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 go
The 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 city has more than one central office, trunk cables interconnect the offices.
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.