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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck

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Speaker 2: ring Ring, there's Jerry and this is Stuff you should Know.

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Speaker 1: That's right. This is a Kyle joint. So there's a

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Speaker 1: little British factor to an ear is Kyle likes to

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Speaker 1: throw those in because that's where he lives.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he keeps mentioning fish and chips every few paragraphs.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what's a chippy. We are going to be talking

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Speaker 1: about telephone switchboards. Some overlap with a couple of other

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Speaker 1: episodes we've done, but this is all about the you know,

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Speaker 1: the the advancement of the telephone system and the United

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Speaker 1: States and abroad, and how the telephone switchboard was a crucial,

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Speaker 1: crucial part of that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. First, I want to give a shout out. If

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Speaker 2: you ever find yourself in the town of Maitland, Florida,

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Speaker 2: go to the Maitland I think, well, it's the Telephone Museum.

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Speaker 2: There's probably not more than one telephone museum in Maitland,

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Speaker 2: even though I can't remember the name of it. Just

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Speaker 2: ask somebody for directions there and they will tell you

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Speaker 2: or ask your app regardless. It's really cute. It's not

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Speaker 2: the biggest museum you'll ever find, but it's a very

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Speaker 2: dedicated museum.

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Speaker 1: I leveled telephones. I would like to check that out.

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Speaker 2: Oh you'd love this. There's a bank of wall telephones

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Speaker 2: from the seventies probably, and each one's a different color.

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Speaker 2: It's very pretty. Oh my god, Yeah, you would like

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Speaker 2: this place. Check it. It reminded me that something that

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Speaker 2: was just such an integral part of our life is

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Speaker 2: a completely obsolete, outdated antique technology. There's basically no reason

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Speaker 2: for it to exist any longer, and it may not

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Speaker 2: as far as I know. Yeah, I think you still

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Speaker 2: have to have it to connect some home alarm systems maybe,

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Speaker 2: but that's the only application I know of anymore.

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Speaker 1: Actually, you know what, that's We had that for that

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Speaker 1: landline for that reason for a while, but no longer.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I don't. I just don't think that there's

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Speaker 2: any reason for you to exist any Look, I'm sure

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Speaker 2: I'm wrong, but that's the best I can come up

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Speaker 2: with this home alarm systems.

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Speaker 1: I guess nostalgia's not a good enough reason.

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Speaker 2: Huh keeps this amazing network of technology still around?

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Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, man, I mean lots of it's dumb. It's

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Speaker 1: just my my urgen x selves like looking back with

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Speaker 1: joy about walking around your bedroom with a long phone

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Speaker 1: cord and yeah, or your mom literally being able to

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Speaker 1: go to every point in the kitchen with like a

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Speaker 1: twenty five foot stretchy phone cord that you're ducking under

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Speaker 1: and it's knocking things over.

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Speaker 2: And that's right, there goes the flower.

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Speaker 1: Wireless is better.

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Speaker 2: I know it's I don't think it's just nostalgia. I

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Speaker 2: think there is some real value or there's it's not

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Speaker 2: pointless to look at the telephone system that was created

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Speaker 2: over the decades in the twentieth century and just be impressed,

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Speaker 2: like it wasn't a marvelous technology and it did some

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Speaker 2: amazing stuff while it was around. It's just we've moved

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Speaker 2: on technology wise. But that doesn't mean you can't appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder if they're they're safer like for like

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Speaker 1: government systems, you know, because you literally have to tap

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Speaker 1: the wire physically. It's not just in the airwaves, true dat.

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Speaker 1: So I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I don't know either, but that's a great point.

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Speaker 1: I'm curious. Surely someone knows. But let's talk about Alexander

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Speaker 1: Graham Bell, because he is the og. He's the guy

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Speaker 1: that invented, well patented the telephone at least, right, and

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Speaker 1: from Boston in eighteen seventy six, where he was not

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Speaker 1: trying to invent a telephone. He was trying to work

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Speaker 1: out the problem with the electrical telegraph, which was it

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Speaker 1: was just getting bunched up. Too many people are sending

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Speaker 1: too many you know, telegraphs, and it's a problem. So

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Speaker 1: there's too much traffic. So all of a sudden, Bell,

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Speaker 1: who was a sound guy anyway, realized that you could

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Speaker 1: send tones. And once he realized you could send a

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Speaker 1: tone along a wire, he was like, oh, forget the telegraph,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to come up with the harmonic telegraph and

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Speaker 1: one day I'm going to speak to somebody on the

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Speaker 1: other end of a wire.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, not dots and dashes, but hayes and how are

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Speaker 2: you is or a hoys? Yeah? Right. So he did

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Speaker 2: this in eighteen seventy six, right, He set out to

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Speaker 2: figure out the telegraph clogging and invented the phone pretty quickly.

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Speaker 2: The next year he found a Bell Telephone company, and

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Speaker 2: the first permanent telephone wires were in Boston, I think

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Speaker 2: that same year right, So we had telephone service set

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Speaker 2: up within a year of him inventing the telephone. One

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Speaker 2: of the other things too, is he helped kind of

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Speaker 2: spread telephone technology by giving lectures that people would come

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Speaker 2: see and then go off and like build their own

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Speaker 2: versions that would work. But initially, when you were talking

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Speaker 2: to somebody on a telephone, your telephone was physically connected

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Speaker 2: to their telephone, which made a lot of sense initially,

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Speaker 2: But if you want to talk to more than one

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Speaker 2: friend in town, you need another wire to connect your

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Speaker 2: phone to somebody else's telephone, and so on and so forth.

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Speaker 2: And if you just kind of follow that logical path,

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Speaker 2: you very quickly realize, like, man, we're going to need

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Speaker 2: a lot of wires to connect one person to everybody

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Speaker 2: else and everybody else to that one person. It just

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Speaker 2: that's the definition of exponential growth. And so they figured

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Speaker 2: out they needed a different way rather than connecting each

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Speaker 2: telephone physically, and that's where they came up with the

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Speaker 2: concept of the switchboard.

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Speaker 1: That's right, What if all of the calls went into

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Speaker 1: a central location and it was a human being there

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Speaker 1: that would connect those two wires. It's a very elegant,

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Speaker 1: very simple, sort of system. It's you know, it's literally

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Speaker 1: connecting two calls by you know, by connecting them by

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Speaker 1: plugging them into the same what would you even call

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Speaker 1: that board?

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Speaker 2: Jack?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the same jack. The first switchboard commercially was in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, so only geez, like a year after

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Speaker 1: the Bell Telephone Company was founded. This is in New Haven, Connecticut,

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Speaker 1: and it connected twenty one different subscribers in this case.

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Speaker 1: And this is a very old fashioned, primitive thing. Before

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Speaker 1: long they were like, why don't we wrap these chords

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Speaker 1: in cloth? It's like insulated, and why don't we make

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Speaker 1: the you know, the board look a little nicer and

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Speaker 1: we'll call them achrdboard. But everyone's still going to call

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Speaker 1: them a switchboard.

