Ahhh, the good ole days when you could chain smoke your way through a disaster response without going outside.

@7891ph

3 жыл бұрын

While I can appreciate the joke, I'm also just old enough to have bad flash backs to when that was the norm; us non smokers had to shut up or get out. I'm in my early fifties, and I hope I never have to deal with that at work again. And being a CNC machinist, I know just how many smokers we have on board (in a non smokers shop) because if I can't find them, check outside; they're probably (trying to) sneak a smoke break.

@mogwopjr

3 жыл бұрын

and the boss would bring a carton of smokes, a case of beer and maybe some pizza to help the night along... Because it's gonna be a long one.

@Psythik

3 жыл бұрын

And you could get through your entire day without picking up your phone more than once or twice. 9:31

@james.anderson-pole

3 жыл бұрын

I was thinking it would be ironic if smoking was the cause of the fire.

@WhitfieldProductionsTV

3 жыл бұрын

@@7891ph then there are some of us that smoke to not lose it and make people not want to come back lol, stress is a bitch.

Not covered in the film, but the fire started in the cable vault when a spark landed on a pressurized cable. It burned through the sheath, and once it got to the pulp cable and was supplied fresh oxygen from the air dryers pressurizing the cable at around 12-14 psi, the fire spread through the vault, then up the cable chases (not fire blocked in those days) up to the frame and switch floors. Interesting to watch the splicers lay up 25 pair binder groups into modules. 45 years later we still splice the same way. I'm very proud to be a tip & ring phone man. I stand on the shoulders of giants like those guys.

@ShainAndrews

3 жыл бұрын

I'd have to research it, but I'd take an educated guess this event drove the change to nitrogen to keep the moisture out of the cables.

@bobcole612

3 жыл бұрын

@@ShainAndrews Nitrogen is really only used as a backup to the dryers, or to buffer cables in the field when we have to open a splice case to keep pressure down the line. Cables in the office are supplied air at 12-14 psi and

@ShainAndrews

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobcole612 You clearly have more OSP experience than I. I can certainly attest to the fire block requirements in cable chases and the various cable sheath requirements.

@bobcole612

3 жыл бұрын

@@ShainAndrews one of the benefits of being in a small town. I do it all, POTS, IPDSL, ADSL, splicing cut cables, frame wiring and air pressure. It can be a tough job, but very rewarding. Especially when I fix the phone or internet (like I just did tonight) for a nice little old lady, and this is really their only communication with her family.

@joshb124

Ай бұрын

How does one become a tip & ring phone man? not much info out there. Always been interested in what's behind the att switching offices.

Watching this after millions of people , including myself, lost AT&T cell service for 8 hours. Puts things in perspective.

If this happened today AT&T would just claim they weren't offering that service anymore, fix nothing, and try to sell you an internet or cellular based home phone.

Excellent short film. Good thing management had the foresight to bring in a documentary team. I'm not sure if that would happen today. No one admit liability, document as little as possible about the damage and causes.

@paulrowan1501

6 жыл бұрын

Albert Maysles no less! Before he and his brother David became really well known for their documentary film-making.

@CoreyThompson73

3 жыл бұрын

I suspect that was very intentional, as they suspected an eventual breakup would be recommended .. This definitely has the narrative the the Bell entities need each other to operate.

@nyceyes

3 жыл бұрын

@@CoreyThompson73 That's exactly what I thought.

@pcguy619

3 жыл бұрын

Oh man... yup. No documentary team for the Dec. 25th bombing of the AT&T Batman building.

@FuquarProductions

3 жыл бұрын

Like the 2008 Universal Studios fire where something like 18,000 to 175,000 master tapes were destroyed.

