic since apparently they weren't. even allowed to say hello we'll get to. that in a second uh and Emma nut was the. first uh phone operator switchboard. operator hired by uh AGB in 1878 at a. whopping wage of about a nickel an hour. yeah which is even adjusted for. inflation that's it's only $150 an hour. today yeah pretty pretty meager um but.

she was she was a Pioneer um and. probably one of the reasons why she kept. her job uh was eventually it had a lot. of prestige to it it was one of the more. respected jobs a woman can have but it. was also one of the very few jobs a. woman could have so women proved to be a. fairly docile Workforce because they had. so few um uh choices other choices for. work. and so they were exploited to the bone.

as phone operators sadly as it it turned. out yeah it took everything I had not to. make a nut. job. joke can we hear it but I guess I sort. of just did well I don't know her name. was Emma nut and everyone's like I want. I want a nut. job that was good sorry you got me uh so. here's the deal though it was very. specific criteria you couldn't just W in. there and get this job because like you. said there wasn't a lot of choice for. women in the workplace and eventually.

they would pay them you know okay uh not. as much as their male counterparts of. course because that's just how things. worked very sadly but uh it was a very. it was it was known as a pretty good job. to get um in the US you had to be well. spoken you had to be a high school. graduate uh in Canada they sought uh. women with good eyesight no cough uh you. had to be of sufficient height and were. physically fit in order to tackle the. exacting work at the switchboard and. also a in this is in Canada also a.

reference of moral character from their. clergyman wow this is to get a job as a. switchboard operator yeah what about uh. in the UK because that that's pretty fun. too uh you were required to speak The. King's English and not in a cockney way. or a northern way yeah um and so women. would accept these positions again these. were coveted positions in some cases. that paid them and gave them Financial. free. they were uh looked upon with respect by.

their Community like to make it as an. operator even be hired as an operator it. told the rest of society this one's a. good egg because we only hire the best. eggs um one of the things though like. you said was that there were really. strict rules on their behavior how they. comported themselves when speaking to. customers and then just how they even. like sat and positioned themselves at. their switchboard um there's a 1910. booklet that the Bell company wrote that.

Kyle found where they they were saying. like do not answer these calls with. hello they said would you rush into an. office or up to the door of a residence. and blurred out hello hello who am I. talking to when they put it like that. it's actually reasonable thing but. what's funny also is there was a big. debate initially when phones were um uh. invented between whether the proper way. to answer call was hello or Hoy Hoy and.

Alexander granbell was a Hoy Hoy boy and. Thomas Edison who was his big rival in. founding phone companies uh he was a. hello Guy and um that's why you'll hear. Mr burn say Hoy Hoy when he answers the. phone it's just going to show how. ridiculously old he is yeah we talked. about this on one episode it was a long. time ago but um I used to have a Hoy a. Hoy written on my uh first flip phone. when you opened it up the little home. screen cuz before they had pictures and.

Graphics just said aoy aoy you written. did you write it in nail polish no no no. it was typed out and you know instead of. like Chuck's phone or something oh okay. I never had a phone that had any feature. like that oh well you know these were. early flip phones I thought you actually. wrote it on the. screen no no no no it was typed. letters so uh oh there were a couple of. things that I saw um that were really. harsh there was um a interview that I.

found I think American Experience they. did a documentary on the telephone and. they were interviewing like some of. these original operators and one of them. was like so they used tailor ISM so. there was like five supervisors to every. single like switchboard operator and. they would just hover over you like a. hawk they would constantly be like come. on girls faster faster that kind of. stuff um and this woman was like if you. even lifted your head up from your. switchboard not even looked around not. even talked like you just lifted your.

head up four supervisors would be on you. being like what do you need what's going. on um there was another one that I think. it was on history.com they were writing. about telephone operators and they um. they quoted from a woman who was like. one of the original ones who said um I. had to work 10 unpaid hours as. punishment for a single giggle like. that's how how just. regulated um the the way women operators. were for decades and decades that was.

just part of the job yeah uh I never did. telemarketing in college but that was a. big Dial America was a big job in Athens. I'm sure you remember you probably. worked for Dial America I didn't but I. worked for another company I have a. story about that yeah it was a big easy. job to get in Athens and I'm sure many. colleges but the central benefit of any. job like this is being able to put your. phone hand over the receiver and roll. your eyes to the person next to you and. go oh my God G you got to get a of this. guy or you should hear this lady's voice.

like If you deny your worker that then. you're not going to have a happy. Workforce that that's the one perk you. get when you're not on a in right in. front of someone is that you can say. something quietly and have a quick laugh. yeah they could not do that they would. get in trouble and possibly fired for. that kind of stuff yeah so uh actually. one of the cool things is they figured. out that okay wait there's thousands of. us in this Workforce let's form a union.

and they were told no they can't form a. union so they said okay we're going on. strike and I think in 1919 New England. telephone operators walked out and just. crippled the phone network for basically. half of New England and um the company. was very quick to be like okay why did. you say you wanted it again and went. back to work so that was pretty cool but. for the most part they were treated. rather poorly uh they were um and they. in the face of you know like I said some. people would call in uh cursing there. were men who would use foul language uh.