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Speaker 2: Yes. One thing really quick too. When some of these

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Speaker 2: first commercial switchboards popped up in town, like the one

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Speaker 2: in New Haven that I guess George Coy was the

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Speaker 2: inventor of, they would publish phone books, and the first

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Speaker 2: phone books would be like one page with like fifty

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Speaker 2: people's names on because when you called, you would call

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Speaker 2: and your call would be connected by an operator. So

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Speaker 2: you'd pick up your phone and the only person that

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Speaker 2: would go to is that operator or switchboard and you

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Speaker 2: would say I want to talk to Chuck Bryant please,

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Speaker 2: and the operator would look up where your jack was

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Speaker 2: that went to your house and then now connected the call.

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Speaker 2: Right So they would plug my phone cord into your

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Speaker 2: phone jack and connect our call. But first they would write. First,

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Speaker 2: they would they would plug in themselves to you and

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Speaker 2: say Josh Clark calling for Charles Bryant, and you would say,

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Speaker 2: tell him, I'm in the shower.

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Speaker 1: They would plug back.

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Speaker 2: Into mine and be like, he's in the shower, he

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Speaker 2: can't talk right now. And I would say tell him

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Speaker 2: that I know he's not in the shower and hang out, fang.

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Speaker 1: Really, you're not too far off.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 1: That is, if my jack is on that board. If

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Speaker 1: it was a big enough community, that switchboard operator might say,

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Speaker 1: I don't have Chuck on this board, but he's on

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Speaker 1: another board, so I'm going to contact that switchboard and

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Speaker 1: you know, patch it in that way.

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Speaker 2: So but first thing, spend ten minutes going down east

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Speaker 2: Jack like Chuck Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck Chuck Chuck.

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Speaker 1: Well, early on they just knew it, you know, in

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Speaker 1: a twenty one person situation, they just knew everybody. In fact,

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Speaker 1: that for a little while. They weren't even saying phone numbers.

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Speaker 1: They were just like Chuck Bryant, right exactly.

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Speaker 2: And one of the other things about a central switchboard too,

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Speaker 2: is there's a phone company employee connecting calls, and so

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Speaker 2: now you can track things more easily and hence bill

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Speaker 2: people more accurately too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because this is when making a call costs money,

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Speaker 1: and up until I mean not that long ago, in

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Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things, making a long distance call

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Speaker 1: costs extra money. So you had to build people, and

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Speaker 1: it was pretty ingenious. Things started growing, growing, growing, you

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Speaker 1: said the word exponentially, and that is the truth, because

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Speaker 1: between eighteen eighty and just thirteen years later we went

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Speaker 1: from sixty thousand phones to two sixty and then just

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Speaker 1: another ten years later there were three million phones in

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Speaker 1: the United States only Kyle points out, and then the

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Speaker 1: UK they were a little bit behind us. Nineteen fourteen

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Speaker 1: there were fewer than two telephones per one hundred people

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Speaker 1: compared to ten in the US, but they eventually caught

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Speaker 1: up to and everyone had phones.

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Speaker 2: That's right. I'm sure there's some listeners like I didn't

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Speaker 2: have a phone when I was a kid. Well maybe

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Speaker 2: so as more and more people had phones, More and

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Speaker 2: more jacks were required in switchboards, so you're getting bigger switchboards,

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Speaker 2: more switchboards. It became kind of a mess in and

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Speaker 2: of itself, as we'll see. That was known as the

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Speaker 2: switchboard problem, right. Yeah, But then finally they figured out, okay,

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Speaker 2: there's a few tweaks we can do here that are

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Speaker 2: going to allow us just to support this growth. Because

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Speaker 2: the phone companies weren't like, well, we're good at ten

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Speaker 2: thousand subscribers, let's just hold here. They wanted everybody to

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Speaker 2: have a phone so they could bill everybody for using

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Speaker 2: those phones. And also America or the United States of

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Speaker 2: the world, I think, was like, we really want to

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Speaker 2: be able to pick up the phone and talk to people.

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Speaker 2: It was a huge, enormous technology that completely changed how

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Speaker 2: humans interact with one another. So everybody wanted a phone.

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Speaker 2: Phone company wanted to give people phones. The big sticking

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Speaker 2: point was how you can connect that many people in

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Speaker 2: an efficient way and not just keep adding switchboard after

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Speaker 2: switchboard after switchboard.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know something else we should point out too,

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Speaker 1: is this is a time where the phone company controlled

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Speaker 1: the phones themselves, and so you can just go to

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Speaker 1: a store and buy some cool looking Mickey mouse phone

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Speaker 1: or a Garfield phone or illustrated I had a I

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Speaker 1: did get that for free, actually, but those are always garbage.

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Speaker 1: Those are the ones that look like push button but

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Speaker 1: when you hit it, it dialed.

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Speaker 2: Oh really, do.

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Speaker 1: You remember those who you know it had the keypad,

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Speaker 1: but when you hit nine, it.

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Speaker 2: Went No, I don't remember that.

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Speaker 1: It was a big bait and switch. But you rented

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Speaker 1: your phone at the time, I guess you had a

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Speaker 1: or maybe they didn't sell them at all at first,

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Speaker 1: but I know for a long time they rented phones

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Speaker 1: to people, like into the seventies, right, yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: like you used to rent your Some people still probably

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Speaker 1: rent their modem from their cable or whatever their Wi

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Speaker 1: Fi provider. Saying all the wrong words.

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Speaker 2: No, I think you got it provider, yeah, or internet

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Speaker 2: is Internet Service provider ISP.

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Speaker 1: That's okay. But yeah, anyway, they were they were controlling

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Speaker 1: the flow of money and more ways than just the bill.

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Speaker 1: They wanted as many people to have phones as possible

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Speaker 1: because they were renting those phones and eventually I guess

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Speaker 1: selling those phones.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I remember. Umi has a story from when she

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Speaker 2: was a kid of going to the phone store with

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Speaker 2: her dad and renting a princess phone.

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Speaker 1: Like I remember it, it's so weird.

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Speaker 2: It is weird. It's just weird to think of. But

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Speaker 2: like you said, that was a way for them to

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Speaker 2: control revenue even more. And also I think it made

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Speaker 2: it more available to more people, because I think even

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Speaker 2: into the sixties to seventies, phones were still kind of

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Speaker 2: expensive to make, and so they were expensive to buy,

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Speaker 2: so you could lease them. But I think ultimately it

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Speaker 2: was it was really the phone companies, and they were

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Speaker 2: able to get away from this, as we'll see, because

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Speaker 2: for years and years and years there was essentially a

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Speaker 2: monopoly on the phone in the United States.

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Speaker 1: That's right, But I got us a little off track.