This was absolutely AMAZING!!! I am making my way through every last one of the videos in this archive, and you know what I keep hearing over and over and over again? The employees had a genuine affection for, and real loyalty and dedication to the Bell Company. I can only deduce that is because the Bell Company likely took very, very good care of the employees. This is something that is lost on the general workforce at large today. And it shows everywhere. No one taking pride in their work. No one going the extra mile. No one making personal life sacrifices to give something extra in their work life.... If we could recapture this in the American workforce of today, I've no doubt we could fix every issue in our great United States. But where does it start? With the employee? The employer? It's like the age old "which came first, chicken or egg" question.... Anyways, I digress. This video blew me away. Not even a full month is all the time it took to replace the local exchanges and numbers for over 100,000 people. With all that enormous, heavy, fragile analog equipment! Thank you for sharing this little peek into a largely forgotten era of what was an INCREDIBLE industry!

@westwasbest

4 жыл бұрын

Perfectly said!

@westwasbest

4 жыл бұрын

Perfectly said!

@justinclark8987

3 жыл бұрын

Its culture and it has to come from the top down.

@jimmybuffet4970

3 жыл бұрын

In other words: "A happy employee is a productive employee." This truly was a marvel of engineering and work - especially when you consider that none of this was touchtone!

@imark7777777

2 жыл бұрын

Well that was the bell system after all: the people. And the company treated them well.

I started working for AT&T in a fast track to management program right out of college in 1990 when i was 21. Some of these guys were still there in executive roles.

@sabretechv2

2 жыл бұрын

When did you leave AT&T?

@davidjames666

2 жыл бұрын

@@sabretechv2 I retired in 2017. I was in Murray Hill NJ.

@sabretechv2

2 жыл бұрын

@@davidjames666 that’s awesome David, I bet it was still a really interesting place to work at in 1990.

@Zooboo1

Жыл бұрын

Craft likened you guys to 2nd Lts...jet jobs.

I'm looking back at this in 2021. In 1975 I was all of 4 years old. All this equipment is obsolete and gone. I'm not even a telephone man and even I get a sick feeling right down in my gut every time I see this. Miracle indeed.

I volunteered to go to that building to help restore service.When I returned to E150th ST I was laughed at because the guys there got all the overtime they wanted, without working in the toxic conditions in the Second Ave Building.It was easy money for them at E150th Street.

WOW... I work for a telecom company and to think of how this was fixed absolutely blows my brain.

I turned 8 on Feb 27 1975. I grew up near Pittsburgh but I remember hearing about this fire.

I work in the fourth largest Central Office for our section of whats left of Ma Bell.... I can't imagine replacing our MDF or COSMIC frames. 4 of them at nearly a quarter city block long each. Then there is the copper/fiber in the vaults. The 3 DMS' would probably be replaced with soft switches. The Bell System is sure not the family it used to be. What a great family effort that was to get New Yorkers back in service!

@billylowe9631

8 жыл бұрын

+mogwopjr Too bad you didn't get a chance to work in an old electromachanical switch like a Crossbar 5. The switch has personality that reflected the community. I also was involved with the Bushwick Ave fire recovery.

@mogwopjr

8 жыл бұрын

+Billy Lowe I don't know about the Bushwick Ave fire, do you have any links for information on it? I get stories from my Mom about the Crossbar as she was a switch tech when she transferred to MST. We still have working remnants with the remaining SMAS system, but it's not the same for sure. The first office I went into when I was young was a Crossbar office and listening to all the chatter was captivating. (the cable vault under our State Street was great too!) Now a days the only thing that makes noise are the fans and when something breaks.

@billylowe9631

8 жыл бұрын

+mogwopjr The Bushwick Ave CO in Brooklyn caught fire on Feb. 20 1987. As I remember the fire started in the cable vault and spread to the MDF. I don't remember what caused the fire. However, I know the crossbar tandem (known as Bushwick Tandem) was wiped out. and a No one ESS switch was badly damaged. AT&T (old Western Electric) got the switch going. However a new switch was needed for replacement. At that time I had left New York Tel (NYNEX) and was working for Northern Telecom (NORTEL) as an SAE (Systems Application Engineer) and a new DMS switch was ordered and installation was on a super rushed. (24-7) I also remember going to Laguardia to pick up parts and equipment that were sent from Raleigh NC counter to counter. As a switchman I was not directly involved with the Second Ave fire. However, I was asked to volunteer to go to the sight and work, I declined. The OT was insane.

