WE/Bell System Training Tape

[MagicMo]

Hi All,
I found a box of tapes, most were unmarked in with all the Bell System Stuff. This particular tape was marked (see pic) Western Electric training tape and hand written in pencil "obsolete."
Should I take the time to listen to any of these?
Does anyone know if this tape is just sound or sound and film? I apologize for my ignorance but I am not familiar with these tapes at all.
Thanks,
Mo

[rdelius]

That is reel to reel audio tape.It might have a matching filmstrip or set of slides that went with it.Keep looking you might have it

[MagicMo]

Ah, ok. Then I think I have the filmstrip, see pic. I am going to get the machine out and see what is on it.
Thanks!

[xhausted110]

i think those are more reel to reel audio tapes.

[Jim Stettler]

You should sell/give/loan them to someone who has the equitment and desire to copy them into a digital format and archived on Remco's site.
Dave Massey comes to mind, I don't have his contact info.
JMO,
Jim

[HarrySmith]

Agreed. A "loan" to someone with the equipment and the desire to copy them to digital and save them for posterity would be a very nice gesture.

[MagicMo]

That would be no problem. Does anyone know what credit card and special numbers mean as far as Bell System goes? Just curious. I'm going to listen to them over the weekend.
Thanks
Mo

[Jim Stettler]

Credit card  may be for credit card payphones. The were kinda boring, the only took credit cards (no Cash). Later they had calling cards for charging calls.

Special numbers may be interesting it makes me think of ringback #'s that an installer would call and use special codes to test the phone.
I have a bsp regarding the test procedure somewhere. Around here you would dial 99x-zzzz with x = to a digit between 1-0 and zzzz being the last 4 of the # being tested.

I used a radio shack dialer with the 1st 10 slots programmed as 991-990 then I would program the last 4 digits of the number being tested in slot 11. This was a quick way to find out the test #'s for each exchange. I kept it in the car and used mit at all of my friends homes. It seems that there is a ringback for each exchange. Once you get the ringback then you can use the test features.

This is just my best guess.
Jim