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Speaker 1: You were talking about some new techniques because the switchboards,

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we're getting just more and more ubiquitous,

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Speaker 1: and they started to get a little clunky in like

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Speaker 1: how long it would take to connect calls. So one

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Speaker 1: of the things they did is came up with the

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Speaker 1: concept of what's called the divided exchange, which is really

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Speaker 1: just an organizational structural thing where people got more specialized.

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Speaker 1: You might have operators just answering the phone. You might

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Speaker 1: have people just connecting instead of the person going, oh hey, Josh,

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Speaker 1: let me see if Chuck's available. Like, all of that

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Speaker 1: was really streamlined eventually until they came up what was

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Speaker 1: called the Express system that had a lot of letter

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Speaker 1: B boards that converged on a letter A board and

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Speaker 1: there was an operator linking between those two.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so the A person, the person at the

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Speaker 2: A board would be like, oh, yeah, Josh is on

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Speaker 2: B board seventy two, but Chuck is on B board three,

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Speaker 2: So I need I need to be the one that

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Speaker 2: connects B board seventy two in B board three for

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Speaker 2: this call. These are human beings doing this and expected

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Speaker 2: to do it really fast too, as we'll see.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. They also just improved the signals, like signal strength.

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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, operators weren't like yelling at each

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Speaker 1: other and you know which can cause just chaos in

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Speaker 1: a room with a bunch of switchboard operators.

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Speaker 2: What's the number for dominos?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So just improving the signal really optimized how

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Speaker 1: those things function such, you know, even just making the

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Speaker 1: little signal lamps a little lights brighter, right, responding to

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Speaker 1: the current and the line, like everything just got a

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Speaker 1: little better.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and the current in the line was a huge

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Speaker 2: thing too. Not only would it light up the little

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Speaker 2: light above your jack showing the operator like, oh, this

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Speaker 2: guy's trying to call right now, but it also allowed

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Speaker 2: for telephones to carry a little bit of a current,

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Speaker 2: which was how the voice was was broadcast anyway. But

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Speaker 2: it was one more thing that they controlled. They powered everything,

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Speaker 2: which made the whole thing more efficient. Rather than having

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Speaker 2: a bunch of batteries out by the lines, there was

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Speaker 2: a central group of batteries and power generation that came

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Speaker 2: from the main office too. So when you put all

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Speaker 2: this stuff together, they got really good at analyzing traffic

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Speaker 2: to to kind of put resources, you know, where it

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Speaker 2: needed at any given time. Put all this together. For

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Speaker 2: the next four or five decades, the phone system just

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Speaker 2: kept expanding and expanding and expanding, but there was always

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Speaker 2: a front tier there was. These were individual cities, individual towns,

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Speaker 2: and if the town or the city was close enough

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Speaker 2: to another town or city, they would probably be able

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Speaker 2: to connect. But for the most part, these phone systems

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Speaker 2: are growing intra well internally, let's just say that I

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Speaker 2: almost got really fancy for a second, but I'm just

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Speaker 2: gonna say they were internal into each town, growing and

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Speaker 2: growing and growing, connecting subscribers. But each town was kind

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Speaker 2: of like its own isolated island of telephony.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so obviously the next thing to conquer would

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Speaker 1: be the LD long distance. At the time, if you

295
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Speaker 1: wanted to pick up a phone in New York City

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Speaker 1: and call San Francisco, you couldn't do it.

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Speaker 2: No, But I say we take a break, leave this

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Speaker 2: as a cliffhanger, and when we come back, we'll say

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Speaker 2: whether or not they were eventually able to do it. Stuck.

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Speaker 1: You know what, Stucks.

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Speaker 2: It's a great name. That's the name of it. It's

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00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:32,880
Speaker 2: a great name, all right, Stuck's net with with an X. Okay.

303
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Speaker 2: So when they finally did start connecting towns, they would

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Speaker 2: use switchboards, right, so your your your town would be

305
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Speaker 2: connected to another town by a switchboard. They used trunk lines.

306
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Speaker 2: These are like these longer, stronger lines that people would

307
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Speaker 2: use to connect one town to another. And let's say

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Speaker 2: that you were in Topeka and you wanted to talk to.

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Speaker 1: Tacoma, Washington, Okay, two great tee towns.

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Speaker 2: Sure, when you picked up the phone and Topeka and

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Speaker 2: said give me Tacoma, uh, they would this would set

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Speaker 2: off a chain reaction of connections carried out by human

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Speaker 2: operators who would connect to this switchboard and the switchboard

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Speaker 2: connected to I don't know, Kansas City, and then that

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Speaker 2: switchboard connected to Erie pencil Erie, Pennsylvania'd be going the

316
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Speaker 2: wrong way Munchie in the Indiana Is it Muncie?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Boy, this is going terribly but I think it really

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Speaker 2: gets it really illustrates how cludgy the whole thing was. Uh.

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Speaker 2: And then it would go from Munsey slash Munchie to Garee, Indiana, Okay,

321
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Speaker 2: and then to I don't know, onwards and upwards until finally,

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Speaker 2: switchboard after switchboard after switchboard after switchboard, town to town

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Speaker 2: to town, it would finally connect all the way through

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Speaker 2: all these towns from switchboard to switchboard. You to your

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Speaker 2: friend Tacoma, who wasn't even home.

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Speaker 1: That you were using the Miles Davis rebreathing technique.

327
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.

328
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Speaker 1: You're breathing through your nose so you don't have to

329
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Speaker 1: stop talking.

330
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Speaker 2: I just didn't breathe.

331
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Speaker 1: Oh okay, that's the dizzy Gillespian message.

332
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Speaker 2: Speaking of dizzy.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's amazing. I guess we'll spoil it and say

334
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,560
Speaker 1: eventually New York was able to talk to San Francisco,

335
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Speaker 1: and in fact, I think that was well. No, the

336
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:28,480
Speaker 1: first long line was between New York and Philly, and

337
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty five, New York to San Francisco finally came around, finally,

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Speaker 1: I say, in nineteen fifteen, which is incredible.

339
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Speaker 2: You know, for that call, they brought Alexander Graham Bell

340
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Speaker 2: out of retirement because he'd left a super big, fat

341
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Speaker 2: rich man by this time, and had him talk to Watson.

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Speaker 2: Remember the first phone call. I was room to room

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Speaker 2: between him and Watson. He said, Watson came here, I

344
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Speaker 2: need you. And on this huge, monumental historical phone call

345
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Speaker 2: from New York to San Francisco, Belle said, Watson, come here,

346
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Speaker 2: I need you again, and Watson said, I will, but

347
00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:07,040
Speaker 2: it's going to take me a week to get there.

348
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Speaker 1: Watson. That's so Watson.

349
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Speaker 2: It totally is Watson.

350
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Speaker 1: Classic Watson. You know, it didn't just work with like magic.

351
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Speaker 1: You can't send something that used to going like a

352
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Speaker 1: mile or let's say one hundred miles, all of a

353
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Speaker 1: sudden sending it, you know, close to three thousand miles.