@billyboi57

8 жыл бұрын

Didn't you hear? Ma Bell and her kids were murdered in 1984. There is no more Bell family.

@billylowe9631

8 жыл бұрын

Remember Judge Green

Only if Cellphone providers Cared this much now a days

@leisergeist

8 жыл бұрын

diego hermosillo LOL right?

@davidenglund3323

4 жыл бұрын

I was living in Panama City when Hurricane Michael screamed ashore on October 10, 2018 and demolished 5 town, washed another town away, and wrecked an air force base! AT&T kept going throughout the entire event and after the event while the biggest competitor(starts with a V) was out of service for weeks! I heard later on, that AT&T had done some preparation work with satellite trucks, plus their fiber optics are buried and not on power poles like the competition! I was so glad I was with AT&T!

@WhitfieldProductionsTV

3 жыл бұрын

when they split the company they really caused headaches and we have what we have today because assholes can never leave enough alone.

I got a call from a customer early one Sunday morning. He had water damage on his property and needed his phone system moved today. With a pocket screwdriver and a needle nose plyer I uninstalled, moved and reinstalled his phone system and had him up and running by 2:00 pm. I have always had a can-do attitude rather than a can't-do one!!! Oh, and his data guy needed to get his signal across an expansive parking lot Too expensive to run a new arial cable. I said I could find him a working circuit on a Dead cable. Within 30 minutes I had found three pair that worked end-to-end. Everyone was happy. That is how Im like it!!! I got great referrals after pulling that one off.

This was awesome! The really nice thing about the hard work is that I have heard that AT&T paid top dollar to those that proved themselves worthy. I have heard this from several retired employees of AT&T.

@ikonix360

Жыл бұрын

That's often something not seen today.

Such a different time.. Most things were analog back then... Not easy to reroute calls. I can't imagine the level of thought it must have taken to put this into place so quickly.

@maxdutiel

2 жыл бұрын

From the Evan doorbell tape library, it sounded like it was even more of a pain, because in this fire 3 major tandems were destroyed. City tandem, interzone tandem, and suburban tandem. So they most likely immediately had to offload a bunch of traffic from panels and xb1 offices in the city to the sector tandems.

@TechHowden

22 күн бұрын

@@maxdutiel if you didn't already see it, Evan doorbell just made several narrated programs about what happened.

Thanks for the video! I've really enjoyed watching everything on this channel. After seeing this, it's sad to see what AT&T has turned into today. They don't even keep 50pr cable on the yard in Rome GA. It took 2 weeks to restore service to a backup 911 center I manage after a truck tore down a 250 foot span of cable. Very sad...

AT&T in its finest hours!

This documentary proves without a doubt, just how smart, dedicated, and amazing the American Workforce truly is, AT&T was an amazing company to work for as was Western Electric and Bell Labs, some of the smartest people in the entire world, it's a shame they weren't still here together in one group creating much more then what you see here, the possibilities would have been endless to bring this nation's workforce back together again!

@Janotes

3 жыл бұрын

My goal as a kid was to work for The Bell System, unfortunately that ended back in 1984 and that 16 Year old kid is long grown up now and looking forward to retirement from a different line of work...

@ArtStoneUS

3 жыл бұрын

And diverse!

@gregargendeli2973

2 жыл бұрын

its all about documentation, documentation, documentation! No random cables everything codified off site. Fantastic data storage and recall for this restoration.

Here's the cause of the fire for anyone interested, (and the fatalities, which they don't mention.) Another fun fact is this incident directly led to increased regulation and those plenum-rated cables for installing inside walls/buildings. The fire originated from sparks in equipment in the basement cable vault igniting the plastic insulation of nearby cables that ran to all of the floors above. The combination of the flammable insulation and the method of penetrating each floor allowed the fire to spread rapidly, and emit toxic fumes that are alleged to have caused later deaths of over a dozen fire fighters. Chief of Department James Leonard, whose father worked as a switch operator, said “I’ve never seen smoke like that, conditions were brutal. It tested the skills, training and ability of all members responding that day.”

