The sad thing here is that every one of these people in this video were probably making a decent salary, had medical benefits, probably had a home, and in most cases all on one salary.

@wegder

3 ай бұрын

by 1958, 75% of Americans had some form of health coverage. Still, private insurance remained unaffordable or simply unavailable to many, including the poor, the unemployed, and the elderly. Before 1965, only half of seniors had health care coverage, and they paid three times as much as younger adults, while having lower incomes

@BB-dh6sw

2 ай бұрын

Back then jobs were plentiful and most paid for health insurance, for anyone, Rich or poor.

@TechTrainer230

2 ай бұрын

It was a great job great pay and benefits

@QuadMochaMatti

Ай бұрын

Yeah, we get it, dood. In response to Kim Fowley's question of, "Is America Dead?" The answer is most assuredly yes; it's been so for decades.

As a current aerial lineman you'd be surprised to know that I come across equipment on the poles that was installed back when this movie was made! Much of the systems are still carrying signals!! We go to ATT in the morning to get our cable and hardware and the stock room of today doesn't look too different! Good engineering stands up to the test time.

@Weesel71

2 жыл бұрын

That final sentence is GOLD. Ya listening, millenials?

@Rick1959

2 жыл бұрын

@@Weesel71 Here hear!!

@robinreiley1828

2 жыл бұрын

Have you run across the wire with cloth insulation and Powdered Arsenic inside to keep mice from chewing on them?

@commentatron

2 жыл бұрын

@@Weesel71 But, but, it's not the millennial's fault. It's the radical boomer professors that have indoctrinated them into godless, self-loathing anti-capitalists.

@Weesel71

2 жыл бұрын

@@commentatron Yes, I'll agree with that to a point. I worked with a certain bunch hired right out of college: knew everything there was, is, and will be. Wouldn't talk with more experience people and just ran amok. Management though it was "progressive." I chose to retire.

My best friend is 92 and was an engineer for AT&t Bell system during these times. He gets a thrill watching these old videos. He recognizes lots of people and locations. Thanks for posting.

@dallascowboy2221

4 ай бұрын

I’m not that old but I was trained on all of this equipment in the army ❤

Western Electric used to make the best phones. They were practically indestructible.

@vanguard9067

6 ай бұрын

So very true. Even if you had to rent them.

And in 1984 it was all destroyed. Thank you _so_ much, Department of Justice. (Former Bell Labs employee who was there for Divestiture. Yeah, I'm bitter.)

@bobgarr6246

4 жыл бұрын

All because others wanted a bigger share of the pie. A pie I might add that " others " did not bake ! I personally believe the breakup was a bad idea. Why isn't the government sticking it's filthy nose into the same today with Microsoft, Apple, Verizon and cable providers, not to mention Netflix and Amazon ? Well we all know the answer to that $$$$$$$$$$$

@TheOtherBill

4 жыл бұрын

I'm with you, John. Same for me.

@skeets6060

4 жыл бұрын

I miss working in the big offices like Grant street in Pittsburgh, but as an installer we went where the work was, best job I ever had

@brucejones2354

4 жыл бұрын

Personally, I think it was the Stupidest thing ever done.

@edwardpate6128

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed, thanks Judge Green! For nothing!

Bell Labs in NJ was the leading developer of communications equipment in the country and probably the entire world!!!

Don't ya just wish we all could go back to those good old days. When we really were the very best. God I miss those days. Now, it's just corruption, greed, and screw the customer......all just money, the hell with quality and care. My God I miss those day's. I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH, THANKS FOR POSTING. SO ENJOYABLE.!!! BLESS YOU. !!!

I worked 36 years at telco. Started at PNWB and retired the year CenturyLink took over. The break up in '84 destroyed the best communication system in the world. Best people, equipment, maintenance and repair. Miss the good old days when USA produced, hired and supported business and employees.

@Rick1959

2 жыл бұрын

My father worked for SNET (Southern New England Telephone - Connecticut)from 1955-1986 and said the same thing at the time...Funny how politicians no longer have the will to break up big corporations these days...Although I feel that the breakup of AT&T was a very bad idea.....

@StreetNickel

2 жыл бұрын

Politicians don't care about us

@DutchCrunch333

2 жыл бұрын

Yep. All planned. Destruction of the US

@joshschoonover6429

2 жыл бұрын

@@Rick1959 To think that AT&T essentially managed to reassemble itself, yet now offers nowhere near the quality of service it once did.

@JasonWeaver777

Жыл бұрын

I agree that breaking up the system was it's downfall. So sad.

The pegs in the bins on the conveyer belts are freaking brilliant.

@kreuner11

10 ай бұрын

that is true ingenuity

I started in 1970 for Western Electric. Best job I ever had. I had to be able to run cable program computers and use a typewriter climb poles and install phones quite a career