sometimes they would get charged extra. for their call mhm um they would. sometimes people would call and say like. hey do you know what time it is or do. you know what goes in this recipe or do. you know what time the train runs from. uh this station or does this shirt make. me look fat yeah exactly and they're. acting like. uh information basically rather than. just connecting calls right um you know. I I guess they weren't being as rained. in everywhere cuz or maybe they were. taught the customer always right I don't.

know they were and there were there was. like five things you could say to a. customer no matter what they said to you. no matter how abusive they were anything. like that you could say like thank you. or something like that you. could yeah right that was the safe word. yeah the supervisor would come and be. like hey hey what are you saying well if. they got asked something in a recipe and. then they can only say five things. really HS them in so are you allowed to. leave if not say SA F uh here's one fun.

little thing uh in World War I there. were 223 American women who served in. Europe as switchboard operators because. France's phone system was wrecked so the. US Army signal cord literally built its. own phone system and had bilingual. American switchboard operators working. there and sometimes giving like really. important direct orders about you know. bombings and raids and things like that. well they they pass them along I don't. know if they were making up the orders.

themselves I do you think anybody would. have thought that I. did you thought that's what I was. saying no but it was still hilarious to. hear you say it exactly uh but this is. the cool part after 60 years finally. 1979 these women were recognized as. veterans I know that was very cool it's. sad that it took that long but at least. they finally got there yeah um I'm sorry. I keep imagining like whole cadra of.

operators just making up orders for this. lady just said go to storm the beach. it's just. chaos uh all right now we're going to. take our break uh we're running a bit. long so we're going to come back and. finish up on uh how it all ended with. automation right after this Stu say one. know you know it's Stu is that in this. stck stck net it's a great nightmare got. stck that's the name of it I know it's a. great. all right stuck net within with an.

[Music]. X okay Chuck so um I think I said before. that once they started going to all. numeric um well numbers uh the the the. that was like a huge first step toward. automating the system and eventually. phasing out human operators and one of. the reasons why is because you can take. numbers and you can quantify them.

essentially and that's what those. original phones the rotary phones than. apparently the fake keypad phones would. do when you dialed a number um you're. your finger would eventually hit a stop. for like a three the stop was closer for. the zero the stop was an eternity away. because it once that you hit the stop. the the dial would go back to the. original position and as it did it would. put out um you know three impulses say.

three electrical impulses for when you. dial the three and what that did was it. told the automated switches that were um. eventually uh invented to start paying. attention and start dial in some numbers. here because I just sent some electrical. impulses that's right I think you mean. pulses don't you what did I say pluses. impulses did did I yeah it's a little. late in the day and my brain mush from. all the engineering week we've been.

doing hey I'm not just sitting here as. correct you guy I just I think it's kind. of funny and somebody would have written. in and like why are these phones having. impulses no hey I you got me back for. the the the um operators giving. dire uh here is where my mind exploded. because I didn't learn this yesterday. are you still liking that one yeah this. didn't I didn't learn this yesterday but. I learned it I think the last time you. explained this cuz we explained that in. another episode about how you dial oh. yeah how you dial a rotary phone I did.

not know that it was the retreat of that. dial back to its original position was. what was being Quantified and and pulsed. you think it was the the dial up like. when you dial it yeah you put your. finger in it and you dial the the four. over you know as a kid you just think. well like yep I'm hitting the four and I. just take it out and it goes back to its. place it going back to its place is the. key yeah I don't know if I knew that. either though it seems new to me to me.

so if I did explain it before it didn't. stick it's pretty cool though to I mean. that's just a fun little fact for anyone. who still understands what those are um. one thing I do think we talked about in. the phone freaking episode was the um. invention of the strer switch which was. invented by an Undertaker named almond. Brown strer and the reason that he came. like an Undertaker in Kansas city. invented the automated phone switchboard. because as Legend has it he was losing.

um business yeah to a rival Undertaker. whose wife was the town operator so when. people call up and said Undertaker. police she would just route him to her. husband's business and leave studer's. business out and he's like you know what. I want to get rid of the operator so he. went and invented one of the more. sophisticated pieces of technology that. was around at the time and this is in. 1890 that he came up with the first. automated switch and it is. impressive yeah I mean that's the one.

that led to the rotary switch that we're. talking about though right yes do you. know how his worked specifically or what. the difference was actually it's really. fascinating well let's hear it we got. one minute all right so let's say that. you um dialed that three right that. first number those three impulses I. think in slang it's just called pulses. sure they went down the line and they. hit the first switch and they told the. first switch okay we're going to three M. and so that would narrow down the number.

of subscribers to this telephone. switchboard whose number started with. three oh yeah and then the next number. would come in five yeah right five. impulses of electricity would come to. the second switch and it would tell that. switch okay now we're just trying to get. to the people whose first two numbers. are three five and so on and so on until. finally all what eight no yeah eight uh. seven numbers yeah were dialed and so it. led to the only person who whose phone.