@gregargendeli2973

2 жыл бұрын

I wonder, did they (them) make a film about Hinsdale?

@hmbpnz

Жыл бұрын

Great info. Thank you. Vertical fire penetration through the floors + God knows what kind of toxic shit was in all of that smoke. I was cringing throughout the entire firefighting scenes. Must have smelled awful. A witches brew of carcinogens.

@skeetrix5577

Жыл бұрын

so how many died again?

That is pretty amazing to watch. Must have been an absolute madhouse of work force and hustling.

Amazing! I miss those days! Life was simple and people took pride in their work!

What a film. Watching how they mobilized all the different entities of The Bell System, pulling it all together And getting the job done. Good luck today.

1975 Can't live without a telephone 2020 Can't live without an Internet

@NoTraceOfSense

2 ай бұрын

Welcome to the modern age

I watched this a few times. It's amazing how much joint effort went into this. More action then talking. Just getting shit done.

Because of the conflict in terms "main frames" in phone systems and computers, they're are now often called "main distribution frames" or MDFs. Even today MDFs are largely passive and not computerised. It's likely possible that original computer mainframes, because of the similarities with wiring to MDFs, got their name that way.

@maxdutiel

2 жыл бұрын

MDFs are also used in networking, as well as IDFs

US government should’ve never split up Bell, unity in a business like this is important

I'm retired after 38 years - Watching this video after all that time working in and around central offices brings back wonderful memories almost to the point of tears. Ed-Central California

the fact that they just started to rebuild right after fire, in the same building that burned out is amazing,

I worked in tel switching that year in the west. That incident sure caused a ripple across the continent regarding fire isolation precautions! Cinder block walls between distribution frames and switches, strict rules about sealing off open inter-room ducts with fireproof pillows every evening, and very expensive non-destructive automatic fire suppression systems. Today, landlines are not essential for most people. And landlines are largely migrating to the internet, which is not as vulnerable to destruction, and uses a LOT less hardware.

This is a gem of a short film. Truly fascinating!

Best documentary I have ever seen

At least it happened when it did and not after the breakup. I can assume that would have been a nightmare scenario, knowing the equipment was potentially available, but all the added hoops they would have had to go through, would likely have them asking for the Maalox and the Excedrin.

This is a tribute to the American people and the Dedication and perseverance to you build after a disaster record nation and the professionalism of American telephone worker in American telephone industry coordination to rebuild! This video documentation makes me proud to be an American wireman!

1975: It’s just impossible to live without a telephone. 2021: OMG Instagram is down!

As a retired Illinois Bell tech, I was working when the Hinsdale IL central office had its fire, as well as the Roselle IL central office had it's flood, that I was involved in restoring. The fire was worse, as all of the equipment in these offices are connected to large banks of backup batteries with no fusing, so, any cable path that gets shorted will have the potential to cause a fire, burning off more insulation and causing more shorts. The Hinsdale restoral took weeks, where Roselle (16:38 was work that I did) was mostly drying out cables in the basement cable vault, and replacing the first wet sections as soon as possible. Still causes a nightmare for restoral, as far as a large customer outage issue.

Check out our site for all of our films from the AT&T Archives. We're posting 3 new videos per week. Lots of great stuff from the 1920s - 1990s

@1903tx

6 жыл бұрын

When are y'all gonna start posting again?

@kirbyyasha

5 жыл бұрын

I second this, as a history major, I love the AT&T Bell Labs historical videos. They give a beautiful insight to one of the world's greatest telecommunications companies that existed.

@studinthemaking

4 жыл бұрын

Is there still a telephone exchange at this location in nyc?

The frame is a connection point between the OE/switch to the vault which is where the cable leaves the CO - typically 66 or wirewrap connections can be made there preventing wear and tare on the switching equipment and damage to the cable leaving the building.

