In the telephone’s earliest days, one phone could be connected to another by wire, allowing their two owners to speak. While that may have seemed like a miracle at the time, it wa… See more

At the busier boards, work could be frantic. Some operators took to wearing roller skatesto get around. Otherwise, the dress code tended to be strict—long black dresses an… See more

The pace of the work and the repressive rules that operators often had to put up with eventually led to dissension in the ranks. Phone companies discovered that their supposedl… See more

With the coming of the 1930s, technology that allowed telephone users simply to dial another phone without the aid of an operator had become widespread. Phone companies … See more