9:20 "This machinery will work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, clattering on year after year until new electrical discoveries replace it." They got that prediction right.
@apl175
7 жыл бұрын
Love the intro with Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary. Very British.
@stephenwilliams4501
9 жыл бұрын
What the GPO achieved with electro magnetic/mechanical switching, was nothing short of fantastic. Even then, though,they knew it would be replaced. Great old film!
@Gannett2011
11 жыл бұрын
5:32: I remember working in a drawing office in about 1990; on one side were the old boys with their drawing boards and well-used but trusy tools of the trade; on the other, the youngsters using the CAD systems. Yes, modernisation/progress was on its way, but I still enjoyed watching the draftsmen at work.
@anotherview9604
4 жыл бұрын
Now all they have to do is stop the scam calls.
@I967
7 жыл бұрын
This is very well shot and edited. Thank you for sharing.
@CheshireCat6639
10 ай бұрын
I started at the good ole GPO in 1975 too as an Operator, (Northwich Cheshire).. yes good old days I loved my job and carried on with BT. I am still friends with my 1st engineer boyfriend...he is 71 I am 65...we had fun in the (re)(Peter) station😉.. as I say as that is his name. Nothing like working on cords..computers didn't do it for me,but tech moves on..fantastic streams..I am engrossed watching..very clever mechanicals... .you engineers certainly knew your stuff that's for sure !
@LandondeeL
7 жыл бұрын
Rather arty and UFA-like for an educational film. Excellent!
@lenkapenka6976
7 жыл бұрын
Excellent movie, Uniselectors as they are known were used by the Post Office and British Telecom well into the 1980's!
@RegularExpression1
4 жыл бұрын
Slide rule. I’m old enough to remember using one.
@KENNETHUDUT
11 жыл бұрын
This is beautiful. Thank you.
@1sublime
7 жыл бұрын
fantastic! Wonderful to see the intro sequence of abstract visuals by ( the modernist sculptor) Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; vision of the sexy art deco future!
@Toothily
3 жыл бұрын
This has an eerie creepy mood about it somehow
@cantcomeupwithausern
Жыл бұрын
Well now I know why our touch tone phones in the 80s/90s had the pulse/tone button... Because at least some exchanges still had mechanical machines relying on those pulses. That's pretty crazy!
@jolex_nerd8132
5 ай бұрын
and some phone companies made you pay more for touchtone. the t/p switch was to save money.
@asteverino8569
4 жыл бұрын
That flute was hilarious. 😂
@jdrayton7224
2 жыл бұрын
I know LOL
@Shawn_White
11 жыл бұрын
Some of the first computers were made using surplus telephone exchange equipment.
@roddale8412
10 жыл бұрын
To Brent Fischer & Jamie P That electronic background hum you both mention adds an atmospheric spooky quality to this film. May be unintended, but it's very nice. Reminds me of Twin Peaks when Dale Cooper is dreaming, and is in the white lodge, the red room with the dancing dwarf. Black (White) Lodge - part 1
@heathstjohn6775
Жыл бұрын
Looks futuristic to me now.
@torch2k
7 жыл бұрын
"One two three four five ... one two three four five ..." Sounds like it should be in a Kraftwerk tune.
@endokrin7897
3 жыл бұрын
That's hilarious! Definitely worthy of a reply 4 years after your comment. 😉
@jananderson672
Жыл бұрын
Thought the same thing!
@kay110
11 жыл бұрын
Brings back so many memories! Thanks.
@MikePuorro
3 жыл бұрын
Calling Dr. Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard!
@TheJ602
3 жыл бұрын
The English accent has changed drastically
@roachtoasties
3 жыл бұрын
Cool. When is this newfangled dial service coming to my community?
@crumplezone1
7 жыл бұрын
Great Archive, I would be worried about wearing a head bulb with 240v swimming around my head lol
@john_smith1471
5 жыл бұрын
The headlamps used 50volts DC from the exchange supply, jack sockets were mounted on the equipment racks @8.16 you see the engineer plug in his lamp, soldering irons also used these 50v sockets.
@jonrutherford6852
2 жыл бұрын
I remember slide rules (and pencils, and eyeshades...) too. Fine documentary; oddly unsettling at times. That tin-whistle playing is...well...uh...
@JenGomes
6 жыл бұрын
The narrator sounds like Peter Lawford.
@tomservo5007
5 жыл бұрын
With a title like that, I expected more action from Mr. Dial.
@john_smith1471
7 жыл бұрын
6:00 nice roof top views of pre war 1933 London, but did this beautiful new telephone exchange survive the Luftwaffe air raids 8 years later? much of the area around St Paul's seen in the film suffered total destruction.
