<html theme="default-light" iconset="color"><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
</head><body text="#000000">Interesting!<br>
<br>
The scene in the video (at 1:45) showing the moment of cutover to dial
service clearly shows the frames of a No. 5 Crossbar office. The Bell
System invested heavily in No. 5 Crossbar in the early 50's as <span
style="font-weight: bold;">the</span> way to bring dial service to its
suburban territories. Since Bell franchises included large metropolitan
areas, Bell's earlier dial switchgear (Panel, No 1 Crossbar) was
oriented towards very large scale central office installations (think:
NYC, Boston/Cambridge...). Step-by-step (Strowger switch) technology
sufficed for small rural offices (and private branch exchanges—PBX's),
but Bell never invested in developing it for larger-scale deployment
like General Telephone did—the L.A. area being the prime example
(General Telephone, and other large "independents", didn't have access
to the Bell System's panel and crossbar technologies).<br>
<br>
So in Bell territory, the in-between, suburban-sized offices remained
manual until No. 5 Crossbar came out (with the Bell System making a huge
push after the Korean War), aimed at offices with 10K or 20K subscriber
lines and supporting a mix of intra-office and inter-office calls.
(Panel and No. 1 Crossbar were designed around the assumption that, in a
city, you were more likely to be dialing a number in a different
exchange code than you were one in your own exchange code. In the
suburbs, the assumption was a greater percentage of calls would be
intra-office, and the design of No. 5 Crossbar optimized for that.)<br>
<br>
If I'm remembering correctly,because of its size and proximity to
Boston, Belmont was one of the first towns in New England Telephone
territory (if not <span style="font-style: italic;">the</span> first) to
get a No. 5 Crossbar. <br>
<br>
Ken Pogran<br>
<br>
<span>John Rudy via LCTG wrote on 4/9/25 8:42 AM:</span><br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:012d01dba94c$e1fe2720$a5fa7560$@comcast.net"
style="word-wrap:break-word">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=windows-1252">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]-->
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#467886;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
<div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=how+to+use+a+dial+phone+1954&mid=7F1DA87AF463381268157F1DA87AF46338126815&FORM=VIRE"
moz-do-not-send="true">Bing Videos</a><o:p></o:p></p><p
class="MsoNormal">This is pretty amazing<o:p></o:p></p><p
class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none">John
Rudy</span><br>
</p></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body></html>