But it's busy. It's building. New factories are going up with the assurance they
carry of increased prosperity. New homes are under command of new families moving
in. It's a barometer of confidence in the future of Mite Town, a confidence that
comes from knowing its many advantages. The excellent schools, for example, that
serve their children. And the playgrounds available for recreation. comforting to
the happy fathers and mothers who live here and call it home. For Mite Town is
home in the pleasantest sense of the word.
From the early call of the milkman, through a day of normal activities, one gets
the feeling that this is a community of good neighbors. The kind of a place you'd
like to live in, perhaps grow old in. The kind of a place you'd take pride
in, that a great many people take pride in. That's Mite Town.
What's making it all tick? What's welding it into a going community?
Many things, of course. But one of the most essential factors in its
growth is communications.
Communications provided by the telephone company and designed, among other
things, to give Mite Town the means for transacting business. The means for
communicating information, for seeking help, for keeping old friends in touch.
Yes, communications and the telephone company that provides them are part of
every commute in America. The welding force that joins them into a nation of
neighborhoods, communicating with each other and with every country of the world.
And like Mite Town itself, the telephone company is more than buildings and
vehicles, poles and switchboards. It's people, many people in many
places, doing many different jobs. Like the operators who handle telephone calls
in Mite Town. Here in the central office, you can feel the pulse of the
community. The flashing lights on the switchboard reflect the activity of the
town. It begins to stir in the early hours of the morning.
It reaches its peak in the rush hours of daytime and
then settles back for the night.
It's the job of the traffic department to handle this changing volume of calls.
It has to be ready with enough equipment and enough operators, 24 hours a day, to
meet the customer's demands for service. From the earliest days of her training,
every operator learns to think of her job in terms of service to the community.
This is information, may I help you? Yes, I'd like the new number of Wilson's
Meat Market, 1191 Sycamore Street, please. One moment, please.
The number is right five, six two four oh. Right
five, six two four oh. Thank you. You're welcome. In addition to supplying
information, operators put through all kinds of calls, many of them to out-of
-town points near and far. And for each call they handle, they record the facts
needed to accurately build the customer. The calling number, the place called,
and length of the conversation are all noted for use by the accounting
department. Sometimes an operator handles calls that are more urgent than others.
Operator? Operator, there's been a bad accident. Two cars head out.
Please get a doctor and an ambulance. Can you give me the address, please? It's
right outside my house. Old Woods Road near Van Dyke. Hurry, please. Thank you.
We'll get help to you as fast as possible. The
telephone operator's tradition of staying on the job in
times of disaster is well
known. It's a responsibility they willingly accept and take pride in.
Whether the call, the emergency, or routine, the operator performs a service
that is vital to the business and social life of every thriving community in the
nation. And that certainly fits My Town. It's a community
on the go. New shopping areas to keep pace with demand, new construction of all
kinds, new factories are going up creating greater job opportunities with all
that they hold for My Town and its people.
Homes are being built to house the increasing population of workers and their
families. They all need communications and the telephone company has to be ready
to supply them. Connecting these new telephones is the job of telephone
installers. Each morning they gather at the plant work center to get the day's
assignments from their installation supervisor. Hi Ted. Hi. Your first day, huh?
That's right. Well, I guess these will keep you busy. Better start with this new
installation for John Gardner, 406 Millrose. Say, how did
things go down to plant school? Well, I think I learned a lot, but I'll feel
better when this first day is over. Okay Ted, I'll stop in later and see how
you're getting along. Hi, see ya. Hi.
Hi. Is this your house? Yep. Could you tell me something? Sure, if I can.
Where does this wire go? Well, you see, this is telephone wire and it's going to
run from your house to the big cable on top of that pole. How come it's so big on
the pole and so little down here? That cable's got about a hundred wires inside
of it and each one of them connects to a phone in somebody's home or office.
The cable then travels from pole to pole until it reaches our central office
where all the little wires are connected to switching equipment. The switching
equipment completes the phone calls automatically or sends them to the operator.
Then your phones will be ready for service. That is, they will be as soon as I
hook them up. Well, I'm on my way to the store.
So long. So long son. I'm hooked up by the time you get back.
My, it looks
just fine. Your phone's already Mrs. Gardner. Right now you can call anywhere in
the world if you want to. Good. And here's your new directory. Your
name will appear in the next issue.
Meantime, people can find you through information. Well, thank you.
It's so nice to have a telephone.
Hi Ted. Hi. How's it going boy? Just fine.
Have any trouble on the job? Nothing special. But I
did have a youngster asking me some questions.
They got me thinking. I install phones and I know all the steps. Well, that's
part of my plant training. But where do the other departments come
in? I mean, how do they fit in the act?
