Telephone switchboard (nonfiction)

Telephone switchboard operator circa 1900.

A telephone switchboard is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in enterprises to interconnect circuits of telephones to establish telephone calls between the subscribers or users, or between other exchanges.

The switchboard was an essential component of a manual telephone exchange, and was operated by switchboard operators who used electrical cords or switches to establish the connections.

On September 1, 1878, Boston Telephone Dispatch hired Emma Nutt as the first woman operator.

In 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company installed the first battery-operated switchboard on January 9 in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The electromechanical automatic telephone exchange, invented by Almon Strowger in 1888, gradually replaced manual switchboards in central telephone exchanges around the world.

In 1919, the Bell System in the United States also adopted automatic switching as its future technology, after years of reliance on manual systems. Nevertheless, many manual branch exchanges remained operational into the second half of the 20th century in many enterprises.

Later electronic devices and computer technology gave the operator access to an abundance of features.

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against mathematical constants
• Gnomon algorithm

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Electrical telegraph (nonfiction)

External links:

• Telephone switchboard @ Wikipedia