larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (09/24/89)
When we pick up the telephone and dial a number for a recorded
time-of-day announcement, we take it for granted that a computer is
controlling generation of the synthesized voice which we hear. To even
think for a moment that a LIVE PERSON might be creating the announcement
is, of course, an absurd thought.
However, once upon a time, a live operator did in fact create
time-of-day announcements on a demand basis.
In 1932, when more and more telephone central offices were being
converted from manual to dial operation, the Bell System offered their
first "automatic" time-of-day announcement service. Prior to this time
a subscriber could call the operator and *ask* for the time of day, but
there was no generally available feature where a subscriber could simply
dial a number and get the time-of-day automatically without *asking*.
Enter the Western Electric No. 1 Announcement System. Calls
to an access number for this system could be completed through SxS,
panel and manual central offices. An operator sat at a desk in front
of a microphone, behind which was small panel equipped with a few keys,
lamps, sound level meter, and a special mechanical digital clock. This
small panel, which was mounted in a gen-u-wine mahogany wood box, was
called the Time Turret.
The mechanical digital clock displayed hours, minutes, and
fractions of a minute. The minute fraction wheel was divided into
eight segments, each of which was 7-1/2 seconds long. The even segments
were marked "0", "1/4", "1/2", and "3/4"; the odd segments were simply
painted white.
The most important indicators to the operator on the Time Turret
were the Call Waiting Lamp and the Announcement Lamp. When the Call
Waiting Lamp illuminated, the operator prepared for an announcement by
looking at the mechanical digital clock. When the Announcement Lamp
illuminated, the operator knew she had *exactly* 7 seconds to make an
announcement which went something like: "At the tone, the time will be
eight hours, thirty-four and one-half minutes". Exactly 7-1/2 seconds
after the Announcement Lamp illuminated, an automatic timer would place
an 800 Hz tone on the telephone line for 1/2 second.
Following the tone, the Announcement Lamp would extinguish. If
a caller had stayed on the line or new calls had come in on other trunks,
the Call Waiting Lamp would stay illuminated, telling the operator that
she would have to prepare for another announcement in 7-1/2 seconds.
In larger metropolitan areas with more than one central office,
a Time Bureau would be set up with a single No. 1 Announcement System
handing all calls using incoming trunks from several central offices.
It does not require much imagination to realize that in larger metropolitan
areas the Call Waiting Lamp would probably be illuminated on an almost
continuous basis, meaning that the operator had little idle time!
Can anyone imagine a more boring and fatiguing job than having
to announce the time of day four times per minute for an eight hour shift?
The No. 1 Announcement System was specifically designed with a
one-way amplifier so that the operator could not converse with any callers.
In addition, the operator had a volume level meter so that she could be
certain of speaking at the desired level. There were also keys to call a
supervisor and operate a central office trouble alarm.
The first machine-operated announcement system was the No. 3A,
and it was first introduced in 1939. However - believe it or not -
the No. 1 Announcement System with a live operator was utilized in some
areas until the mid-1950's.
As a somewhat satirical aside, best appreciated by any present
or former WECO or BOC readers, consider the following:
The No. 1 Announcement System did have an Unoccupied Position
Alarm feature which would sound an alarm in the central office if there
was no operator headset plugged into the Time Turret and the Call Waiting
lamp was illuminated. However, I am rather surprised that there was no
"Operator Failure Alarm" feature. After all, how would we know if the
announcement operator has failed to make an announcement as a result of
falling asleep, having an acute attack of laryngitis, or suddenly going
stark raving mad from the mental torture of this abyssmal job? If *I*
were the WECO engineer who designed the No. 1 Announcement System, I
would have most assuredly installed a VOX-circuit on the output side of
the announcement amplifier. If speech were not detected during the
interval while the Announcement Lamp was illuminated, a major alarm
condition would have been signaled! Furthermore, I would have implemented
an "Operator Synchronization Failure Alarm" if speech were still detected
during the 800 Hz tone interval. And, of course, there would be peg
count registers for these operator failure alarms, the results of which
could be used to penalize the operator's salary.
:-)
<> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp.
<> UUCP {allegra|boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry
<> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry
<> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"jimmy@icjapan.uucp (Jim Gottlieb) (09/28/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0401m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes: > However, once upon a time, a live operator did in fact create >time-of-day announcements on a demand basis. In fact, I heard a manual time number as late as about 1972. It was in Durango, Colorado, but it wasn't as complicated as Larry Lippman described. When I dialed the number listed for time-of-day, I was shocked when I heard a woman answer the phone and say "The time is 7:32." I said, "Thank You." She said "Your Welcome." and that was that. I tried it several more times during my visit and found that the level of politeness naturally varied according to current load. At busy times, all one heard was " (Supervision) 6:18 (Disconnect) " When I returned to Durango a few years later, I received a mechanical version. Now it _is_ possible that what I heard was just a temporary condition while their time machine was "in the shop." Jim Gottlieb (remote from Tokyo) _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ <jimmy@pic.ucla.edu> or <jimmy@denwa.uucp> or <attmail!denwa!jimmy> Fax: 011-81-3-239-7453 Voice Mail: 011-81-3-944-6221 ID#82-42-424