@robertcuminale1212

Жыл бұрын

I started with Southern Bell in Miami in 1969. I left for New York City to work as an installer in the World Trade Center in 1971. Four years in the Navy as a central office and power plant technician 1971-1975. I came back to New York Telephoneand left in 1979 for Southern Bell in Charlotte, NC. About 3/4 of the Systems Technicians were from Miami. I knew about 1/2 of them. Some I went to high school with. 1984 went to AT&T after the split. It was a terrible experience. Younger techs trying survive all the layoffs. Older useless ones doing nothing productive. They'd delay working on a job until just before the due date complain to the boss and the younger ones did their jobs for them. Yet the younger ones got laid off. I survived. I set up a business doing what I'd done at AT&T but also was the salesman, technician, manager, and janitor. My assigned accounts went with me. I made sure to not even tell them I was being laid off and went to them after I was off AT&T's payroll. AT&T lost thousands of existing accounts and a lot of future sales and work because of it's technicians. The systems technicians took the business customers. Another company took all the central office maintenance and upgrade work all over the US. People were angry. The company treated people badly at the end. Trying to fire people so they wouldn't get their pensions. On October 31, 1985 about 40 in my section were being laid off. We were told to report to a conference room and wait for a telephone call. An HR manager called and told us how to fill out our separation package. Then we were told to leave our keys and employee passes on the desk and leave. One fortunate technician got laid off on that Friday was rehired by Bell South on Monday. It was all prearranged. He took the $40,000 severance and kept it. AT&T tried to take the money back but he had nastier lawyers. I never heard from the company until my vested pension was due. By that time my division was owned by Reuters/Thomson C in France. They offered a bigger sum if I took a lump sum. The CEO Charles Brown made millions of dollars on his stock options every time there was a lay off. He went to a meeting one day, didn't like the questions he was being asked, jumped in the jet leaving everyone who'd ridden there with him and quit.

I worked under the old bell system it was very strict work place. All of us employees were proud to be a part of it.

@davidh1927

2 жыл бұрын

Pride......seems like a thing of the past..

@brucejones2354

2 жыл бұрын

I heard a statement years ago that pretty much sums it up, " the extra mile is often a lonely and desolate place "! ! ! It's sad that this is so apropos in today's world. I think that taking pride in the quality of your workmanship is important!

@wrightmf

2 жыл бұрын

A friend who worked for Pacific Telephone (before Bell System breakup) said they followed procedures as if Moses brought them down from the mountain along with the 10 Commandments.

@boopro12

Жыл бұрын

@@davidh1927 Places like that still exist. I work for one. Sadly saving a dollar has become the priority, dont blame the younger generation. Pride in ones work is still here.

@robertcuminale1212

Жыл бұрын

@@wrightmf The Bell System Practices or "The BSPs. Everything you ever needed to know at the Bell companies were in the BSPs. How to fill forms, what forms to order, what form you needed to order forms, how to install any of the equipment, fill the toilet paper holders.

I must say I look back fondly on the Bell Telephone monopoly.

The Indianapolis plant closed in 1983/84....was a big shock to employment at the time

🎶 Those were the days, my friends. We thought they'd never end...🎶

Had a Western Electric plant in San Leandro, Ca. Many of the kids from the local high schools got jobs there right after graduation. Stayed there until they retired. Good pay and good conditions, too. You didn't get rich but you had a real middle class life. They made phones so strong and durable that you could beat somebody to death with it. Now a days if you hit somebody with a phone they only get an OWIE.

@paladro

4 жыл бұрын

ah yes, the days when you could beat a man to death with a phone and still make a call when you were done... my cockles are all aflutter

@kellycoleman715

4 жыл бұрын

Marston Davis I think my grandfather’s old, black telephone was made from lead. It protected his house from being blown away in a tornado.

@infinitecanadian

3 жыл бұрын

I would have loved to have seen the post-war boom.

@robvancamp2781

3 жыл бұрын

Well...they get an owie, you get to drop a grand on a new phone...and a criminal record...

@Direct.injection212

3 жыл бұрын

Planned obsolescence

I have a yellow DIAL phone (WE 500) sitting on my desk... FULLY operational, and connected through VOIP. When I get a call, I really FEEL like I have had one. Memories are sweet.

Why can't people speak like this anymore? Clearly. No slang. Just clear soothing tone.

Some people used 'phone booths' for urinals. I worked Detroit area 1974 to 1982. They had contract cleaners that hosed them out from time-to-time. Brings back happy memories.

@dc10fomin65

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, good old Detroit in early 90's I was there searching for cell sites for G1 wireless , we had to take off the AT & T logo from our cars because people were hitting our cars on purpose then sue for medical claims!

Was a long distance operator for Pacific Bell in San Diego University Toll 1964-1968. Still close friends with two girls I met there. We get together and tell the old stories that make us laugh every time. We agree that the high expectations the company had of us gave us the work ethic that we continue at age 76 to still have. They expected the best.

@robertcuminale1212

Жыл бұрын

They expected the best because they were the best. I remember seeing work done by other phone companies and it didn't compare in sturdiness and appearance. We may have taken a little longer to do somethings but we had low service failures. As a repairman I mostly worked maintenance. Standards slipped in the 1970s and it showed. Repairman were finishing improperly done work and trouble reports climbed. They wouldn't put more of us into repair so we worked a lot of overtime. I worked 23-26 hours overtime every week. I made a lot of money and when I was laid off in 1985 I had no mortgage and a lot saved.

Great movie! My grandfather worked for Western Electric for forty years, retiring in 1962. He was proud of his position there, where he was a supervisor. It provided a good living and much prestige. Thanks for posting.

@mikeneuburger3989

2 жыл бұрын

My grandfather worked for Western Electric at the Hawthorne Works as an engineer in Chicago in the early 1950’s. He was with AT&T until sometime in the late 80’s. He would have been 97 this year.

Oh the irony of watching this video on my smartphone. I swear, on one of the shots of the handset manufacturing, I heard my phone shout, "Grandpa!??"

All the electronic communications devices we take for granted now, are in existence because we are standing on the shoulders of the giants.