354
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:29,360
Speaker 1: So they had boosters, They had loading coils, which are electromagnets,

355
00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:33,000
Speaker 1: that would boost the transmission. They had these vacuum tubes

356
00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:36,119
Speaker 1: that would regenerate a weak signal. Those were called repeaters.

357
00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:39,320
Speaker 1: So it needed help along the way to finally get

358
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Speaker 1: you know, across country. But the fact that they were

359
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:46,320
Speaker 1: able to do that by nineteen fifteen is remarkable. While

360
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Speaker 1: this is happening, I mean, I think you said that

361
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Speaker 1: Bell was an old, fat, rich guy by this point.

362
00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:57,160
Speaker 1: That is because through even the late eighteen hundreds, Bell

363
00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 1: consistently swatted away Ry with lawsuits, with shutting people down

364
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:05,840
Speaker 1: with saying like, no, you know, I have a patent

365
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,040
Speaker 1: here till eighteen ninety four, So like there are people

366
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Speaker 1: out there building in their own phones and even their

367
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 1: own switchboards, but like I'm going to go after them

368
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 1: as fast as they can build them.

369
00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:17,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had detectives that would go bust down doors

370
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,680
Speaker 2: and confiscate bogus phones, which were phones that weren't part

371
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 2: of the Bell network, which again held the patent. Then

372
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,800
Speaker 2: even after the patent expired, they would just sue anybody

373
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Speaker 2: and everybody. They would bribe officials to keep new phone

374
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:37,720
Speaker 2: companies from being allowed to develop or found themselves. It

375
00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:39,960
Speaker 2: was really ruthless and one of the reasons it was

376
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Speaker 2: ruthless is because JP Morgan by this time was the

377
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:47,840
Speaker 2: head of either AT and T or Bell's board of directors,

378
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:53,520
Speaker 2: and Bell eventually bought AT and T and just consolidated, consolidated, consolidated.

379
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:57,680
Speaker 2: They would either following JP Morgan's typical example, they would

380
00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 2: either buy up the competition or crushed them out of

381
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,800
Speaker 2: existence if the competition didn't want to sell at AT

382
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:07,920
Speaker 2: and T Bell's price. So this is just how it

383
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 2: was like that. I don't remember what year the US

384
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 2: government finally stepped in and broke up Bell into smaller

385
00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:19,080
Speaker 2: versions of itself, but it was a It was a monopoly,

386
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:23,840
Speaker 2: a government sanctioned monopoly for decades, and in some ways

387
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:29,240
Speaker 2: this was good because in other cases, where like local

388
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,959
Speaker 2: phone companies were allowed to compete, it was super cluege.

389
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 2: Sometimes you had to subscribe to two different companies to

390
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:37,920
Speaker 2: be able to call two different friends depending on who

391
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:41,119
Speaker 2: they were subscribed to. The rates were all over the place.

392
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:45,679
Speaker 2: There was very little regulation, so having this monopoly was

393
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 2: good in some ways, but in others. Monopolies typically overall,

394
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:51,879
Speaker 2: are not good for the health of an economy.

395
00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, and AT and T American Telephone and Telegraph. We

396
00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: should point out that they were approached before that and expired,

397
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,679
Speaker 1: and the reason they were initially approached was, I mean,

398
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: it was part of the plan just to you know,

399
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 1: snap up other companies, but part of it was, Hey,

400
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 1: I need AT and T to help me build these

401
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 1: long distance lines because that's the future. If we control

402
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:16,840
Speaker 1: long distance and no one else has it, then we

403
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:21,440
Speaker 1: can even if new companies pop up after this patent expires,

404
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:23,919
Speaker 1: if we're the only ones doing long distance, then we

405
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: can lease those to other companies or not lease them

406
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 1: to other companies.

407
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 2: Huge, huge point.

408
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:32,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, can we talk about phone numbers real quick?

409
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think we should talk about phone numbers.

410
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,159
Speaker 1: Because I don't have a complete handle on because how

411
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 1: phone numbers expanded was. You know, it wasn't just one exact,

412
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 1: uniform way in every place. It kind of depended on

413
00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 1: how big the city was, as far as how many

414
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 1: digits they were using and stuff like that. So what

415
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: I've gathered is that from the beginning, it was two

416
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,480
Speaker 1: to four numbers depending on how big your community was.

417
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,159
Speaker 1: So sure, you could literally be living in a community

418
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: and your phone number was seven. Yeah, it could be seven.

419
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: I guess, well, I don't know zero counts, but let's

420
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: just say eleven.

421
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 2: No, I want to say seven, okay, your.

422
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:11,639
Speaker 1: Phone number seven, mine's eleven.

423
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:11,880
Speaker 2: Okay.

424
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: You should get together and make a convenience store. But

425
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: as things started to expand and grow, obviously you needed

426
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 1: more and more numbers. And I remembered seeing in like

427
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 1: even like Happy Days and stuff and TV shows like

428
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: into the sixties and seventies when they would say, you know,

429
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 1: a word followed by numbers.

430
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,400
Speaker 2: Give me klondike five six thousand exactly.

431
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: And so from this how I understand it is. And

432
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,080
Speaker 1: if you found something different, let me know. But Klondike

433
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 1: would have been the uh, either the switchboard or the

434
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 1: central you know, hub for that town. And then whatever

435
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:51,960
Speaker 1: the numbers you said would be the actual number.

436
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 2: That's five to five.

437
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: Yeah. As that got busier, cities started using what they

438
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 1: called two L in four INN format, so two letter

439
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 1: four number, so it would still be klondike five five

440
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 1: five five or whatever, but it would be kl and

441
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 1: then you would use the four numbers, and then eventually

442
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 1: it was I think two L five. Men. They just

443
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,919
Speaker 1: kept taking away letters and adding numbers. The bigger and

444
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: bigger your city.

445
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:21,359
Speaker 2: Got right and the reason why, like, if you have

446
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 2: four numbers, you can accommodate up to ten thousand subscribers.

447
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 2: But as you add more and more numbers or even letters,

448
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 2: then you can add more and more people. And so

449
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 2: I think that the numbers or the letters eventually or

450
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 2: initially were like that went to this particular switchboard station,

451
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:43,919
Speaker 2: and that was this one group of people in town

452
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,840
Speaker 2: whose connections were all coming out of this one station.

453
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 2: So if you ask for Klondike five five five five,

454
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 2: it took you to this one switchboard and then that

455
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,400
Speaker 2: switchboard operator would find subscriber five five five five and

456
00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 2: connect it. And the reason also I keep going to

457
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 2: cl five is because that's the original five five to

458
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 2: five fake number in movies. Like if you watch movies,

459
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,920
Speaker 2: they ask for Klondike five all the time, like that's

460
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 2: the that's the phone number, because the apparently the phone

461
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,400
Speaker 2: company set aside the five five five exchange for use

462
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 2: by movies.

