From Telephone EXchanges to Digital Phone Systems
As I am sure you know, phones and other forms of communication have changed over the years. From telephone exchanges and analog to digital phone systems with a VoIP core system phones have come a long way, and they continue to evolve to meet our everyday needs.
Over the weekend I was watching some older movies, classics from the early 1930’s to 1950’s. I do this occasionally because I enjoy movies and to learn, at least from Hollywood’s perspective, what life was like back then. One of the most noted absences to me in a 1938 movie entitled, Stella Dallas, in which Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, was the telephone.
It wasn’t until Sunday, when I watched a 1949 movie entitled, Sorry, Wrong Number, that this was when phones were truly being introduced to the movie screen. And yes, Barbara Stanwyck was in this movie too, and yes, she was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role too. At the beginning or the movie there is a voice over and text on the screen explaining the introduction of the phone in our everyday lives. What I noticed even more in this movie was the use of telephone exchanges. My curiosity now got the best of me.
What are telephone exchanges? Telephones used to begin with two letters, and they were an abbreviation for a word. For some they brought a sense of community and long numbers were more difficult to remember. An example of a telephone exchange number would be KLondike 5-5689. This simply means, 555-5689 . Or something like, PENnsylvania 4208, which is 736-4208.
Good to know that the letters on your phone were developed well before texting!