@gregoryclemen1870

2 жыл бұрын

I do not think that most people realize that a lot of our electronic technology came from "BELL LABS'. high fidelity sound equipment, stereo sound systems that was used in the movie houses, and later found in our homes. the transistor was developed by bell labs. there was splinter groups that started "FAICHILD TRANSISTOR CO." that developed the integrated circuit, and "INTEL" that developed the processors that is found in our computer systems of today. these people were given the opportunity to work in a "THINK TANK" atmosphere where management let their imagination run wild!!!!! they had to design it , build it, and make it work!!!!

@MichaelWallace-oq3wd

Жыл бұрын

@@gregoryclemen1870 Yes! you're very correct Without the Bell system cell phones wouldn't be a thing as of today! The Bell System created a lot of interesting stuff that we still use today, And they created problems that nobody else ever thought of before.

@gregoryclemen1870

Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd ,I watched a documentary on" bell labs" years ago. as I watched it , my jaw slowly dropped, I had no idea what they did, like the electronics that supported the "TELSTAR SATELLITE", surround sound technology, I could go on and on about what they accomplished!!!.

@MichaelWallace-oq3wd

Жыл бұрын

@@gregoryclemen1870 you are a great man that understands the bell system! ❤️

@gregoryclemen1870

Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelWallace-oq3wd , I have a strong background in electrical/ electronics, so I have a real interest in this stuff!!!!.

My first Bell assignment was as a repairman in 1970 @ Kansas Street in Hackensack, NJ. My first 1st liner (foreman) was Eddie Goetzel who taught me not only the technical side of the business but how to deal with people when their service was down.

@dwightpowell6673

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a German descent.

In the sixties every small town had a huge block building, three stories tall and one door for employees. Housed the switch and operators who were available 24/7! Things have changed a lot in my lifetime. Color tv and real silver coins....oh and the phone was mounted to the wall. Roaming was a 25' cord. LMAO

@michaelmccarthy4615

4 жыл бұрын

Those old buildings still exist. Look around...they are low profile today. Now full of servers, fiber optics, internet nodes. Cables and wires. Back up generators. Cooling systems. Lots of equipment still needs to be kept somewhere....

@paladro

4 жыл бұрын

@@michaelmccarthy4615 'urban explorer' (urbex) channels is what you want... lots brave gopro's giving you an inside look at these relics from days gone by. some the soviet bloc buildings are a trip to see, especially if you grew up with the cold war cloud.

@NortelGeek

3 жыл бұрын

There are still a handful of operators left (Not counting TDD--I'm sure there are many who specialize.) but I'm from the last generation to work in that career. I started in 1999 as a directory assistance operator for BellSouth, and in 2002, I was moved to Toll and Assistance. In 2004, I was promoted to SA. Every month in 2006/2007, more and more were let go until there were only 25 of us. It was a good job--the pay wasn't great, but the benefits were the best ever.

@JDAbelRN

3 жыл бұрын

A building as you describe was an Ohio Bell building, Coshocton, Ohio, probably built in late Fifties for a population of 15,000. The building still exists, and repurposed, I believe as A Doctor's office. I really don't think an atomic bomb could destroy it.

Thanks for posting. Worked at Western Electric HQ in Pittsburgh and was assigned to several different switching offices to run cable. It was during the summer of 1968 when a Junior at Pitt. Was thrilled to see the photos of the switching offices and those rolling ladders that I climbed everyday. At the top of the relay panels were troughs where new cable was feed from the work floor up to the troughs. It was my job to "tie in" the cables onto the existing stack that ran along the troughs. We tied them together using a weaving process and special knots. The work area was approximately seven feet off the floor and required youth and agility to traverse. The cables were about an inch+ in diameter and were packed with hundreds of tiny sheathed copper wires which each carried phone calls. A one foot section weighed about 7 lbs. I know because I kept one under the front seat of my car as a billy club for self defense if necessary. I remember the guys, and we we all guys in that department then, who spent every shift doing the work of splicing all of the individual wires within those cables and attaching each wire to the correct terminal on a circuit board . They did this all day long either standing or sitting and back the to me their skills were amazing. I probably made 1.75/ hour which back then was very good for a summer job. Looking back I miss the simplicity of those days compared to the uncertainty and chaos of 2022.

@EricK-ig4ko

Жыл бұрын

Good to see a fellow Pittsburgher here. Thanks for your hard work and dedication during those years. I just moved to Pitt a year and a half ago but I love it here

Those was good old days in whole world.peaceful prosper for all with good neighbors and relations with them.todays youth cant immagine what was that

I still see splices that were done in the 50s. I have worked 25 years for a “baby bell” and work on lead cables carrying everything from POTS to high-cap circuits.

Glad that the Allentown,Pa. plant was mentioned. I started work there in the 70's, and had 11 years of service (off and on) before it was shut down. Over the years i had many different jobs there, and loved my job. I really miss working there to this day.

I work for Western Electric from 1963 February 3rd until I retired with 36 years service I work primarily on number one ESS, ETS, tsps, number for ESS electronic switching digital and number 5 SS fiber-optic switching. It was a great company to work for started out as Weston and then retired out of AT&T

...my late cousin worked for Western Electric for YEARS in NJ...

Good OLE' POTS, Boy those were the days!

@royd5323

4 жыл бұрын

Rob Tinsley wow there's a term I haven't heard in a long time, POTS

@americanspirit8932

3 жыл бұрын

@@royd5323 plain ordinary telephone service

it must have been wonderful in the USA in those days. i was born in 1955 so these people could be my parents. notice all the parts were made here. it must have been great.