Well, I guess that's a natural question for a newcomer Ted. You're curious and
you should be about how your job fits in with others in the company. Well, it's
kind of a big order Ted, but I can tell you this. All of us in the telephone
company are organized to do just one thing, to give people good telephone
service. Now to do that and do it right takes a lot of people with a lot of
different skills. Now I know you've been through this at the plant school book.
Let's just
[...]
These days homes have telephones wherever it's convenient and that's as it should
be. They want their extensions where they'll be of most value. It could be
indoors, say the bedroom, or outdoors on a terrace. And we install this can be of
help. For instance, you'll find that you have lots of chances to suggest
locations for telephones while you're working. It's all part of doing a good job.
But let's get back to Mrs. Gardner's request for service, right? Now once the
order is placed, commercial goes right to work on it. First off, a copy of the
order with all the details is sent to the plant department. There a clerk assigns
the necessary facilities to do the job, including central office lines and
outside equipment. Simultaneously, directory, traffic, and accounting people
receive identical copies of the order so they can prepare their records for the
new customer. The plant installation copy of that order comes to me and I assign
the work to you fellows each morning. Now while you were hooking up the line for
Mrs. Gardner's phone, the frame man in the central office was connecting it to
the switching equipment. That gives us the circuit that makes it possible for
Mrs. Gardner to pick up her phone and call to a friend across town or across the
nation. Well that's part of the story Ted, lots more of course. But maybe it's
given you some little background on how a few of the departments work together.
It sure helps Jack. Boy, I've got a lot to learn, haven't I?
We've all got a lot to learn Ted.
You never stop learning in this business and you understand your own job better
when you know how other departments operate. For instance, the commercial
department. In addition to servicing new customers such as Mrs. Gardner also
handles the payments of the customer's bills. It has the further responsibility
of forwarding the names of new subscribers to the printer for the telephone
directory. Every name, address and number is carefully checked and rechecked for
absolute accuracy. It is an exacting task every step of the way. As
they say, it's something for the book. The book in this case being the most
widely used volume of the year. Commercial also collects the money from public
telephones that serve my town and stores, factories, transportation centers and
even along the highways. Then there are the telephone salesmen. They have the job
of calling on business customers and suggesting the type of telephone system that
will best serve the customer's business needs. Directory advertising salesmen
also call on business customers and show how yellow pages advertising can help
them. They plan the kind of layouts that attract buyers and boost sales for the
advertiser. The service the telephone people give can be as immediate as right
now. It can seek and answer the needs of today. It can
plan the needs of tomorrow. And the needs of tomorrow are a service
responsibility of the engineers. They have the job of looking ahead, of
anticipating how and where my town is going to grow. So the telephone plan can be
installed efficiently and economically and be ready when the customer needs it.
They decide where telephone cable will be installed, how it will be installed,
underground or overhead and how much of it will be needed.
Should it be a 200 pair cable or a 400 pair cable? They have to make sure there's
enough equipment in the central office to handle the switching of the calls and
plan cables for routing long-distance calls. The engineers also work directly
with builders in my town to be sure the telephone service will be ready for
customers when they move into their new homes. How's this run 20 to 25 thousand
dollars and I've got the men out working and figured it happened finished by
spring. In other words you want to be ready for immediate telephone installation
when the houses are completed. Definitely. Well here's the situation Mr. Palmer.
We've got enough feeder cable coming up to this area but we've still got to get
our poles and distribution cables in place for wiring to the houses. I had no
idea there was so much involved. Well that's why we appreciate this advance
notice. You know some builders don't include us in their plans and then the new
homeowners have to wait for their telephones. We don't want that to happen here.
We want phones available when our houses go up. You can count on us. We'll be
ready. In just such fashion telephone planning and construction work go hand in
hand as my town grows and expands.
Poles are set.
Cables strung.
Terminals go in.
A communication pattern develops that serves the growing needs of my town and to
give my town the top telephone service it needs and expects takes a lot of money.
And that's where accounting comes in. It has to keep track of all the money spent
and received so that the company may know where it stands financially. All bills
and invoices come to accounting for checking and they keep all the cost records
necessary to prepare the company's financial reports. They have charge of the
records that document the location the type and the size of telephone plan and
here too are prepared the paychecks an event of never-failing interest to every
employee of the company. Accounting also prepares and nails the customers bills
and there's more to that than the mere say so an array of data processing
equipment handles the customers bill from the first step of listing the customers
name and address through the successive stages of computing the bill
and preparing it for mailing.
All over town telephones are bringing people together.
Bradford's jewelry may I speak to Mr Bradford please. Thank you Mrs.
Chase I'll have the order over in about an hour. Going to the dance
my tangy. Speaking.
Why hello Pete how's things in my town. Things are pretty good in my town.