I would have thought it would take two or three months alone (let alone weeks) to clean up those burnt out and then flooded floors. Outstanding work!

Wow does this bring back memories. I was a Crossbar 5 switchman in Westchster County NY and remember rewiring the markers and FAT frame (Foreign Area Translator) so the affected exchanges wouldn't choke the network.

@paulrowan1501

6 жыл бұрын

So looks like they replaced with 5XBar in 1975 when 1ESS was technologically available I assume. Must have done it because of time constraints. Wonder how long that system remained in service? Funny, I also heard some audio of steppers at the end of the film.

@MrEkg98

5 жыл бұрын

Where is a good place to learn about this technology. I am a shareholder in modern ATT. I do not believe it should have been broken up.

@user2C47

4 жыл бұрын

@@MrEkg98 evan-doorbell.com is a good place to start.

@scottrobinson2489

Жыл бұрын

@@paulrowan1501 I believe today the Second Ave/13th Street CO has 1 5ESS (put in-service 1986) and 1 DMS100 (put in-service 1989) Class 5 End Office digital switches. There are also 2 Tandem Class 4 switches. 1 5ESS 'Local' and 1 DMS100 'Access' (both put in-service in 1989). Verizon's last 1A ESS switches were cutover to Soft Switches in 2012. (They use the now branded ribbon G5 Line Access Gateway/G6 Media Access Gateway/CS2K or C20 when collapsing the TDM switches.)

its cool seeing other industries that used wire wrap

Bell Systems never should have been broken apart

There's some very rare vehicles the Bell System has that we don't see on the internet.

Had a chuckle watching the techs using their scissors to either check for tone or send a short..

@culbyj3665

2 жыл бұрын

theyre called shears not scissors fella!

Love ya Ma Bell.

Absolutely fascinating. It's so funny to hear them talk about 3 weeks as an accomplishment. If cell service went out for 20 minutes today people would revolt.

Reminds me of my summer job on the frames at #1 "H" Street in San Rafael, CA. Great people.

this is a great video!

1975 : People smoking like chimneys (Laugh). Seriously, though the old school bell system was one of a kind. No one else could have pulled this off in 3 weeks.

@redpillrules3136

5 жыл бұрын

BTW, A friend who worked in a Panel C.O. remarked (When asked about bell system pioneers) Those people were a "Pain in the Axx !"

wonderful documental!.

This is fascinating to see, I just cannot imagine the amount of work to put this together in three weeks, I used to work for the main Telephone Company back in my country and I know what it is to connect MDF and Switch Central Office equipment, and make it work, not easy at all.

Breaking up Ma Bell led eventually to long-distance that is so cheap it's included for free on most phone bills. It led to the cell-phone revolution, also -- there is no way a giant monopoly like AT&T was before 1983 could ever have innovated enough to bring us the cellular telephone system we have today -- not in the relatively short time it took to get from there to here. It would've taken decades longer had AT&T never been forcibly broken up. But there is *no way* that our modern telephone companies could recover this quickly from a disaster this large today. Western Electric, being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the AT&T company, could *instantly* dedicate its *entire* nationwide production capacity and *tens of thousands* of employees (my parents having been two of them, back in the day) to solving this *one* problem. No company today has the resources that could even come close to what AT&T had at its disposal back then. No company today could *ever* hope to mobilize that many workers that quickly to solve a single problem. Monopolies do have certain advantages...

@ssbohio

5 жыл бұрын

AT&T created mobile telephony. AT&T created digital telephone transmission. AT&T created the transistor. The Bell system made the advances you speak of possible. To say it stood in their way is to ignore history.

@bklynp718

5 жыл бұрын

Our cellular telephone system was GREATLY delayed due to the breakup of AT&T. Europe was way ahead of us, as was Japan and even places in Africa.