@neonnoodle1169

Жыл бұрын

You can see how wonderful it was in movies like this. Sure, medical advancements are nice, and so is better technology, but anyone who thinks it’s better in the USA now than it was back then needs to have their head examined.

@AureliusR

Жыл бұрын

Nah, things were pretty shitty back then unless you were white & wealthy.

I miss those days! A time in America where everything just worked! And those that did these jobs received good pay to raise a family on!

@charlesmurphy1510

4 жыл бұрын

Edward Pate And everything was made in the USA by Americans. Not like the throw away Chinese junk of today.

@scotts.2624

4 жыл бұрын

@@charlesmurphy1510 How many times in Walscum were you faced with two similar products on the shelf. One cheap Chinese and one slightly more expensive American made? Which one did you buy? The U.S. consumer is the sole one at fault for the jobs leaving.

@royd5323

4 жыл бұрын

As a 20 yr former employee of BCTel 15 yrs ago, yes you could raise a family on the wages back

@robozstarrr8930

4 жыл бұрын

... & no H1B Visa bullshyt!

What a time to be alive. Great jobs for all, decent people with morals, America in its heyday!

@WN_Byers

4 жыл бұрын

Where you there? Or are you reliving falsified nostalgia

@erickrobertson7089

4 жыл бұрын

I think its the feeling of optimism we miss or dream about. Everything was "foward" looking, cars, homes, airplanes, rockets, modern conveineinces... It's in the architecture of the times. The future was not frightening or depressing but I'm sure they had their own fears and worries. "This too will pass."

@brosefmcman8264

2 жыл бұрын

@@WN_Byers I was there and it was the greatest time to be an American

@jonmurray5415

2 жыл бұрын

@@brosefmcman8264 It was if you were white, male, and protestant. It blew for everyone else.

@AureliusR

Жыл бұрын

@@lookylook570 Oh, so stating the truth gets your knickers in a knot? The US is a shit country.

My grandma, dad and brother worked for Wisconsin bell.

The different narration style of the decades is interesting.

18:40 In 1956 the idea of a transistorized musical tone could sound futuristic... Nowdays, there are still people who insist using the classic bell ring tone in their "smart phones"...........Nice film, thanks for share!

After working in this industry I really appreciate this video.

In the 1980s I worked on the Eastern Test Range for both RCA/PanAm was a Comm guy, did a bit of everything Inside Plant, we had a Stromberg Carlson 800 line XY switch from the 50s Ill never forget going into the switch room hearing the clicking and steping. Transfered to PAWs for OSP and the dive ops on the subcable. All Western Electric 1950s equipment Good times!

@michaelterrell

Жыл бұрын

I used to repair 1A2 systems at AM radio stations. early solid state systems would go berserk in strong RF fields. I was a freelance broadcast engineer, and I still have a pile of 40 series KTUs, some new, some used. I also used to buy defective Melco intercom adapters and repair them.

@13:47 Baltimore plant. I worked there until 1964.

@mikecowen6507

4 жыл бұрын

Doing what?

@michaelmccarthy4615

4 жыл бұрын

@@mikecowen6507 good question.... 64 was a while ago.

@johnbattista9519

4 жыл бұрын

He’s too old to remember, lol.. I was only 2 when he retired

@mikecowen6507

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnbattista9519 You're 2 up on me! Lol!

@jason60chev

4 жыл бұрын

Those people working on the assembly lines.......what happens to production, when they have to go take dump?

I love watching this, almost everything shown in this video I have worked with over the course of my Telephony career. Just about every bit of it is now obsolete, I miss those times when quality, reliability & craft mattered, I'm afraid they don't seem to matter as much today.

@jimdandy9671

4 жыл бұрын

Aso notice that the telephone system then, one of the most advanced in the world, was built by Americans what a concept!

@unacceptableonanon2655

4 жыл бұрын

@@jimdandy9671 Liked when he said they buy everything they need from 3000 American towns.

@mfbfreak

4 жыл бұрын

It's the downside of the free market. To stay competitive you have to lower your prices, and there's only so much lowering you can do before you have to reduce your quality. High quality is still very much available, but in general it's not affordable anymore to the average consumer.

@DJ-Brownie-UK

2 жыл бұрын

how proud you must be destroying other countries and its natives for all that rare copper ore needed for thousands of tonnes of copper wire we need

@DJ-Brownie-UK

2 жыл бұрын

you must of been aware you were part of the same gang , and complicit

While there are certainly downsides to a monopoly, ATT, Western Electric and Bell Labs had a lot of positives. Bell Labs developed some of the most important ideas and technologies of the 20th century. and the system was built for rock solid dependability, corners were just not cut. Now a company would shave every possible penny it could at the expense of reliability and longevity, all in the name of "shareholder value"

@AureliusR

Жыл бұрын

That's capitalism for you.

@jfbeam

Жыл бұрын

Also, "planned obsolescence". Gotta get 'em to constantly buy the new shiny.

@johndoe-ss9bz

Жыл бұрын

@@AureliusR ::To day it's all about Greed-Breed Bonuses for the CEO's.

I love these films, cars and technology of a bygone era, amazing how far we have come in the past 125 years.

@escapefelicity2913

4 жыл бұрын

Yep, Americans used to make things.

@sd31263

4 жыл бұрын

@@escapefelicity2913 Yeah, until American corporations, assisted by Republican tax policies, shipped all of our manufacturing jobs overseas.

@SFVnative

4 жыл бұрын

Yet even before computers you can see that all that mechanical stuff took genius intelligence.

@rapman5363

3 жыл бұрын

@@sd31263 and Democratic policies made themselves rich by colluding with communist/socialist countries and backdoor deals with family members.