463
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, which I was told recently in a script I

464
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:23,440
Speaker 1: wrote to take that out.

465
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 2: Oh really, did you tell them to go to hell?

466
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, any kind of script note is just

467
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,160
Speaker 1: there is no right answer. But this person said, yeah,

468
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: it just I don't it bugs me because it always

469
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: takes me out and makes me feel like I'm watching

470
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: a movie. So I was like, okay, so did.

471
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:40,919
Speaker 2: You or did you not tell them to go to

472
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 2: hell with their script?

473
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 1: Note? Did not. I got a lot of good notes

474
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: from this person, so right, I was on their side.

475
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 1: Is this a bad actor, No, it was a good writer.

476
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 2: Okay, there's a big difference. So to get a little

477
00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:00,280
Speaker 2: further to wrap that up. So those letters were eventually

478
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 2: overtaken by numbers. Because again, if you are I don't

479
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 2: even know if I said it and we edited it out,

480
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 2: but if you look at an old phone, I think

481
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:09,359
Speaker 2: even a new phone, still you said it.

482
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay.

483
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 2: The numbers are associated with specific letters, so two was

484
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:18,159
Speaker 2: associated with ABC, three is associated with the EF and

485
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 2: so on. So if it was Klondike, that's kl Both

486
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 2: of those are on the five. So eventually it just

487
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,199
Speaker 2: became five five, five, whatever the rest of the thing is.

488
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 2: And when we went to all numbers, that was a

489
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 2: big step in the direction of eventually phasing out switchboard operators.

490
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. Then you went seven digits, and then eventually in

491
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: most places you needed the area code as well, and

492
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 1: we went to ten digit.

493
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, but area codes weren't around for a while. I

494
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 2: think it was. Oh, I don't remember exactly when it was,

495
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 2: but I'm looking. That's why I'm still kind of talking

496
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 2: a little bit.

497
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about this before because we both

498
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: have our phone numbers memorized growing up, and that was

499
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 1: definitely not an area code ninety one nine O one nine.

500
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 2: That was me. I grew up with an area code.

501
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,479
Speaker 1: Oh really, yeah, from the moment you could remember, No,

502
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: you're right.

503
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,680
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, there was just an exchange. It wasn't. Yes,

504
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 2: you're right. Mine was three eight two nine four h

505
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 2: A right, Sorry, those.

506
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 1: Two numbers called each other like in some weird portal opened.

507
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 2: That would be pretty awesome. What would be through the portal?

508
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 2: Either gnomes or robots. It's got to be one of

509
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 2: the two, really earthy or really futuristic.

510
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: Adam Curry?

511
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 2: Wait, wait which one?

512
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,640
Speaker 1: Oh, Adam Curry dressed as a gnome?

513
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you?

514
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: I knew you weren't gonna be satisfied. And until I too.

515
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: Should we talk a little bit about who this witchboard

516
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,119
Speaker 1: operators were, all right? Or should we take our break

517
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: till I feel like.

518
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 2: We went long before the first break, So keep going.

519
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 1: All right, Well, most of these uh switchboard operators were women,

520
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: and initially they tried teenage boys. But I love this

521
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: little factoid. Kyle dug up. Apparently there was a quote

522
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: that said, unfortunately they matched insult for insult for Canadian

523
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:14,920
Speaker 1: boys that were operators. So if like and as we'll

524
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: see there, you know, people call up and be surly

525
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: and or in a bad mood, or if it didn't

526
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:21,360
Speaker 1: work right, they'd be cussing. These teenage boys will give

527
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 1: it right back to them. And so customer service is

528
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 1: suffering in the eighteen eighties because all these you know,

529
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:31,439
Speaker 1: wisemouth kids. So they started hiring mostly women. In the

530
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:33,920
Speaker 1: early twentieth century. I think eighty percent of ball operators

531
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:37,919
Speaker 1: were women. Here and abroad they were called Hello girls,

532
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: ironic since apparently they weren't even allowed to say hello.

533
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: We'll get to that in a second. And Emma Nutt

534
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: was the first phone operator switchboard operator hired by AGB

535
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy eight at a wopping wage of about

536
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 1: a nickel an hour.

537
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is even adjusted for inflation, that's only a

538
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 2: dollar fifty an hour. Today. Yeah, pretty pretty meager, but

539
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 2: she was. She was a pioneer, and probably one of

540
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 2: the reasons why she kept her job was eventually it

541
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 2: had a lot of prestige to it. It was one

542
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 2: of the more respected jobs a woman can have. But

543
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 2: it's also one of the very few jobs of women

544
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 2: could have. So women proved to be a fairly docile

545
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 2: workforce because they had so few choices other choices for work,

546
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 2: and so they were exploited to the bone as phone operators.

547
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 2: Sadly as it turned out.

548
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, it took everything I had not to make a

549
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: nut job joke.

550
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 2: Can we hear it?

551
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: But I guess I sort of just did. Yeh, I

552
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: no know. Her name was Emma Nut and everyone's like,

553
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: I want, I want a nut job.

554
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 2: That was good? Sorry, you got me.

555
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: Uh So here's the deal, though it was very specific criteria.

556
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: You could just waltz in there and get this job

557
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: because like you said, there wasn't a lot of choice

558
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: for women in the workplace, and eventually they would pay them,

559
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, not as much as their male counterparts,

560
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,719
Speaker 1: of course, because that's just how things worked. Very sadly,

561
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 1: but it was a very It was known as a

562
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: pretty good job to get in the US, you had

563
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: to be well spoken, you had to be a high

564
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 1: school graduate. In Canada they sought women with good eyesight

565
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: no cough. You had to be of sufficient height and

566
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: were physically fit in order to tackle the exacting work

567
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: at the switchboard. And also this is in Canada also

568
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 1: a reference of moral character from their clergyman.

569
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 2: Wow, this is to get a job as a switchboard operator.

570
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,959
Speaker 1: Yeah. What about in the UK, because that's pretty fun too.

571
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 2: You were required to speak the King's English and not

572
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 2: in a Cockney way or a Northern way.

573
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

574
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 2: And so women would accept these positions. Again, these were

575
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 2: coveted positions in some cases that you paid them and

576
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,560
Speaker 2: gave them financial freedom. They were looked upon with respect

577
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:03,840
Speaker 2: by their community. Like to make it as an operator,

578
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 2: even be hired as an operator. It's told the rest

579
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 2: of society this one's a good egg, because we only

580
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 2: hire the best eggs. One of the things, though, like

581
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 2: you said, was that there were really strict rules on

582
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 2: their behavior, how they comported themselves when speaking to customers,

583
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 2: and then just how they even like sat and positioned

584
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 2: themselves at their switchboard. There's a nineteen ten booklet that

585
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 2: the Bell company wrote that Kyle found where they were saying, like,

586
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 2: do not answer these calls with Hello? They said, would

587
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 2: you rush into an office or up to the door

588
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 2: of a residence and blurt out, Hello, Hello, who am

589
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 2: I talking to? And when they put it like that,

590
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 2: it's actually a reasonable thing. But what's funny also is

591
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 2: there was a big debate initially when phones were invented

592
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 2: between whether the proper way to answer a call was

593
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:02,520
Speaker 2: hello or hoy hoy. And Alexander Graham Bell was a

594
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 2: hoy hoy boy, and Thomas Edison, who was his big

595
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 2: rival in founding phone companies, he was a Hello guy.

