In the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators were essential intermediaries who relayed calls manually through a central switchboard connected to subscriber wires.

Telephony is a perfect example: Approximately 60 years ago, switchboard operators connected phone calls via circuits on a manual switchboard.

Erma worked until the town stopped using a manual switchboard in the mid-'70s. This story is from NCPR's North Country at Work project, exploring the working lives and history of our region.

Direct-dial telephones came to Bloomington-Normal in the 1940s, but union fears of losing switchboard operator jobs and World War II slowed the process.

Tracing problems are a relic of manual switchboards, which required operators to physically connect circuits. In order to track down a caller’s location, police needed 10-20 minutes to figure ...

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 emergencies, rude customers and delicate situations.

The first telephones were hard enough to use without the added harassment of the teenage boys who worked as the earliest switchboard operators — and who were, per PBS, notoriously rude. It was ...

They’re pulling the plug on California’s last manual telephone switchboard. A computer was being installed this week to replace Kerman Telephone’s four manual units. Rena McDonald of the ...

Female operators at the switchboard of the Magneto Exchange The telephone transformed communications in the office, allowing white-collar offices to separate from warehouses and factories.