@FabFunty

3 жыл бұрын

@@rapman5363 The good old "but the other ones did..." that's why nothing happened the last 50 years at least not for working class people . You're hating everything that has social in it's name but are on the best way to only have a one party system like in those states you wholeheartedly hate. Some already made the first steps into this direction. If they didn't or can't win a free and fair election they now can and I bet they would just declare the will of the people invalid. Obviously many people in your country don't like and have no clue of democracy .

LOVE the music throughout the entire fil - perfect for this type of educational broadcasting!

@Weesel71

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, but it is delightfully corny at the same time.

@david203

2 жыл бұрын

The composer must have loved this project--especially the leitmotif for the snaking copper tubes!

@jupitercyclops6521

2 жыл бұрын

Ikr? As I watch all the jobs that once were via the telephony industry, I couldn't help but think of all the jobs that once were in the music / film industry. Funny how they talked about all the companies across the nation that contributed. All that would cone from China now. What we've allowed our piticuans & wallstreet & bankers do to this country is a true shame

@david203

2 жыл бұрын

@@jupitercyclops6521 I assume by "the nation" that you refer to the USA. Actually, the loss of manufacturing jobs, as well as the obsolescence of jobs in general, is due to our choice of free-market capitalism instead of a planned economy. With no planning, countries that can provide the cheapest labor grow, while "developed" countries deteriorate. This is worsened by our prevalent attitude of sneering at science and ignoring the methods used in other countries in their much better educational systems. In a democracy the blame is on us, you and me, not on politicians, who are specifically chosen to represent all 330 million of us. Just as ancient Rome declined before it died, we are currently declining, and complaints will not stop it any more than academic debates stopped the decline of Rome.

I remember when I first hired on at Western's Hawthorne plant in the mid 60's. I was to just "check out" the plant, walk around some. Well I did and promptly got lost, I mean really turned around and lost! Finally had to ask how to get back to my location and job area. Which was lab work on the 756 and 757 PBX's. Note: The video really does not show the copper wire being drawn smaller in it's full effect. Watching the workers in REAL LIFE doing that job I have to hand it to them: Which is a job I would not want. A very important point that the video brought out was loyalty between Western Electric and its Workers. Doesn't seem like that exists any more - super glad I am retired.

@infinitecanadian

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for doing the job.

@williamjones4483

3 жыл бұрын

Lucky you. I was never a Bell System employee, but I was a fan of Ma Bell and her children. I had always considered the Hawthorne Works to be Western Electric's flagship factory. A huge disheartenment when I found out the Hawthorne Works plant had been sold and demolished and a shopping center built on that property. The tower @10:15 still exists as far as I can tell. It was not demolished with the plant. I am from Indianapolis and we had the Indianapolis Works where residential phones were made. That building still exists. Overall however, very little of the former Bell System is left. I found a Western Electric made Bell System payphone for sale and I bought that for a hefty sum. History and nostalgia of better times.

@tomherd4179

3 жыл бұрын

@@williamjones4483 Thanks for the information - I to would have rather seen it re-purposed and left intact.. I am sure they needed yet another shopping center. Sorry ti took a while to respond, having some eye issues.

@williamjones4483

3 жыл бұрын

@@tomherd4179 That's quite alright. It's my understanding that at its peak the Hawthorne Works employed approximately 45,000 people. That's an awesome amount of workforce for just one facility.

@TestTubeBabySpy

3 жыл бұрын

I had the opportunity to work at the Rod and Wire Mill at the former Hawthorne Works. It was bought from Western Electric in 1983 and ran until 2008 where it was demolished. I did a video about its history. Freeport McMoRan operated it at the end of its life. And we ALL had a certain pride and loyalty working at this mill. So sad it’s gone now.

I, as one, remember that wooden box laying on the desk, would have been mounted on my grandparents wall and was a ten-party line. The video was made in 1956....with in five years before that time they were making the change over to the new hand sets with the dials, and refrigerators were coming out new then also, I also remember my grandparents had a ice-box first. I was born in 1943 lots of new and different things going on in those days. Michael said that. Lol

This video was beautiful reminder to millennials what was telephone looks used then before cellphones and smartphones

@craig0769

Жыл бұрын

I am a millennial and we used these phones when we were kids. Stop it with the millennial BS.

Amazon probably learned a thing or two about the logistics of how to process and ship orders from Western Electric!

In 1999 I purchased approximately 50 of the large steel racks shown in this film from a salvage yard to build my off-grid home in Arizona. I think I paid around $500 for the entire lot. They were perfect building materials… double wall 12 gauge steel, 11.5 feet tall, 24 - 54 inches wide and 6.5 inches deep (perfect for R30 insulation). To create the exterior walls, I poured a slab foundation with J-bolts placed around the perimeter and then, one by one, we stood the racks up and bolted them down to the foundation and to each other to create the exterior walls. We then sheathed the entire outside of the steel structure with 1/2 plywood and stuccoed it. To create rooms and a loft inside the house, I stacked racks on top of each other then laid some across use as floor joists for the loft above. The building process was creative fun… like playing with a huge Erector set! I think of myself as the fourth little piggy in a modernized version of “The Three Little Pigs.” My house is super strong… no “Big Bad Wolf” of a storm is going to blow my little house down! The house runs on solar power and rainwater is harvested from the metal roof and stored in an above ground water cistern. I am thrilled to finally see how these racks were actually used in our country’s telephony history. Thank you for posting this treasure.