@MaximRecoil

5 жыл бұрын

"Breaking up Ma Bell led eventually to long-distance that is so cheap it's included for free on most phone bills. It led to the cell-phone revolution, also -- there is no way a giant monopoly like AT&T was before 1983 could ever have innovated enough to bring us the cellular telephone system we have today -- not in the relatively short time it took to get from there to here. It would've taken decades longer had AT&T never been forcibly broken up." You don't know what the hell you're talking about: "Bell Labs scientists were responsible for the transistor, the solar battery cell, the fax machine, touch-tone dialing, the early communications satellite, improvements to radar and sonar, and much more-not to mention the six Nobel Prizes Bell Labs scientists won along the way. And not to mention Claude Shannon’s information theory, which laid the intellectual foundations of the internet." Bell Labs also invented Unix. By the way, do you have any idea how important the transistor is? It is the fundamental device which makes ALL modern electronics possible. A CPU for example, is just a collection of transistors; the same goes for all other ICs. The Bell System built the greatest telephone system in the world, and you think today's cellular system was beyond their capabilities? Are you daft? You have it completely backwards. The cell phone system would be way ahead of where it is today if jack-booted thugs from the government hadn't pillaged the Bell System.

@kirbyyasha

5 жыл бұрын

I always felt progress went south with the breakup of the Bell System. Bell Labs was working on fiber optic technology, mobile technology, and with the historical content of long distance, it was going down. Sadly, there is no way to answer this since this is hypothetical, but I feel we would have been further advanced with UNIX, Fiber Optics, and just an amazing research team that brought us many innovations. After the breakup, I think the baby bells just wanted to stay business as usual. Those I knew who worked for Bell Systems told me they were the a great company to work for. My great aunt retired from Illinois Bell, lived to be 103 years old, but she always told me stories of working for them. Sadly, I talk to modern AT&T techs, they just bitch and moan about the job. She retired nicely, and being 103 years old, I can say the company didn't take any years away from her lol.

@bigdrew565

3 жыл бұрын

@@kirbyyasha dunno, my mother liked it, she worked for NyTel as an operator since she graduated from high school. The two negatives she had, were that every few months they were going out on strike for some reason or another. Either their own, or sympathy strikes in solidarity with another group of employees, and that she had to work in Ossining NY. Next to sing sing prison, and a pretty rough town back in the early 70s, anyway. My father, the NYPD officer that he was, didn't take too kindly to that. She tried to get a transfer to Yonkers or Queens, but it didn't happen. So that was her two years with Ma Bell. She probably would have been canned when at&t was forced to divest in 1984 anyway. But she totally would have stayed if they let her transfer.

great engineering, good for them and their efforts

Great stuff.

I wonder if another disastrous event happens who's got the capability to get service restored quickly. Because like it or not even GSM cell phones use switching infrastructure.

I think about all the firefighters who were at that scene. Most of them are dead from some exotic cancers.... And 700 firefighters went to that fire!

@jamessimms415

3 жыл бұрын

Same here

@mikegallant811

2 жыл бұрын

I think the firefighters that later suffered health issues it would have to be because the smoke contained polyvinyl chloride fumes from the burned wiring in the vault and the area of the main frame and whatever was hooked into the switching systems you got to remember back then they didn't use fiber optics for phone wiring they mainly used regular wire stuff but it was covered with a casing of polyvinyl chloride.

16:38 Love the beaming smiles on the faces of these guys. That’s workmanship right there and something the entire world has lost thanks to outsourcing to cheap Asian labour markets

Except today, you can add that the entire area would also be without money or any form of commerce.

What is interesting to think is that ALL of the traffic in that entire building could be carried by a single fiber optic cable now. over g.729.

@user2C47

4 жыл бұрын

That, a server, and a few racks full of line interface cards.

@ozziesheppard17

4 жыл бұрын

@@user2C47 No, You could put those calls through a 100 Gbps fiber line, You'd be looking at probably 4-5 Units. At-least until you cut back over to the pstn.

@Janotes

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah and less personnel that went along with the work. Technology is great isn't it?

