Rotary Phones: the Call of History

Video Description

Like what I make? Want fewer sponsorship ad reads? Consider contributing to my Patreon at https://patreon.com/OurOwnDevices From the late 1910s well into the 1980s, telephone networks were dominated by analog, rotary-dial-operated switching systems, which at their peak reached astonishing levels of electromechanical sophistication. In this video we examine the history and inner workings of rotary dials and the surprisingly convoluted evolution of automatic telephone exchanges. NOTES: *I have since learned that the Northern Electric phone featured in the video was manufactured in 1979 **I have been informed that the usual pronunciation of Strowger is "Stroh-ger", though I have heard it both ways. ***The pre-war Model 302 phones had metal bodies, which were changed to plastic during the war. Also, I misspoke: Bakelite is a thermoset plastic (cannot be re-melted down), not a thermoplastic. ****I said Slimline when I meant Trimline OTHER CHANNELS ON TELEPHONE SWITCHES: Seattle Connections Museum: https://www.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum Hicken 65: https://www.youtube.com/@UCGMc4S4gGaQrgyMN_RoTcHg SOURCES: http://www.arctos.com/dial/ https://web.archive.org/web/20070616024506/http://oldphones.com/nytimes.html https://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/91/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/111684147/originator-sought-revenge/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/111684614/the-automatic-phone-sprang-from-a-collar/ https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2019/q4/economic_history https://technicshistory.com/2017/04/09/only-connect/ http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/SXS_Line_finder.pdf https://www.fishercom.xyz/switching-systems/j.html http://www.jitterbuzz.com/indtel.html https://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/document-repository/catalogs-manuals/automatic-electric/ae-catalogs/12521-ae-automatic-electric-station-equipment-catalog-4055-n-nov62-ocr-r-tci/file http://wedophones.com/TheBellSystem/pdf/sxs_course_1954_imageontext.pdf