596
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 2: And that's why you'll hear mister Burns say hoy hoy

597
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 2: when he answers the phone. It's just going to show

598
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:17,880
Speaker 2: how ridiculously old he is.

599
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked about this on one episode. It was

600
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 1: a long time ago, but I used to have a

601
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:28,040
Speaker 1: Hoya hoy written on my first flip phone when you

602
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 1: opened it up, the little home screen, because before they

603
00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: had pictures and graphics, just said a hoya hoy written.

604
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:35,480
Speaker 2: Did you write it in nail polish?

605
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:37,959
Speaker 1: No? No, no, it was typed out, and you know,

606
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: instead of like Chuck's phone or something.

607
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I never had a phone that had any

608
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 2: feature like that.

609
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know these were early flip phones.

610
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 2: I thought you actually wrote it on the screen.

611
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, it was typed letters.

612
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:56,360
Speaker 2: So oh. There were a couple of things that I

613
00:32:56,400 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 2: saw that were really harsh. There was a view that

614
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 2: I found I think American Experience. They did a documentary

615
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 2: on the telephone and they were interviewing like some of

616
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,959
Speaker 2: these original operators, and one of them was like, so

617
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 2: they used tailorism. So there was like five supervisors to

618
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 2: every single like switchboard operator, and they would just hover

619
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 2: over you like a hawk. They would constantly be like,

620
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,239
Speaker 2: come on girls, faster, faster, that kind of stuff. And

621
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 2: this woman was like, if you even lifted your head

622
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 2: up from your switchboard, not even looked around, not even

623
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 2: talked like, you just lifted your head up, for supervisor

624
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 2: would be on you, being like, what do you need?

625
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 2: What's going on? There was another one that I think

626
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 2: it was on history dot com. They were writing about

627
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 2: telephone operators and they they quoted from a woman who

628
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 2: was like one of the original ones, who said I

629
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 2: had to work ten unpaid hours as punishment for a

630
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 2: single giggle, Like that's how how just regulated the women

631
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 2: operators were for decades and that was just part of

632
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 2: the job.

633
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: Yeah. I never did telemarketing in college, but that was

634
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: a big dial America was a big job in Athens.

635
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: I'm sure you remember. You probably worked for Dialo America.

636
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 2: I didn't, but I worked for another company. I have

637
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 2: this story about that.

638
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a big, easy job to get in

639
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 1: Athens and I'm sure many colleges. But the central benefit

640
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: of any job like this is being able to put

641
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 1: your hand over the receiver and roll your eyes to

642
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:27,919
Speaker 1: the person next to you and go, oh my god,

643
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 1: you got to get a load of this guy, or

644
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,800
Speaker 1: you should hear this lady's voice. Like if you deny

645
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,880
Speaker 1: your work or that, then you're not going to have

646
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: a happy workforce. That's the one perk you get when

647
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: you're not on a and right in front of someone

648
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:44,759
Speaker 1: is that you can say something quietly and have a

649
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 1: quick laugh.

650
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:47,759
Speaker 2: Yeah. They could not do that. They would get in

651
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 2: trouble and possibly fired for that kind of stuff.

652
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 1: Yeah.

653
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:55,360
Speaker 2: So, actually, one of the cool things is they figured

654
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,759
Speaker 2: out that Okay, wait, there's thousands of us in this

655
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 2: workforce let's form a union. And they were told no,

656
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 2: they can't form a union. So they said, okay, we're

657
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 2: going on strike. And I think in nineteen nineteen New

658
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:10,240
Speaker 2: England telephone operators walked out and just crippled the phone

659
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 2: network for basically half of New England. And the company

660
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 2: was very quick to be like, Okay, what did you

661
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 2: say you wanted to begin and yeah, I went back exactly.

662
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 2: So that was pretty cool. But for the most part

663
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,280
Speaker 2: they were treated rather poorly.

664
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 1: They were, and they in the face of you know,

665
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 1: like I said, some people would call in cursing. There

666
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 1: were men who would use foul language. Sometimes they would

667
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 1: get charged extra for their call. They would sometimes people

668
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:37,680
Speaker 1: would call and say like, hey, do you know what

669
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,000
Speaker 1: time it is? Or do you know what goes in

670
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:41,719
Speaker 1: this recipe? Or do you know what time the train

671
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:43,240
Speaker 1: runs from the station?

672
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:45,280
Speaker 2: Or does this shirt make me look fat?

673
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: Yeah? Exactly, And they're acting like information basically rather than

674
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 1: just connecting calls. You know. I guess they weren't being

675
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: as ragned in everywhere because or maybe they were to

676
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: the customer is always right. I don't know they were.

677
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,919
Speaker 2: Then there were there was like five things you could

678
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,359
Speaker 2: say to a customer, no matter what they said to you,

679
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,319
Speaker 2: no matter how abusive they were, anything like that, you

680
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 2: could say like thank you or something like that.

681
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 1: You'd safron.

682
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, that was the safe word.

683
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:16,439
Speaker 1: Yeah.

684
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,480
Speaker 2: The supervisor come in and be like, hey, hey, what

685
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 2: are you saying?

686
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: Well, if they got asked them in a recipe and

687
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: maybe they can only say five things, really hymns them

688
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: in So.

689
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 2: Are you allowed to leave? If not? Say saffron.

690
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 1: Here's one fun little thing. In World War One, there

691
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,400
Speaker 1: were two hundred and twenty three American women who served

692
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 1: in Europe as switchboard operators because France's phone system was wrecked,

693
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: so the US Army Signal Corps literally built its own

694
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:48,800
Speaker 1: phone system and had bilingual American switchboard operators working there

695
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:53,839
Speaker 1: and sometimes giving like really important direct orders about you know,

696
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,200
Speaker 1: bombings and raids and things like that.

697
00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 2: Well, they would pass them along. I don't know if

698
00:36:58,600 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 2: they were making up the orders.

699
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: And do you think anybody would have thought that I did?

700
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 1: You thought that's what I was saying.

701
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 2: No, but it was still hilarious to hear you say

702
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 2: it exactly.

703
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:15,800
Speaker 1: But this is the cool part. After sixty years, Finally,

704
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine these women were recognized as veterans.

705
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 2: I know that was very cool. It's sad that it

706
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:26,280
Speaker 2: took that long, but at least they finally got there. Yeah,

707
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I keep imagining whole cadre of operators just

708
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:32,600
Speaker 2: making up orders.