@NillKitty

3 жыл бұрын

@@ozziesheppard17 That's what they meant. This building would be where all those subscriber's lines terminate. Yes the trunks can be fiber, but the people paying you for service were -- and still are -- all copper pairs.

@ozziesheppard17

3 жыл бұрын

@@NillKitty I am aware of exactly how this works, I worked for the same telecom provider that serviced that building. Also fyi, no they wouldn't use the same copper pairs today unless legacy. Very few businesses use Centrex systems anymore. They use a sip trunk/basic rate going into their own local pbx over a single fiber pri circuit OR they use a modem with a fxo/fxs port and an ata built in for basic single line installs. In Fiber only areas you can't even really order a copper pair conditioned for voice unless its a special tariff based order. Most* office buildings that are modem and WTC would be the first to get upgrades to its infrastructure use FTT MPOE then either a single cat 5e or more regularly multi mode up to the customers central router, then into whatever they want. -Not only that but in almost all cases you can find a sip trunking provider with rates 1/10th that of the ilec serving your area.

With one company we were able to take equipment from other projects and move it to NYC. We were only installing one type of switch so compatibility was the key. Today? It would never happen. The companies all use different products since there is no Bell Labs or Western Electric any more. This office was very old, a Panel Switch. You can see one at the Smithsonian. It not only served the 170,000 subscribers but was also part of AT&T's Long Lines unit switching long distance as well. Going electronic created hundreds of feet of spare space because the foot print was so much smaller.

New York Telephone as in what is now Verizon Communications of New York. :P

Great film!

My phone never worked when I was with us cell. I brought it to their attention several times, but they didn't really seem to care. So I switched to AT&T. Way better service, even in this aluminum Faraday house. Better deals on good phones, too.

I like this guy. I think if you asked him how he was doing he'd respond "Super! Thanks for asking!"

Funny how some of that same equipment is providing pots service today.

@TechHowden

2 жыл бұрын

OK then, name one place where Bell System electro mechanical switching equipment is still being used.

I've seen this a couple of times but I did not realize they were literally setting up auxiliary service well the fire was still going.

wow that was right before I got hired on the FD. I remember carrying those HEAVY air packs

@Robinzano

4 жыл бұрын

The Scott steel 2.2's with the elephant trunks. How far we've come.

makes we wonder what would happen if a certain building on Wilshire Blvd in LA had a similar accident.

lol, the "mainframe" is just....an actual bare steel frame. I guess that's where the term originally must come from.

@bobweiss8682

7 жыл бұрын

More or less. The frame would hold termination blocks (punchdown or wire-wrap) used to connect the CO wiring to the trunk cables leaving the building. All the active electronics are in the switching gear, not the main distributing frame.

Try to find FIRE: The Second Avenue Story on eBay. Great glossy booklet about the recovery.

@kirbyyasha

5 жыл бұрын

Bah! Can't find it anywhere. I wish it would get reprinted.

Well done documentation! Why did AT&T allow this to happen? Cause?

Looks like a cable wire nightmare

Sadly there are firefighters still being affected by high cancer rates today as a result of this disaster.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we split up the Bell System..... /sarcasm

@J-1410

3 жыл бұрын

"but Long Distance is cheap or free now!"-from those who don't call long distance anyways

Awesome!

as much as i hate greedy monopolizing corporations, im so glad someone is keeping up with all this amazing footage.

...So they brought in PAYPHONES! lol

So can someone describe the various activities occurring after pulling in new cables?

Where is George in 2020? Is he retired? I couldn't find him in phone on the Corp. Network. I love his video's.

@ZachS013

2 жыл бұрын

He retired.

Every twisted pair went to a phone or if a part line, multiple phones to the switching framework. To this day my landlines works 24/7 no matter what. A nationwide effort by the Bell Companies/Western Electric and other entities to repair and replace. The greatest generations designed a system to survive war, disaster and nuclear events. Amazing. Thank you. To this day we use that system.

Today's workers would pull out their smartphone and try to search Google for an answer. Back then, we had such a diversity of highly-skilled workers in a variety of occupations who were willing and able to do whatever it took to get the problem solved. How far things have fallen.