@kreuner11

10 ай бұрын

steel racks? as in phone line distribution frames?

Thanks for reminding us of our past with these uploads ☺️

@JDAbelRN

3 жыл бұрын

I really enjoy these old films showing the complicated and technical equipment Americans manufactured all across the nation. I have an old beige desk phone given to me for Christmas 1965 and I guarantee that phone would work if hooked into a hard line in an older house with compatible wiring. I do so much am saddened that we have very few good paying, some union, jobs in USA anymore.

Back when large corporations were respectable and not just making money for the CEO and shareholders at the expense of everyone and everything else. Western Electric/Bell Labs really paved the way to better communications even though none of those old methods are really being used much if any now. Likely the most important of all, the transistor.

@joshschoonover6429

2 жыл бұрын

Bell Labs really did help lay the foundation for the modern era. They're also responsible for the laser and fiber optic cable, which provide the critical high-bandwidth links that join the whole world together.

I started working for Western Electric as an installer in Wichita Falls, TX March 1968. Retired from AVAYA and always enjoyed my different jobs. Got to see a lot of the good ol" USA from all of the traveling to different locations.

It amazes me the sheer quantity of human beings that were employed in local factories. Those manufacturing jobs are now gone... almost all products sourced from overseas to reduce costs.

Both my parents worked for Western Electric. My father was a QC Engineer and my mother was an assembler. My father worked at Fullerton Ave. and Hawthore in Chicag, Tonnawanda near Buffalo, NY and lastly at the then new plant in Omaha, NE.

This is awesome! I’ve been in the telecommunications industry since 1981. It’s amazing I still have a job. Technology has changed so much over the years. Lucky to be working in both a TDM and a IP environment.

When I was growing up in the city in the sixties me and my friends would watch the olive green Wisconsin telephone trucks to fix the telephone poles the worker would climb the poles with cleats on their shoes and they had tool belt around there waists

More in-depth than I expected, impressive!

This is fascinating, preservation of these old films is so important

My Dad worked for Western Electric/Bell System from the early 50s to the late 80s. He has so many crazy stories 😄 Edit: He was an installer, one of the "Marines of Western Electric" 🤩

@douiejordan7990

5 ай бұрын

So was my dad W.E. from 1959 to 1983 travel All over the U.S.

AT&T always produced well photographed, splendidly written info-mercials. They were really good at this and subtly boasting their universal service concept.

@egongefferie9194

2 жыл бұрын

Today they control the human minds ,ohh thats so great .

@booklover6753

2 жыл бұрын

@@egongefferie9194 Algorithms used in social media do that.

Many good things, but also some foreshadowing of the bad things that were to come. Note the pace of work in parts of the telephone instrument plants. The line is running so fast people are barely keeping up. That pace would suck the life out of you if you had to do it for very long. Repetitive work, high speeds, people used like machines. One thing that was largely developed at Hawthorne was Statistical Process Control. That methodology was so good for tuning machines that they decided to see if people could be managed that way. My wife was a long distance operator at PNB in the 60's when this experiment was in full swing. Probably the most degrading and demoralizing work environment she ever saw. For decades we saw managers that were trained this way doing damage in other companies. The best of people, but they could make horrible mistakes just like anybody else.

Bell Labs, Western Electric, New York telephone, some of the biggest best and most intelligent individuals in the world!

@egongefferie9194

2 жыл бұрын

Brought in from Germany dont forget !

@booklover6753

2 жыл бұрын

@@egongefferie9194 Most Bell lab technicians were not German.

I noticed the pre-cursor to a semiconductor wafer diffusion furnace in this ( the glowing glass tube). I spent 2 years as a student playing with them in a 4 inch and 6 inch fan in the 80s.

A quaint look at the old days of Telephony & the many people involved in it's maintenance. ☎️

Great videos! I worked for S.W.B.T from March 1979 to March 2009. What memories. It was a great time in the telecommunications biz and I am proud to have been a part of it.. thank you

This really brings back memories. My dad worked for Cincinnati Bell for 40 years. I remember seeing a lot of this equipment at the shop where he worked. Thanks for posting.

@gregoryclemen1870

2 жыл бұрын

my great uncle worked for cincinnati bell, he was the first "ROAD CREW" that was hired by the company. my dad got his tools that was issued by the phone company when he passed away in 1957, now that my dad has passed away ( 2009) ,I have those tools now!!!

It's funny how in the 50's they were doing most of the things modern companies are trying for now. Paper/renewable packaging (and I know that's because the plastics needed hadn't been invented yet). Recycling waste, refurbishing old products, etc etc..

@neonnoodle1169

Жыл бұрын

This is a great point. We’ve truly lost our way in the past 40 or so years.

I started with New York Tel and after 30 years, I still miss those days and all the people I had the pleasure to know and work with.

@dwightpowell6673

2 жыл бұрын

I took the test to gain employment with New York Telephone.... didn't get the job.

they had such great music in these old films

Cool old flick. I can't help but be reminded of Lily tomlin's character that always said where the phone company we don't care.

@Jim-ie6uf

4 жыл бұрын

John Kern one ringydingy, two ringydingy!

@Sennmut

4 жыл бұрын

My mom was an operator. Cool to see what the equipment was like way back then.

@armstronggeorge1533

4 жыл бұрын

All they care about today is making money .

@georgiasmith64

4 жыл бұрын

Earnistine 😄

@kevinbertke5677

4 жыл бұрын

Gracious good afternoon

Loved the video. My Father worked for Western Electric from 1959 to 1984. He was an installer and tear outs. I didn't know that there were just a small number of installers, explains why he always traveled across the states a lot. Last working in FL. Then last couple years at our local Bell office. They retired him when he wasn't going to take no computer training. He knew a lot of people from W.E. he loved his job.