709
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: For this lady just sent to storm the beach. It's

710
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:39,720
Speaker 1: just chaos, all right. Now, we're going to take our break.

711
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 1: We're running a bit long, so we're gonna come back

712
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,960
Speaker 1: and finish up on how it all ended with automation.

713
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:49,800
Speaker 1: Right after this stucks net stucks stuck. I don't know,

714
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: you know it stucks stuck.

715
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 2: That sucks. It's a great name.

716
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the name of it.

717
00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 2: It's a great name. All right, stucks met with an okay, chuck.

718
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 2: So I think I said before that once they started

719
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 2: going to all numeric, well numbers, that was like a

720
00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:25,880
Speaker 2: huge first step toward automating the system and eventually phasing

721
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 2: out human operators. And one of the reasons why is

722
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 2: because you can take numbers and you can quantify them essentially,

723
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,839
Speaker 2: and that's what those original phones, the roadary phones, then

724
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,800
Speaker 2: apparently the fake keypad phones would do. When you dialed

725
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 2: a number, your finger would eventually hit a stop. For

726
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 2: like a three, the stop was closer, for the zero

727
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 2: of the stop was in eternity away, because once you

728
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,919
Speaker 2: hit the stop, the dial would go back to the

729
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,959
Speaker 2: original position, and as it did, it would put out,

730
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 2: you know, three pulses, say three electrical impulses when you

731
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 2: dial the three. And what that did was it told

732
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:12,080
Speaker 2: the automated switches that were eventually invented to start paying

733
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:15,319
Speaker 2: attention and start dialing some numbers here because I just

734
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 2: sent some electrical impulses.

735
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 1: That's right. I think you mean pulses, don't you.

736
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 2: What did I say plus impulses? Did I?

737
00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a.

738
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,319
Speaker 2: Little late in the day and my brain's mush from

739
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 2: all the engineering week we've been doing.

740
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm not just sitting here as correct you guy.

741
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 1: I just I think it's kind of funny. And somebody

742
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:37,279
Speaker 1: would have written in and it's like, why are these

743
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:38,320
Speaker 1: phones having impulses?

744
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 2: No, hey, you got me back for the operators giving direction.

745
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:48,879
Speaker 1: Here is where my mind exploded because I didn't learn

746
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: this yesterday. He's still liking that one. This didn't I

747
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:54,920
Speaker 1: didn't learn this yesterday, but I learned it. I think

748
00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 1: the last time you explain this because We explained that

749
00:39:56,960 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 1: in another episode about how you dial oh yeah a

750
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 1: rotary phone. I did not know that it was the

751
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 1: retreat of that dial back to its original position? Was

752
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 1: what was being quantified and pulsed?

753
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,640
Speaker 2: Do you think it was the dial up? Like when

754
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 2: you got.

755
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, you put your finger in it and you dial

756
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 1: the four over? You know, as a kid, you just

757
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,200
Speaker 1: think a little like, yep, I'm hitting the four, and

758
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:22,880
Speaker 1: I just take it out and it goes back to

759
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: its place. It going back to its place is the

760
00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 1: key yeah, Which I don't.

761
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:29,879
Speaker 2: Know if I knew that either, though it seems new

762
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,319
Speaker 2: to me, so if I did explain it before, it

763
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:32,960
Speaker 2: didn't stick.

764
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:34,960
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool, though, ton't. I mean, this is just

765
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 1: a fun little fact for anyone who still understands what

766
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: those are.

767
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:40,840
Speaker 2: One thing I do think we talked about in the

768
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 2: Phone Freaking episode was the invention of the Strouder switch,

769
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 2: which was invented by an undertaker named Almon Brown. Strouder

770
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:52,759
Speaker 2: and the reason that he can't like. An undertaker in

771
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:58,920
Speaker 2: Kansas City invented the automated phone switchboard because, as legend

772
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 2: has it, he was losing business to a rival undertaker

773
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 2: whose wife was the town operator. So when people call

774
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 2: up and said undertaker police, she would just rout him

775
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:13,359
Speaker 2: to her husband's business and leave Strouger's business out. And

776
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:15,080
Speaker 2: he's like, you know what, I want to get rid

777
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,400
Speaker 2: of the operator. So he went and invented one of

778
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 2: the more sophisticated pieces of technology that was around at

779
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 2: the time. And this is in eighteen ninety that he

780
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:28,160
Speaker 2: came up with the first automated switch. And it is impressive.

781
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:31,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the one that led to the

782
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:35,880
Speaker 1: rotary switch that we're talking about though, right, yes, do

783
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: you know how his work specifically.

784
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 2: Or difference, Actually, it's really fascinating.

785
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 1: Well, let's hear it. We got one minute, all.

786
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:46,319
Speaker 2: Right, So let's say that you dialed that three, right,

787
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:51,080
Speaker 2: that first number, those three impulses I think in slang

788
00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:54,360
Speaker 2: it's just called pulses. They went down the line and

789
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 2: they hit the first switch, and they told the first switch, okay,

790
00:41:56,840 --> 00:41:59,880
Speaker 2: we're going to three, and so that would narrow down

791
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 2: the number of subscribers to this telephone switchboard whose numbers

792
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,200
Speaker 2: started with three, oh yeah, and then the next number

793
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:10,960
Speaker 2: would come in five, yeah, right, Five more pulses of

794
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,520
Speaker 2: electricity would come to the second switch, and it would

795
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,160
Speaker 2: tell that switch. Okay, now we're just trying to get

796
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,399
Speaker 2: to the people whose first two numbers are three, five,

797
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 2: and so on and so on, until finally all what eight, no, yeah,

798
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 2: eight seven numbers were dialed, and so it led to

799
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:33,719
Speaker 2: the only person whose phone line could possibly be connected

800
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,319
Speaker 2: to this specific circuit of seven numbers, and then it

801
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 2: would connect the call from the caller to the call lee.

802
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 1: Wow, that's pretty cool.

803
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really amazing. This guy came up with this

804
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:46,280
Speaker 2: in eighteen ninety.

805
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, we didn't even really mention it

806
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 1: seems obvious, but I guess we should say. The reason

807
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:53,640
Speaker 1: they were looking to phase out and go into automation

808
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 1: is kind of like every reason always is money. You know,

809
00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 1: less overhead. You as more more switchboards grew, you had

810
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:04,200
Speaker 1: well a the switchboards cost a lot of money. They

811
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: cost you know, you had to have land in a building,

812
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 1: and you had to have people to operate them, and

813
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 1: they just couldn't keep hiring more and more people. I

814
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:13,399
Speaker 1: think at one point they said, you know, we'd need

815
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 1: a million switchboard operators and that just wasn't even a

816
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:22,759
Speaker 1: possibility at the time. So automation was always on the horizon. Interestingly,

817
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:27,360
Speaker 1: along those lines, long distance switching took a lot longer,

818
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:31,279
Speaker 1: like it was into the late nineteen sixties and even

819
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 1: some places in the seventies where you still had operators

820
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:37,319
Speaker 1: that had to connect long distance lines because it was

821
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:39,840
Speaker 1: as Kyle said that it was just no alternative to

822
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:45,719
Speaker 1: human intelligence. It was too complex at the time. But eventually,

823
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 1: you know, they figured all that out.