I personally believe that this awesome undertaking happened quite a bit faster than "normal" because the large percentage of New Yorkers and their work together and their "Get er' done" spirit. I am not from New York, but surely would be proud to say that I was. SUPER JOB TO ALL INVOLVED IN THE RESTORATION!!!

@judydempsey6082

7 жыл бұрын

Western Electric brought in their crews from NY to California. Tear out and installation was happening 24 hours non stop

@geraldthomas5813

Жыл бұрын

Not so much because they were "New Yorkers," but first and foremost, "Bell System," employees.

what happened to us>? And by us I mean people, in general. somewhere on the way, we lost what it feels like to be alive.

In what building were the planning meetings? 140 West Street? 1095 A of A?

17:31 Exercising the jacks. I bet they had dsx module failures for decades.

Ma Bell!

what about the 1965 blackout. there must have been more than half a million calls that night on the night of November 9th 1965 when the whole Northeast was plunged Into Darkness.

@billyboi57

7 жыл бұрын

The blackout did not affect the phone system much as the phone companies, especially AT&T had backup generators and batteries to keep the system going.

@user2C47

4 жыл бұрын

The 1965 blackout was the result of a cascade failure of an overloaded power grid, and did not affect the telephone lines.

very interesting video, any info on what started the fire?

@mrwrister

4 жыл бұрын

A soldering iron was left on

@TexasRailfan2008

4 жыл бұрын

Bobby Sanchez really?

@robertanthonysanchez-wade9981

4 жыл бұрын

@@TexasRailfan2008 yes, really!

@user2C47

4 жыл бұрын

Interesting. I had always thought a fire would be caused by arcing switch contacts.

@NillKitty

3 жыл бұрын

@@user2C47 it was

Rogers: "Hold my beer"

If it would have been Sprint those people would have died waiting.

Unbelievable these days...

Amazing1

All these years and I just now found this video. I was on Network Management duty at the center in 32 AoA.\ when this fire broke out. Once notified, we immediately contacted all Regional centers to alert them of this problem and discuss possible solutions for the expected traffic rush into/outgoing from NYC. We all worked thru the night and managed to keep congestion to a minimum using various network management tools across the country and Canada. We concentrated our efforts on making outgoing calls from the affected area our priority and limiting traffic into the affected exchanges, a great deal of manual effort and network surveillance. Remember, this was two years before we transferred network management to an advanced system|center in Bedminster, NJ. I think Dick Esrey was very pleased with our reaction to this disaster and our ability to limit the service disruption.

Engineer power! We're pretty handy to have around when shit hits the fan.

20:32 this sounds so satisfying

So what kind of hazardous chemicals do you think was in that smoke?

@ShainAndrews

3 жыл бұрын

Lots of PVC used back then. So hydrochloric acid, vinyl chloride, benzene. Funny thing is lots of consumer power cords have returned back to PVC.

blue orange green brown slate, pair colour code, lots of 25 pair groups

@brianmc7719

4 жыл бұрын

While running backwards you"ll vomit.... White, Red, Black, Yellow, Violet. 🤣

@ShainAndrews

3 жыл бұрын

All wire wrapped... Still have my gun...

@phoneticau

3 жыл бұрын

@@brianmc7719 UK/Au the mate wires are white yellow black violet red but use 20 pair groupings

Bet they wish they had fiber...Lol

Bell Atlantic, Ameritech Cellular, and GT&E all merged together to form VERIZON. Now in many areas VERIZON sold off it's Landline Business to other telephone companies: CENTURY LINK, FRONTIER, and other independents. VERIZON LANDLINE is mainly in NEW YORK and the NORTHEAST. Even AT&T has sold off their LANDLINE service in some other states too to FRONTIER AND CENTURY LINK.

They said 208 cables had to get pulled. What pair count were those cables?

@ITCoffeeGeek

2 ай бұрын

17:44 my question was answered. 2400 pairs in each cable