Editing Telephone switchboard (section)

==History==
{{Globalize|section|US|date=June 2022}}
[[File:TexasRichardson telephoneExchangeOperator.jpg|thumb|Telephone operator, {{circa|1900}}]]

Following the invention of the telephone in 1876, the first telephones were rented in pairs which were limited to conversation between the parties operating those two instruments. The use of a central exchange was soon found to be even more advantageous than in [[telegraphy]].

In May 1877, the Holmes Burglar Alarm Company in Boston, Massachusetts, established by [[Edwin Holmes (inventor)|Edwin T. Holmes]], installed the first central office and switchboard that served both as a security service at night for banks and businesses, as well as a telephone system.<ref>G.K. Thompson, R.B. Hill, ''The First Telephone Switchboard and Its Method of Operation'', Bell Telephone Quarterly Volume 9(3), p.205 (July 1930).</ref> The switchboard operated telephone instruments manufactured by Charles Williams, a licensee of the Alexander Graham Bell company.

In January 1878 the Boston Telephone Dispatch company had started hiring boys as telephone operators.  Boys had been very successful as telegraphy operators, but their attitude, lack of patience, and behavior was unacceptable for live telephone contact,<ref name="PBS">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/filmmore/description.html |title=PBS American Experience, The Telephone |website=PBS.org |access-date=2013-08-24 }}</ref> so the company began hiring women operators instead. Thus, on September 1, 1878, Boston Telephone Dispatch hired [[Emma Nutt]] as the first woman operator.  Small towns typically had the switchboard installed in the operator's home so that he or she could answer calls on a 24-hour basis. In 1894, [[New England Telephone and Telegraph Company]] installed the first [[Battery (electricity)|battery]]-operated switchboard on January 9 in [[Lexington, Massachusetts]].

Early switchboards in large cities usually were mounted floor to ceiling in order to allow the operators to reach all the lines in the exchange. The operators were boys who would use a ladder to connect to the higher jacks. Late in the 1890s this measure failed to keep up with the increasing number of lines, and [[Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company|Milo G. Kellogg]] devised the Divided Multiple Switchboard for operators to work together, with a team on the "A board" and another on the "B". These operators were almost always women until the early 1970s, when men were once again hired.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.privateline.com/TelephoneHistory5/maleoperator.htm |title=Telephone History: AT&T's First Male Operator |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312205515/http://www.privateline.com/TelephoneHistory5/maleoperator.htm |archive-date=2013-03-12 |website=PrivateLine.com |access-date=2013-09-18 }}</ref> Cord switchboards were often referred to as "cordboards" by telephone company personnel.  Conversion to [[panel switch]] and other automated switching systems first eliminated the "B" operator and then, usually years later, the "A". Rural and suburban switchboards for the most part remained small and simple. In many cases, customers knew their operator by name.

As telephone exchanges converted to automatic ([[direct distance dialing|dial]]) service, switchboards continued to serve specialized purposes. Before the advent of direct-dialed long-distance calls, a subscriber would need to contact the [[long-distance calling|long-distance]] operator in order to place a toll call. In large cities, there was often a special number, such as 112, which would ring the long-distance operator directly. Elsewhere, the subscriber would ask the local operator to ring the long-distance operator.

The long-distance operator would record the name and city of the person to be called, and the operator would advise the calling party to hang up and wait for the call to be completed. Each toll center had only a limited number of trunks to distant cities, and if those circuits were busy, the operator would try alternate routings through intermediate cities. The operator would plug into a trunk for the destination city, and the inward operator would answer. The inward operator would obtain the number from the local information operator and ring the call. Once the called party answered, the originating operator would advise him or her to stand by for the calling party, whom she'd then ring back, and record the starting time once the conversation began.

[[File:Photograph of Women Working at a Bell System Telephone Switchboard (3660047829).jpg|thumb|left|A large [[Bell System]] international switchboard in 1943]]

In the 1940s, with the advent of dial pulse and [[multi-frequency]] operator dialing, the operator would plug into a tandem trunk and dial the NPA (area code) and operator code for the information operator in the distant city. For instance, the New York City information operator was 212-131. If the customer knew the number, and the point was direct-dialable, the operator would dial the call. If the distant city did not have dialable numbers, the operator would dial the code for the inward operator serving the called party, and ask her to ring the number.

In the 1960s, once most phone subscribers had direct long-distance dialing, a single type of operator began to serve both the local and long-distance functions. A customer might call to request a collect call, a call billed to a third number, or a person-to-person call. All toll calls from coin phones required operator assistance. The operator was also available to help complete a local or long-distance number which did not complete. For example, if a customer encountered a [[reorder tone]] (a fast busy signal), it could indicate "all circuits busy," or a problem in the destination exchange. The operator might be able to use a different routing to complete the call. If the operator could not get through by dialing the number, she could call the inward operator in the destination city, and ask her to try the number, or to test a line to see if it was busy or out of order.

Cord switchboards used for these purposes were replaced in the 1970s and 1980s by [[Traffic Service Position System]] (TSPS) and similar systems, which greatly reduced operator involvement in calls. The customer would, instead of simply dialing "0" for the operator, dial 0+NPA+7digits, after which an operator would answer and provide the desired service (coin collection, obtaining acceptance on a collect call, etc.), and then release the call to be automatically handled by the TSPS.

Before the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was common for many smaller cities to have their own operators. An NPA (area code) would usually have its largest city as its primary toll center, with smaller toll centers serving the secondary cities scattered throughout the NPA. TSPS allowed telephone companies to close smaller toll centers and consolidate operator services in regional centers which might be hundreds of miles from the subscriber.

In the mid-1980s the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) opened their own Operator Services offices with a system called TOPS (Traffic Operator Position System) to act as local and intraLATA telephone operators. With this the BOCs took intraLATA call traffic from AT&T as well as services which were once provided on a cordboard (Toll Stations, Mobile and Marine [Ship-to-Shore]). Operators from AT&T returned to work for the BOC as the intraLATA traffic was cut to the BOC.

In the early 1990s AT&T replaced TSPS with OSPS (Operator Service Position System). The OSPS position was a computer terminal which the AT&T operator entered billing information. With the advent of OSPS a feature called Interflow allowed operators on a system to answer calls from anywhere within their region.

As technology changed, so did the application of Interflow. Interflow was implemented nationwide by AT&T. This allowed AT&T to close virtually every operator office throughout the US. {{As of|2004}} the only AT&T operator offices remaining were located in Houston, Texas, and Jacksonville, Florida.