824
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 2: But that meant that there were humans who were walking

825
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:57,440
Speaker 2: around knowing how to connect to Tacoma. They knew the

826
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 2: combination of switches, yeah, yeah, connector the number of levers

827
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:03,880
Speaker 2: to pull, the number of like wishes to make I

828
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 2: don't know, okay, and they would they knew how to

829
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 2: connect to call like that and not just to peek

830
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 2: a ta coma like whatever city to whatever city. They

831
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 2: just knew how to view it. And I mean that's yeah,

832
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:18,239
Speaker 2: that's just an overlooked part of history that there were

833
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 2: people walking around who knew how to do these complex

834
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:26,400
Speaker 2: algorithms basically, and they were all different for depending on

835
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 2: what city was calling what city. So that kept operators

836
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 2: around for much longer than they would have been had

837
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,040
Speaker 2: long distance not existed, because they got phased out at

838
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 2: the local level, but for long distance calling they were

839
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:40,879
Speaker 2: just too valuable to get rid of at the time.

840
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:43,880
Speaker 1: What happens when you dial zero today from a landline?

841
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:45,080
Speaker 1: Is there an operator?

842
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 2: Well? Number one there's no landlines. There's just you get

843
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:52,480
Speaker 2: like an alarm at somebody's house alarm. I think maybe yeah,

844
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 2: And then number two there's no zero anymore. Gen Z

845
00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:59,000
Speaker 2: got rid of it all right, good deal. So I

846
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:03,319
Speaker 2: think by the the seventies the whole thing was digitized.

847
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 2: There was no corded switchboards any longer. But there were

848
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,719
Speaker 2: some like pockets of switchboards that were still around, right,

849
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 2: that held on long beyond the time it was necessary.

850
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a couple of competing last switchboard last operators.

851
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,279
Speaker 1: One that you'll see a lot online as widely recognized

852
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:26,040
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three Bryant Pond, Maine. I think this

853
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:31,120
Speaker 1: specification heroes. It was the last hand cranked telephone system

854
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 1: and switchboard, like you know, you like you've seen the

855
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:37,799
Speaker 1: old movies. There's a box on the wall and you go,

856
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:39,400
Speaker 1: you crank a thing.

857
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 2: Give me Kondike five six thousand exactly.

858
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 1: And Susan Glynes was the last operator there. London's thank

859
00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:57,160
Speaker 1: you Kyle was at Infield and this was nineteen sixty

860
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: I think was retired. But the last caretaker telephone operator

861
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 1: in the and the UK retired in eighty four. But

862
00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: then you found one in California that was ninety one.

863
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:10,400
Speaker 1: And as best I could tell, that was a private

864
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:14,800
Speaker 1: a sort of very small customer based private phone company

865
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: in Kerman.

866
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,000
Speaker 2: And what was sweet was I saw one of the

867
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,120
Speaker 2: reasons that the owner of the company held on to

868
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 2: human operators for so long was because there were so

869
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:29,240
Speaker 2: many migrants who lived in town that the phone operator

870
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:33,239
Speaker 2: was bilingual. It could help connect calls between people who

871
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:34,719
Speaker 2: spoke two different languages.

872
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the not even the final one. All of

873
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:39,320
Speaker 1: their operators were bilingual.

874
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 2: Oh is that right?

875
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:41,960
Speaker 1: Yeah?

876
00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:42,959
Speaker 2: Oh, very nice.

877
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:44,759
Speaker 1: I think that was their specialty.

878
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 2: No, serious, that's what they said at the company picnic,

879
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 2: that's our I.

880
00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:53,120
Speaker 1: Mean, I think that's honestly. They had most of their

881
00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:55,440
Speaker 1: customer base were people with family in Mexico, and so

882
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: they just had a niche for miners.

883
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know why you're getting them that.

884
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,400
Speaker 2: I don't believe you. I believe what you're.

885
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 1: Saying, because he keeps laughing at it, going that's funny.

886
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 2: I'm still thinking about the operators telling everybody to bomb

887
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:13,879
Speaker 2: Roy Win or something. You got anything else? No, big

888
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 2: thanks to Kyle for helping us out with this one.

889
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 2: It was very technical and complicated. And since I said

890
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 2: technical and complicated, it's time for listener mail.

891
00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: Here's our Joe Thiseman follow up. We got quite a

892
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:30,240
Speaker 1: few emails, and in fact a few from people whose

893
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:34,200
Speaker 1: parents went to school with Joe Thiseman, the former quarterback

894
00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:38,640
Speaker 1: of the former Washington Redskins football team now the Commanders.

895
00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:41,799
Speaker 1: Hey guys, I uster freelance for a video company that

896
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 1: did a lot of conferences, and one time Joe Eisman

897
00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:47,439
Speaker 1: was the keynote speaker. The way he told the story

898
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 1: about his last name as his follows. Growing up, his

899
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,600
Speaker 1: dad was very firm that their last name was pronounced

900
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:55,000
Speaker 1: these men. Apparently, his dad would get quite cross when

901
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,440
Speaker 1: folks would pronounce it wrong. People often said it wrong,

902
00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 1: so Joe would call his dad and have him correct them.

903
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,360
Speaker 2: Dad, they said it wrong, but Dead's gonna sue you.

904
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:09,480
Speaker 1: He snapped my leg. According to Joe's story, when he

905
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: was a candidate for the Heisman Trophy, his college coaches

906
00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:13,960
Speaker 1: thought it would be better if it was pronounced thisman

907
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 1: to rhyme obviously, So again Joe called his dad to

908
00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:20,520
Speaker 1: ask him, and his dad responded, I've told you it's thighsman.

909
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:23,440
Speaker 1: So it sounds like Joe has made kind of a

910
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:27,360
Speaker 1: fun little apocryphal story about this, but it seems confirmed

911
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,759
Speaker 1: it was thiseman heard it from the man's own mouth.

912
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 1: And that's from Karen and Gil Pennington.

913
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 2: Very nice, appreciate that big time.

914
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,680
Speaker 1: Who was it, Karen, Karen Pennington, Thank.

915
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:41,720
Speaker 2: You very much, Karen, I'm just gonna call him Karen

916
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:44,759
Speaker 2: Sure if you want to get in touch with us

917
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 2: like Karen did and give us a great story that

918
00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:51,040
Speaker 2: kind of sums up, ties up, circles up, a story

919
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:53,520
Speaker 2: that we talked about. We love that kind of thing.

920
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 2: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at

921
00:48:56,520 --> 00:49:01,920
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio dot com. RAO.

922
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:05,239
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

923
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 1: more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

924
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:11,480
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.