Switchboard operators

U.S. Air Force Sgt. Suzann K. Harry, of Wildwood, N.J., operates a switchboard in the underground command post at Strategic Air Command headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., in 1967.
Source: Wikipedia

Originally, the task of connecting telephone calls at a telephone exchange was a manual task. Early switchboards in large cities were usually mounted from floor to ceiling. Boys were initially hired as operators as they could quickly climb up ladders (often a dangerous job in a hurry!) to connect phone 'jacks', or connectors, that were high up.

Women soon replaced them, as the boys tended to get impatient with callers and sometimes abused them over the phone! Operators were mostly women until the 1960s.

What did a switchboard operator do?

When someone made a phone call, the operators in the exchange would see a light come on above one of the sockets on the switchboard. She would plug a wire into the socket to receive the call and ask the caller which number they required. The operator would then call the person they wanted and, when they answered their phone, would plug the caller’s wire into the socket to which the receiver’s phone line was attached.

Some of the major problems with this manual system were that as more people had phones, it required more operators, and the process was slower than directly dialling another person. The system was also not very private – operators could listen to phone conversations after they were connected without anyone noticing.

Now most telephone systems are automated, replacing the many operators with electronics that connects callers.

However the telephone operators of the past remain a special part of the history and development of the telephone network.