Hey everyone,
Does anyone remeber hearing the ESS styles switches in the 70s/80s/90s? I wish someone would have a small scale version in thier garage/basement rebuilt. that would be cool. I don't have the technical knowhow for such a feat. Was just curious. They dont have any telecommunications museaums in San Diego county focused on phones that I could find online. pretty sad actually.
One thing I do remeber is they broke dialtone quick and responded quick. that was always cool to me as well as the cross talking! also hearing the mechanical switches is always awesome with any switch.
Do you mean ESS switches or maybe even the crossbar switches? I know that san diego is a long way from Seattle but at least it is on the same coast in the same country. Seattle has a FANTASTIC switching museum.
Terry
If you're ever in Seattle, the Seattle Telecommunicatiions museum has a functioning ESS1, and I don't know how many other functioning ESS1's are out there, but I think there is only one or two others.
Well darnit! ill need to look that up and goto seattle one of these days. Nice to know theres still a few ESS's around. That would be a fun coastal trip up US-101!!!
Would be exciting to finally see one since i've only heard them! might run into other phone people too!! LOL
Would anyone know what part of seattle this is in?
It's on the corner of Marginal Way and Corson Ave. near Boeing Field in the Southern part of the city. It is housed in the same building that used to be the centrex office that served Boeing Field. You should look at their web site. They have several operating switches, and it is quite large, not to mention all the old phones they have on display. If you are into Teletype, they also have a large and operating TTY display.
Go here and click on the various links.
http://www.museumofcommunications.org/
Quote from: rtp129495 on October 26, 2011, 10:47:52 AM
goto seattle one of these days.
And the best day to pick is a Tuesday. That is the only day that they are open unless you make prior arrangements with them for another day which is usually easily done. Nothing else like it that I've seen. For once us Pacific Northwest phone guys have something that is CLOSE to us!
Terry
Looking for something else, I found this fascinating video from 1965. It's amazing to see what and how this stuff was made back then. And the investment made in the production equipment. And how boring it must have been to be one of the people assembling these components day after day.
h ttp://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=seY_V0utWLY
Updated Link:
https://youtu.be/seY_V0utWLY (good on 6/4/2015)
Title of the video found by searching YouTube today was:
ESS: Electronic Switching System 1965 Western Electric Telephone Technology
I couldn't get your link to work! could you tell me the name so I can search for it?
Quote from: rtp129495 on June 04, 2015, 01:01:46 AM
I couldn't get your link to work! could you tell me the name so I can search for it?
Yeah, I couldn't either. That's what I get for trying to post a link from my mobile device. Updated link above should work.
The first 5 minutes or so are set up to the rest of the video which shows the making of these components and the engineering needed to come up with this technology, the assembly lines and the QC to produce the end product.