Section of a CB1 manual telephone exchange switchboard with positions for three operators, unknown maker, British, 1925-1960. In use at Enfield Telephone Exchange 22 July 1925 to 5 October 1960 ...

In the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators were essential intermediaries who relayed calls manually through a central switchboard connected to subscriber wires.

Erma worked until the town stopped using a manual switchboard in the mid-'70s. This story is from NCPR's North Country at Work project, exploring the working lives and history of our region.

The last woman in the country to put through a telephone call via manual switchboard exchange has retired from An Post more than three decades later. Florence Bugler was the postmistress in ...

They’re pulling the plug on California’s last manual telephone switchboard. A computer was being installed this week to replace Kerman Telephone’s four manual units. Rena McDonald of the ...

Raised in south London, she started work as a manual telephone switchboard operator at 16, passing rigorous training. In March 1944, aged 17, she volunteered for the Women's Royal Naval Service.

Direct-dial telephones came to Bloomington-Normal in the 1940s, but union fears of losing switchboard operator jobs and World War II slowed the process.

“Old Betsy,” a Western Electric TBX-556A telephone switchboard went into service in 1958 in West Milford Town Hall.

Telephone users once kept their secrets off-line, lest the switchboard operator was listening. Now, a generation remains mute, but has its secrets stolen anyway.

In the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators were essential intermediaries who relayed calls manually through a central switchboard connected to subscriber wires.