This one will probably allow me to appear in the Facebook Dull Men's club, but stick with it. This 1982 documentary is wonderful, and watched with the benfit of hindsight, very dated. The micro pager that appears is the same size as a modern mobile phone for example. But who would have predicted advancements in that area in the early 80s?
More importantly, the moves to System X exchanges helped my late friend Dave win the Railway Modeller cup. As a telephone engineer, he found himself based in an exchange that has swapped mechanical switching for electronic, freeing up loads of space. In which he built his layout "Scotland Street Yard". An unexpected benefit!
Thanks for that blast from the past Phil, I joined the BPO (British Post Office as it was called at the time) in 1973, initially working on the Strowger equipment shown here and left nearly 40 years later when even System X was becoming outdated so found it a great trip down memory lane. The telecoms industry has seen huge advances in the 50 odd years since I first became involved with it, far beyond our imagining at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd the first intelligible message is "My train has been cancelled".
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