There's a sense of growing prosperity growing pride growing happiness and the
telephone company is a grateful participant. Now we've seen the parts played by
the various operating departments such as traffic whose operators handle many of
the calls plant which installs and maintains the equipment engineering
where all the planning and designing are done commercial which is responsible for
many customer services and finally accounting where all the financial records are
prepared working in support of these operating units are the company's staff
departments such as personnel personnel helps to develop and train people in all
levels of employment they handle benefit and pension plans pleasant reminders of
earlier days they also watch over the health of the employees and arrange for
medical attention whenever they need an equally important staff section is the
legal department which checks all company contracts and represents the company in
court actions public relations is also one of the company staff departments it is
largely responsible for keeping the public informed about the company its members
write news releases for the community newspapers they also prepare newspaper
advertisements that promote various telephone services and they coordinate
activities that deal with radio or television shows they prepare films and other
programs for employee and public groups and they take part in arranging telephone
open houses to which the people of the community are invited the preparation of
the company magazine is also the responsibility of public relations well Mike
we've had our problems and putting this together but there have been many
excellent comments last reassuring part of it mr. Bolton now I think we've
reached the point where we need a good story to wrap the whole thing up now I
have some ideas I'd like to talk over with you good let's see now the previous
articles have covered all phases of our company's operations that's correct and
now that we've explained what we do I think we should show how we fit into the
big picture how we're backed up by AT&T Western Electric and the Bell
Labs AT&T Western Electric Bell Telephone Laboratories magic names in
communications the world over let's start with AT&T the parent company which
coordinates the activities and policies of all the companies in the system each
of the operating companies serves a specific area of the United States and Canada
each has its own duties and responsibilities but all work closely with AT&T which
provides advice and assistance whenever needed within its own territory each
operating company supplies local and long-distance service and AT&T through its
long lines department connects each company with the other uniting them into an
integrated system long lines also connects the bell system with the thousands of
independent telephone companies in effect it furnishes the links that make
nationwide telephone service possible it builds and operates the radio relay
towers that carry calls across the continent it supervises the laying of
underwater cables that enable people to call across the seas and although many
people aren't aware of it long lines also provides the channels that radio and
television broadcasters use for their nationwide networks Western Electric is an
equally important partner of the Bell system it serves as the systems
manufacturing arm and from its plants throughout the country come the millions
and millions of telephones that the Bell companies require to serve a growing
nation Western also produces the vast amounts of cable that are needed to
interconnect all these telephones and it builds and installs the dial switching
equipment and switchboards used in most central offices in addition to
manufacturing cable and communication equipment Western also serves as the
supplier for the entire Bell system this means that the companies not only depend
on it for their telephone apparatus but also their other everyday supplies such
as paper clips typewriter ribbon and anything else they need naturally Western
Electric doesn't make all these things itself as a matter of fact most of the
items are purchased from more than 33,000 industrial firms across the country
from its warehouses strategically located over the nation Western Electric is
able to rush communications equipment to any stricken area in times of emergency
this equipment is so standardized that crewmen brought from any operating company
of the Bell system can use it without further instruction this assures efficient
and rapid restoration of service then there is the extremely important part that
both Western Electric and the Bell Telephone Laboratories are playing in building
the nation's military defense system both have had much to do in the design and
construction of such projects as the do line and sage and in the development and
manufacture of guided missiles Bell Telephone Laboratories is the research and
development partner in the Bell system it is one of the largest and most
experienced industrial laboratories in the world and it is uniquely qualified to
do the design work for both military and civilian communications equipment its
job is to provide America with the communications of the future as it has already
designed the communications of the present the laboratories modern research
centers are staffed by scientists and engineers planning years ahead searching
designing seeking new knowledge and new understanding their aim is to continually
develop better tools and equipment to improve telephone service and to do it in
such a way as to assure efficient and economic operation the achievements of Bell
Laboratories researchers are many ranging through all branches of the
communications field one of their latest advances in telephone progress is
leading to new systems of automatically switching telephone calls these systems
are so radical in design that they promise to bring tomorrow's customers a
multitude of almost undreamed of services a tiny device which will make these
electronic switching systems possible is the revolutionary transistor invented at
the laboratories the transistor brought Bell scientists one of the two Nobel
prizes they have won for discoveries in physics though it was primarily developed
for the betterment of telephone communications the versatile transistor now
appears in a staggering variety of devices and equipment it has become an
important factor in the growth of many new industries a development that is
welcomed by the telephone company welcome because it is in the pattern of service
that is traditional with every phase of telephone operation from its very
beginning service has been an inseparable part of the telephone story as
inseparable as the telephone companies long and continuing association with the
communities of America the my towns everywhere who gave it the opportunity to be
of service they have grown together these cities and villages of America and
their telephone companies good friends and good neighbors they share the
responsibilities of good citizenship telephone people are proud of those
responsibilities both on the job and as individual citizens helping their
communities in their own ways they are proud of being part of their towns hopes
and joys proud and happy to be of service