On 06/05/2015 21:28, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Syd Rumpo
escribió:

My dad worked at a small local exchange. As kids in the holidays, my
sister and I would creep round in the gloom to be scared by the sudden
unpredictable stepping of the Strowger switches.

The engineers called them 'click'n'bang" because of the noise they made.

I saw a working Strowger exchange in the Liverpool area shortly before
it was converted to System X. This was in the days when BT exchanges
had 'open days', long gone.

It was fascinating watching the uniselectors in action, clicking
stepping up as the first digit of the number was dialled, then along as
the second number was dialled, followed by the bang when the line
cleared and it reset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNNKLuM8yY8

As part of the System X migration, there were massive bundles of blue
and yellow twisted pair cables connecting each individual line from the
old Strowger frames to the new System X. It was quite a sight.

The battery room was also interesting - maybe a couple of hundred huge
floor standing lead acid batteries wired to massive bare copper bus bars
running horizontally at about 8ft off the floor. The engineer showing
me around did warn not to touch them

Yes, I remember once seeing the battery room in the main exchange - I
recall that each 2V cell was about a metre cube (but I was very small).
In that exchange they had some sort of bomb shelter stocked with boxes
of rations which they'd sell to staff every few years when they were
renewed. Tins of beans, corned beef, chocolate, oatmeal biscuits - it
was a real treat.

Cheers
--
Syd