@PeriscopeFilm

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment, fantastic. Glad you found the film.

I have been in the AT&T building in downtown Kalamazoo, MI several times for training. The building has 7 floors but only the top 2 floors have offices. The first 5 floors plus basement & sub-basement are packed with telephone switching equipment including old rotary dial switching systems for people who still didn't want to pay the $2-$3 for tone dialing. Being inside that place and looking around you can't help but to marvel at the unimaginable number of wires and fiber optic strands running throughout that place. A lot of it has been added over the years, so much so that the cost must be astronomical to build, equip and run all those different lines all at once today.

@dalemtb1199

2 жыл бұрын

Small world bro. My dad spent about 30 years doing installation and repair for Michigan Bell. Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. He left in early 80s. I did almost 20 years mostly on 5ess in Naperville Illinois ending in 99.

About 15 years ago, my youngest brother took his kids to visit our parents. While they were talking, the kids went off exploring and found a rotary dial phone in the living room. They came out and asked my brother to come and look at what they had found. When he was shown the phone his kids asked " what is that"? When he told them it was a phone they responded " we know, but how do you use it "? Made me laugh a bit!

@1940limited

4 жыл бұрын

I still have a rotary dial phone in my house for old time's sake. It works great. I wonder when its analog signal will become obsolete and that will be the end of it. My local garage where I get the cars serviced still has a rotary dial wall phone. Also, the phones I'm talking about here are Western Electric. One's a 300, the othe a 500. Western Electric made the best phones.

@markthompson4225

4 жыл бұрын

look up videos with kids trying to figure it out on their own. Completely hilarious!

This makes me feel small, such an enormous process, and it worked and evolved.

Still have my Rotary on the Wall..

Former CO tech for Sprint. All this stuff was still around in the early 2000s. Walking around in the old main CO building was sort of melancholy, you could feel the decades weighing on you there. Mostly abandoned rooms nobody ever went in anymore but desks and bulletin boards with 30 year old paperwork still tacked up. There were literally tons of 25 pair cables in the runs that had been retired for years that contractors came in and tore out. Had to wonder about the guys who'd installed it all.

Mom and Dad both worked for Western Electric. Good place to work. Happy memories.

@Nunofurdambiznez

4 жыл бұрын

I worked for W.E. back in the 70s.. was one of the best jobs I ever had!

I have been at Bell Canada now for 21 years. I started on I&R in 2001 with a KS Meter providing dialtone and 2nd pair lines for 56k modems. Transferred to Cable Repair in 2016 and to this day still work on old air systems and paper cables in lead sleeves. People have no idea how much of thier network still runs in this bullet proof technology to this day. Love my career and wouldn't change it for the world. Best video to date that I have seen history wise. Makes me smile to see most of this stuff still running to this day.

@jfbeam

Жыл бұрын

Not exactly bullet proof... I've seen hundreds of miles of that stuff ruined because a single pump failed. (and even more where the "unnecessary pump" was turned off.) These days, twisted pair is a dying technology.

@EvertG8086

6 ай бұрын

@@jfbeamEthernet is still holding strong.

@jfbeam

6 ай бұрын

@@EvertG8086We're talking about TOTALLY different technology. Twisted pair ethernet has a limit of 100m (or less), so it rarely runs anywhere outside buildings. ('tho people do link close buildings - a house and garage, for example. but then grounding issues can pop up.) You don't run ethernet across 50+ pair telco trunks. Ethernet beyond that isn't twisted pair; it's fiber.

I was an I&R guy in DC and Baltimore, C&P/Bell Atlantic/Verizon. I passed the test for COT and went to Special Services in DC. I recognize many of the parts in this film.

About 25 minutes in I started to feel at home with all that Crossbar equipment being installed.

I started in the central office in 1971. All those relay switches were still in use well into the 80s,when thy replaced them with digital switches.

@MrScottie68

4 жыл бұрын

I remember going on a class trip to the local telephone building in the early 1980’s and watching all the switches moving and clicking every time calls were placed. It was really fascinating.

@2:54 I was an installer at the Kansas St, Hackensack garage in the 90s. started with Bell in the 70s and ended with Avaya in 2000. What a ride!!

@MrJruta

3 жыл бұрын

Damn! I lived right on Cleveland street! I saw that Kansas at sign in the video. Very cool

I remember that in 1956, a call from San Francisco to Chicago was an "affordable" $12.00 for the first 3 minutes, then $4.00 for each additional minute! Whenever you got a long distance call...it usually meant someone had died.

@bloqk16

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah! That $12 could be equal to a day's pay back then. Long distance phone calls of that era were VERY expensive. References of that can be seen/heard in TV shows and movies of that era; where in the scenes the audience would hear an urgency in a person's voice to inform someone of the phone call being _long-distance,_ which meant the phone call had to be short. Even by the early 1990s the phone calls were still expensive. A payphone call from San Francisco to Los Angeles would be 90 cents for three minutes.

When America was working....Maybe not perfectly, yet far better than we've become...

Now retired after 50y has e telephone engineer my first job with plessey telecom was installing strowger exchange’s after 10y I left and joined the G.P.O. has a cable jointer after doing most other jobs i went in for promotion and got the job testing most of the poles in my area about 11.000 after 30y the has been a lot of changes when a left fibre to home was replacing copper watching this film has brought back memories especially the exchange bit has I have done most of the work seen in film footage

@kevincrosby1760

2 жыл бұрын

The young folks will never experience the joys of large 1A2 installations, trying to track down the shorted A-lead.