line could possibly be connected to this. specific Circuit of seven numbers and. then it would connect the call from the. caller to the Callie wow that's pretty. cool yeah it's really amazing this guy. came up with this in. 1890 yeah and you know we didn't even. really mention it seems obvious but I. guess we should say the reason they were. looking to phase out and go into. automation is kind of like every reason. always m is money you know less overhead. uh you as more and more switchboards.

grew you had um well a the switchboards. cost a lot of money they cost you know. you had to have land in a building and. you had to have people to operate them. and uh they just couldn't keep hiring. more and more people I think at one. point they said you know we need a. million switchboard. operators uh and that just wasn't even a. possibility at the time so automation. was always on the horizon uh. interestingly along those lines. longdistance switching took a lot longer. uh like it was into the late 1960s and.

even some places in the 70s where you. still had operators that had to connect. long distance lines because it was as. Kyle said that it was just no. alternative to human intelligence it was. too complex at the time uh but. eventually you know they figured all. that out but that meant that there were. humans um who were walking around. knowing how to connect TOA to Tacoma. knew the combination of switches to.

connect or the number of levers to pull. the number of like wishes to make I. don't know so cool and they would they. knew how to connect to call like that. and not just to to Pik to Tacoma like. whatever City to whatever City they just. knew how to do it and I mean yeah that's. just an overlooked part of history that. there were people walking around who. knew how to do these complex algorithms. basically and they were all different. for depending on what city was calling. what city so that kept operators around. for much longer than they would have.

been had long distance not existed. because they got phased out at the local. level but for long-distance calling they. were just too um valuable to get rid of. at the time what happens when you dial. zero today from a landline is there an. operator well number one there's no. landlines there's just you get like an. alarm somebody's house alarm I think. maybe yeah and then number two there's. no zero anymore but gen Z got rid of it. all right good deal so I think by the.

70s the whole thing was. digitized there was no corded. switchboards any longer but there were. some like pockets of switchboards that. were still around right that held on. Long beyond the the time it was. necessary yeah there's a couple of. competing last switchboard last. operators um one that you'll see a lot. online as widely recognized 1983 Bryant. Pond Maine I think the best ification. Heroes it was the last hand cranked. telephone system and switchboard MH um.

like you know you like you see in the. old movies there's a box on the wall and. you go you crank a thing give me Kik 5. 6000 exactly uh and Susan glines was uh. the last operator there um London's. thank you Kyle uh was at. infield uh and this was. 19 uh 6. I think when was retired but the last.

caretaker telephone operator in the UK. in the UK retired in 84 but then you. found one in California that was 91 yeah. and as best I could tell that was a. private sort of very small customer. based private phone company in Kerman. and what what was sweet was I saw one of. the reasons that the owner of the. company held on to um human operators. for so long was because there were so. many um migrants who lived in town. that the the phone operator was. bilingual and could help connect calls.

between people who spoke two different. languages yeah all the all not even the. final one all of their uh operators were. bilingual oh is that right yeah oh very. nice I think that was their. specialty that's serious that's what. they they said at the company picnic. that's our specialy I mean I think. that's honestly they had most of their. customer base were people with family in. Mexico and so they just had an Niche. from I understand I mean I don't know. why you're getting the impression that I.

don't believe you I believe what you're. saying cuz he keep laughing at it going. that's funny I I'm still thinking about. the operators telling everybody to bomb. R in or. something uh you got anything else no. big thanks to Kyle for helping us out. with this one it was very technical and. complicated and uh since I said. Technical and complicated it's time for. listener. mail uh here's our Joe theeman follower. we got quite a few emails in in fact a. few from people whose parents uh went to.

school with Joe theeman the former. quarterback of the former Washington. football team uh now the. commanders um hey guys uh I used to. freelance for a video company that did a. lot of conferences and one time Joe. thyman was the keynote speaker uh the. way he told the story about his last. name is as follows growing up his dad. was very firm that their last name was. pronounced theeman apparently his dad. would get quite cross when folks would. pronounce it wrong people often said it. wrong so Joe would call his dad and have. him correct them Dad they said it wrong.

my dad's going to sue you he snapped my. leg uh according to Joe's story uh when. he was a candidate for the Heisman. Trophy his college coaches thought it. would be better if it was pronounced. thyman to rhyme obviously so again Joe. called his dad to ask him and his dad. responded I've told you it's. thyman so it sounds like Joe has made. kind of a fun little apocryphal story. about this but it's seems confirmed it. was thean um heard it from the man's own.

mouth and that's from Karen Gill. Pennington very nice appreciate that big. time who was it Karen Gil Pennington. thank you very much Karen I'm just going. to call him Karen sure um if you want to. get in touch with us like Karen did and. give us a great story that kind of sums. up ties up Circles up a story that we. talked about we love that kind of thing. you can send us an email to stuff. podcast ihart. [Music].

radio.com stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts my heart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows. [Music].