@martinbaines
5 жыл бұрын
Amazingly it did. It's the Faraday Building and is still there and still used by BT. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_Building
@plane_guy6051
Жыл бұрын
@@martinbaines -- The Faraday Building is in the south-west of the City of London. It was originally built as a sorting office for the General Post Office. In 1902 it was converted to a telephone exchange serving sections of London, and underwent several capacity expansions over the next several years. In 1933, a new section was added on the western side of the building, over doubling the size of the building as a whole. The section was built to house the International Telephone Exchange. The new section included a raised central portion with decorative turrets which was highly controversial at the time as it blocked the view of St. Paul's Cathedral from the Thames River. This led to a new law that restricted the height of new buildings in London to protect the sightlines of the Catherdral.
@Bandicoot803
Жыл бұрын
3:25 - Car burglar alarm going off.
@mandolinsara
11 жыл бұрын
Thanks for sharing!
@derekfrost1
12 жыл бұрын
Ahhhh, the good old days.
@ChannelOne-1
4 жыл бұрын
great video of prehistoric times. wow
@mitch19636
11 жыл бұрын
fantastic.
@unlokia
10 жыл бұрын
@ 11:55 Who said custom phone ringtones were a modern invention? This bloke's got it *already*
@stuartmacinnes8992
7 жыл бұрын
Not a lot had changed in 1980 when I joined the telephone company.
@davidpar2
Жыл бұрын
This was all high quality equipment built to last
@randywatson8347
8 жыл бұрын
04:00 would made a perfect car alarm.
@kfl611
3 жыл бұрын
Such modern science! I noticed - maybe for the film sensitivity - that they must have used a lot of face foundation and powder on the guys, as non of them had a 5 o'clock shadow. No hint of whiskers.
@bladder1010
8 жыл бұрын
Clarke - March For The Prince of Denmark, Trumpet Voluntary in D
@davids8449
Жыл бұрын
Excellent film note 12:36 how the operator is using pen with a rubber end so not to wear out the dial
@rah62
Жыл бұрын
More likely it was so as not to wear out the operator's finger
@charliecollard6433
7 жыл бұрын
Does anyone know what happened to all this wonderful old equipment...hope some was kept for future generations to see.
@jrmcferren
3 жыл бұрын
Not sure about the UK, but there are some museums and even private collectors that have these classic mechanical exchanges. The connections museum in Seattle, Washington has both mechanical and electronic switching equipment on display including a small community version of the type of equipment shown as well as the equipment used in larger exchanges here in the US of the panel and Crossbar type.
@TechHowden
2 жыл бұрын
Most of it got Scrapped
@chriswalford4161
5 ай бұрын
There are dedicated museums - search on line
@canhuyphan.1236
6 жыл бұрын
very good
@mauryginsberg7720
5 жыл бұрын
3:34 That's a lie! All somebody speaking the Khoisan click languages has to do is say hello and the exchange would dial Australia! :D
@chriswalford4161
5 ай бұрын
No, sound wouldn’t operate the switches; you had to break the circuit.
@Abonanno24601
7 жыл бұрын
it's a number station.
@zAlaska
11 ай бұрын
I vote no, having to dial my own call, next thing I'll be asked to scan my own groceries and bag them myself. I don't know anybody's phone number now. I just ask Google to call and it rings, just like the operator that only knows how to say collect or person-to-person, a strange thing still available with unlimited calling everywhere now the pay phones are gone everyone carries their own little personal tracker.
@unlokia
10 жыл бұрын
"Frerrrtfully porsh!" "One two thriii four ferrrrve... One two thriii four ferrrrve... One two thriii four ferrrrve... " Being TOO well spoken is almost as bad as speaking with too broad an accent: "Sorry? Did you mean *five?*"
@maxpenn6374
5 жыл бұрын
The GPO used to interview the time of day announcer for a voice that was (I forget exactly how they said it) most typically English. In England and America, it seems it was always a woman's voice that announced the time.
@disoriented1
8 жыл бұрын
The Brits must have been well ahead of AT&T..or the dates on the old films are misleading..the 1932 AT&T films were proud of the maze of cords and jacks that those poor operators had to utilize!
@WAQWBrentwood
7 жыл бұрын
disoriented1 Actually the US and the UK were contemporary with each other in the telephonic biz. You may have seen a manual exchange in a newer AT&T (or Bell Telephone/Western Electric.) film but bear in mind there were manual exchanges in both the US and the UK untill the 1960s! The first US automatic dial exchange in the US was installed in the 1890s! By the 1930s dial exchanges rapidly expanded in both countries.
@BullfrogFM
2 жыл бұрын
Thats one broken dial 😂
@davidpar2
Жыл бұрын
I think it’s one that wasn’t completely built yet
@brentfisher902
11 жыл бұрын
In the background of the audio I can hear an electronic tinnitus sound similar to the phone line. Is that part of the original film or was it added in by the uploader to make it sound more phone-like?
@TechHowden
2 жыл бұрын
Every video from this time Has lots of background noise
@davidpar2
Жыл бұрын
Probably dust that collected on the audio strip of the original film years ago
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