Pulp, pic, lead, fibre, drop. Worked with all of it. Proud to see it up on the poles. Now it's just stung up with no regards for quality.

fascinating to see the scope and history of telephony. its like western union corporation was like the google data centre of its day. thx for the upload!

Thank God for the hard working and stalwart men of Western Electric.

@sd31263

4 жыл бұрын

You do realize Western Electric no longer exists, right?

Really good video !!! BTW There are a few reasons why lead sheath cables are/we're used. Corrosion resistance is one., harsh environments is another. But mainly they are used for safety and fault protection. Whatever the inner conductor or conductors are used for ( power distribution, signals, control etc ) the outer lead sheath is connected to ground thru a monitoring and indication circuit. In the event of damage or leakage of the inner conductor to ground, ( the sheath) the lead sheath will have that conductors voltage enter it and trip relays in the lead sheath protective circuit. This will usually result in a trip being sent to whatever breakers are feeding and supplying current to that cable. This will ensure that no damage is done to the cables, their associated equipment and prevent injury to anyone working on stated equipment. As a protective device lead sheath cables were very valuable, efficient and straightforward in their simplicity and effectiveness, and very reliable

@jaxcell

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the detail, I was wondering why Lead.

@joee8417

2 жыл бұрын

and rats, the lovely creatures that they are, wont eat them.

@robertcuminale1212

Жыл бұрын

@@joee8417 Rats and especially squirrels chewed holes in the lead cable. The insulation on the wires was made of of paper and the first rain capillary action would suck water into those cables. The wet paper would fall apart and the whole cable would be ruined 6 feet into the sheath.

@AureliusR

Жыл бұрын

Steel does a better job in all respects.

I still have a phone that has Mfg by Western Electric and Property of Northwestern Bell Telephone on it.

American manufactoring from the late 1800's and more or less 100 years on is a miracle. The education, technical skills, engineering, design, the entire workforce, the list goes on and on...... the magnitude should leave everybody on Planet Earth in awe. In order to build a manufactoring plant...you need manufactoring plants to begin with for building conveyer belts, machinery, tools, buildings, roads. The scale is enormous and put all other countries into perspective. The advanced technical level you find in American manufactoring from early on going forward would also leave everybody with an unerasable impression. Perhaps the United States of America was 10, 20 or 30 years ahead of your own country. Perhaps even 70, 80 or 100 years ahead. Take a look at the manufactoring history of your own country and compare. While you're at it and have skimmed through Periscope's archive, go and have a look at AT&T's Archive, also available here on KZread. There's a lot from Bell's Telephone, Bell's Lab and will give an insight with the technological advancements and innovations from the time. I can't get enough of these film strips. Thanks for this one PeriscopeFilm.

@PeriscopeFilm

3 жыл бұрын

You are so very welcome. Love our channel? Help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.

@neonnoodle1169

Жыл бұрын

Yep… We definitely had all of that. And then we gave it away and shut it down.

thanks for preserving those old films ! ! !

@PeriscopeFilm

Жыл бұрын

Welcome! Please subscribe and consider joining our efforts via Patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm

I worked at Minneapolis service center from the mid 70's up until the end! Best job I ever had good pay, benefits, In 84' I stayed and helped receive and pack phones and equipment, that summer I kept track of numbers of returned phone sets before I left had a total of 850,000 telephones returned! Some folks took advantage of relocating to the Omaha center selling their homes and moving young familys to find a shut down a year later!

I was hired into the “fast track to management program” and i was trained by employees who started their careers in the 1940’s and 1950’s. i too since retired. i designed and built the computer systems to configure an office, then to price the office, and build spec sheets for customs when AT&T shipped equipment to foreign countries. last assignment I had was working on enhancements for law enforcement intercepting data on 4g!!!

@smncutler

3 жыл бұрын

What a journey.

@dwightpowell6673

2 жыл бұрын

I don't see any Black Americans in this film...were there any black colleagues other than the Janitors in your plant?

I worked at the Western Electric in Norcross, GA back in the 70s and 80s.

So much work, so many people and equipment to service a device that only does one thing: a traditional telephone. A miracle in its way.

I was in charge of a WE PBX when I was stationed in Korea. It was sooo old and we didn’t have any tools 😊

Great look at an old manufacturing economy, and cool to see our parents and grandparents working it, though, like today, the secure jobs kept changing as the tech developed. Sad to see it gone in our new "virtual" economy, the young will never know the realistic world they missed.

When i was trained as a cable splicer in the U.S. Air Force back in 1979. The Air Force was still using some of this equipment on meany of the bases i was sent TDY too. Some of the cable's had lead sheath and paper insulted wires. Most of the equipment in the CO was old. Even some of our tools and test equipment was from that era. After 1981, The Air Force began to modernize all of it's telephone systems . Better training, New tools, New test equipment and new trucks. My old one was made in 1966. I was was issued a brand new 1981 Dodge Ram truck , Nice. We also got new heavy equipment that made our job much easy and safe. Thanks to the new president.

@trob0914

4 жыл бұрын

When I was @ Eielson AFB, the base phone "switch" was recycled from a US Navy destroyer, it had less than 20 outbound(to off base lines),however it had several more base to base bldg lines available!This was 1980-81.

I remember learning to repair the switch banks and they would bug the relays with toothpicks or scotch tape.