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“I’ve just had my eyes opened… to the fact that some of our business problems were really communications problems!”

An active business is constantly changing. It broadens its products, expands its market, hires more people, gains more customers, faces more competition. And with these changes come problems.
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Never too busy to be Good Neighbors

There are a lot of workers in the Bell System—about 350,000 of them.

That’s a big family and it likes to be a friendly kind of family.

Whether it be the installer in the house, the people in our offices, the operators or the lineman on the roadside helping to rescue a stray kitten for a worried youngster, telephone workers are close to the public and the tradition of the job is helpfulness. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m sure that is going to be a great marriage. What’s would the modern equivalent of this line be?

“What! No Kitchen Telephone?”

Of all things, Mr. Bridegroom! Surely you don’t expect that lovely new bride to get along without a telephone in the kitchen!

Maybe there was a time when one telephone seemed enough, just as one radio and one bathroom and one car seemed enough.

But everybody is used to more comfort and convenience these days. And there’s nothing that makes life so much easier as telephones around the home.
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Bull’s-eye!… for telephone users

In rapid-fire order, this girl at one of Western Electric’s factories attaches wires to Bell telephone equipment she’s helping to make. That “gun” in her hand is a wire-wrapping tool newly developed by Western Electric engineers that fastens the wires better, faster, with less cost than ever before.
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THE SMALLER THE BETTER: NEW DIMENSIONS IN CONVERSATION

In the eye of a needle above is a transistor switch that can turn on or off in ten billionths of a second. It is an example of the micro-miniature devices that Western Electric makes today for the new Electronic Switching Systems now being put into service in the Bell telephone network. Read the rest of this entry »

ANNOUNCING A NEW TELETYPEWRITER SERVICE

The Belt, System offers to the public a new Teletypewriter Service. Any subscriber to this service may be connected, through the teletypewriter “central,” to any other subscriber, whether he be around the corner or across the continent. Subscribers can type back and forth by wire, for short or long periods, just as they now hold conversations by telephone.
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“I WANT A TELEPHONE IN THIS HOUSE!”

“Suppose I get sick? After all, I’m only human. And if I do get a touch of colic … or have a nervous breakdown … do you know what’ll bring it on? Worry! Yes, sir, worrying about how long it would take us to get the doctor if anything should happen.

“Or suppose a pipe bursts in the bathroom? Or a burglar comes along? When something like that happens you don’t write a letter, or go after help on horseback. No, sir. You hop to a telephone!
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WHAT IS THE AT&T?

All that most people see of the telephone company are a telephone and a few feet of wire.

But through that telephone you can talk with any one of millions of people, all linked together by the web of equipment of the Bell System.

All its efforts are turned constantly to one job—to give better telephone service to an ever-increasing number of people, as cheaply as it possibly can. Read the rest of this entry »

He’s using the telephone that lends an extra hand

For people who want to keep both hands free when they telephone, Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers have devised a new telephone with a sensitive microphone in its base.

To use it, simply press a button. The microphone picks up your voice and sends it on its way. Your party’s voice comes to you through a small loudspeaker. Both hands are left free.
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Your handy phones away from home

Quick, easy way to keep in touch and get things done wherever you are. Convenient public telephones save you time, money and trouble.

A LIGHT IN THE DARK —More and more outdoor telephone booths are being placed at convenient locations and are available for service 24 hours a day. They supplement the hundreds of thousands of public telephones in buildings, stores, hotels, gas stations, airports, railroad stations and bus terminals. Read the rest of this entry »

More Telephone Service for more people

From The 1946 Annual Report of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

1. In no year since the telephone was invented was there such a remarkable increase in the amount of telephone service furnished to the American people as in 1946. The net gain in the number of Bell telephones was 3,264,000, or more than twice the gain for any previous year. Additional telephones were installed at a rate averaging more than 25 a minute every working day.
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Courtesy

We want your telephone service to be good and quick and cheap. But there’s more to it than that. We want it to be courteous too.

No matter what the occasion, there’s always time for a cheery “please” and a pleasant word of thanks. That is the Bell System way. It is one of the fine traditions of the telephone business.

BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM

PREPAREDNESS—THE BELL SYSTEM IS PREPARED TO DO ITS PART IN THE NATION’S PROGRAM OF NATIONAL DEFENSE