A reunion of Maine switchboard operators highlights the challenges of making a phone call more than 50 years ago and what it was like to handle... Telephone operators of another era gather to ...

Eventually to become affectionately known as “Old Betsy,” a Western Electric TBX-556A telephone switchboard went into service in 1958 in West Milford Town Hall to facilitate communication in the ...

Yongsan, South Korea, April 1987: Operators sit side-by-side at the Stromberg-Carlson switchboard at Yongsan, South Korea, connecting local calls. The switchboard was disconnected in April 1987 and ...

The rise of generative AI — and ChatGPT in particular — has raised a lot of alarm bells in some industries worried that the technology could make many humans’ jobs obsolete. And those concerns are ...

Mike Lazer-Walker has repurposed a 1927 Western Electric 551-A switchboard into a hectic game that tasks players with quickly learning the obsolete job. “Hello, Operator!,” although controlled by a ...

Before automation and technology took over, people held some pretty fascinating (and, let’s be honest, slightly bizarre) jobs. From switchboard operators plugging in calls to knocker-uppers rapping on ...

Before smartphones, landline telephones were the way most people kept in touch. And until direct dialing became common, a switchboard operator's assistance was often needed to help with long-distance ...