Local Histories-1 |
||
These articles were contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information
Centre, but why not send in memories of YOUR own local exchange? |
||
|
||
HISTORY OF THE TELEPHONE SERVICE IN BRISTOL |
||
| The telephone service in Bristol began when the Telephone Company
Ltd opened the first exchange in December 1879 in Queen Victoria Buildings,
16 High Street on the corner with St Mary le Port Street. It was only a year
earlier that the Company had opened its first exchange in the country, at
36 Coleman Street, London. The number of subscribers during the first few
months of telephone service was very small, perhaps 20 or 30, all business
subscribers at whom the original local advertising had been directed. By
1881 the Company, known by then as the United Telephone Company after its
merger with the Edison Telephone Company, had 100 subscribers. The popularity
of the telephone was increasing rapidly.
Soon afterwards telephone service between Bristol and Cardiff and Swansea was introduced, and in 1887 communications were opened with Gloucester. The charge for telephone service to Swansea was £60, to Gloucester £30, large sums of money at the time. Unlimited local service was given between 9am and 6pm on weekdays but the exchange closed on Sundays. The Company amalgamated with other private telephone companies in 1889 and was known as the National Telephone Company. It took over more of the High Street site and expanded the exchange to take 1200 subscribers. The equipment used remained unsophisticated - only one wire was required for each subscriber, with the electrical circuit being completed by earth return. Subscribers called the exchange by magneto generator, and local batteries at their premises provided current for speech. In 1900, however, a major development took place in Bristol when the first Central Battery exchange in Europe was opened there. This was in the newly-opened Telephone Avenue between Baldwin Street and Marsh Street and service started on 25 May. In the Central Battery system all current for signalling and speaking was provided by a single battery at the exchange, and no subscribers' batteries were needed. Initially 1800 subscribers were connected to the exchange, provision being made for extension to 6300. The total cost of building the new exchange and laying 14 miles of underground ducts and cables was £4500. The opening of the exchange was celebrated in customary style on 2 July 1901 when the Mayor and Corporation officials toured the exchange. This work formed the basis of future development of the Bristol telephone system. The Post Office had taken over the trunk lines from the old High Street exchange in 1896, and in 1900 opened a trunk exchange in Small Street. In 1900 three operators were employed on trunks and also dealt with phonograms and other telegraph work. In 1912, as part of its purchase of the National Telephone Company, the Post Office took over the exchange in Telephone Avenue and the two exchanges developed in size until 1931 when the Central Automatic Exchange was opened in the same building, which was extended to cater for the new equipment. Conversion to automatic working took place on 28 November. The automatic system in Bristol was designed on a five-digit step-by-step basis, and had an ultimate capacity of 60,000 lines distributed on the central exchange and eleven satellite exchanges. In 1947-48 28,000 lines were connected. The building in Telephone Avenue accommodated equipment for 5,500 subscribers' lines, 1000 long-distance trunk lines and 900 junction lines. The toll and trunk traffic handled required 350 day operators and 230 night operators, while an engineering staff of 80 was employed on the maintenance of equipment in the building. The system continued to develop and in 1958 the Queen inaugurated the STD service. In view of the interest which the first installation was bound to arouse it was essential that the project should go ahead quickly and smoothly, so the choice of exchange was important. STD equipment for non-director exchanges was ready earlier than for director exchanges. Also trunk mechanisation equipment needed to be available at the exchange by the time the STD system was due for installation. Bristol satisfied these requirements: by 1958 the city was served by a non-director system consisting of the main exchange and nine satellite exchanges, and trunk mechanisation was introduced that year. At first STD was available only to subscribers on Bristol Central Exchange. This was the exchange serving the main business and commercial interests, and accounted for more than half the trunk traffic from the city. Before STD Bristol subscribers could dial direct to 2600 subscribers connected to 41 local exchanges outside the city. Afterwards they could dial calls to 427 exchanges, including most of those in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. Before STD could be introduced, however, telephone charges, designed for manual operation, had to be simplified, only then could full automation follow. The introduction of group charging areas reduced as well as simplified the cost of most trunk calls. On 5 December 1958 the Queen dialled the first call, to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, over 300 miles away - the greatest distance over which the subscriber trunk call could be made at the time. The call was made on a blue 700-type telephone, the most modern telephone at the time; this style of telephone was made generally available to the public early in the following year. The call lasted 2 minutes 5 seconds and cost 1s. 10d.; under the old charging system it would have cost 3s. 9d. Afterwards, the Queen operated a switch which put 18,000 telephones connected to Bristol Central onto the new system. STD was immensely popular with the Bristol Central subscribers who within a short time were dialling a large proportion of the possible STD calls themselves. The Post Office pressed on with the expansion of service to other towns and cities and steadily the foundations of today's sophisticated communications networks were laid - the Bristol experiment had been a success. [This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]
|
||
FOLKESTONE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE |
||
| The first public telephone service in Folkestone was introduced
in 1886 by the South of England Telephone Co Ltd, registered the previous
year at 50 Old Broad Street, London, who in that year installed an exchange
above a boot shop at 30 Rendezvous Street occupied by Messrs Brett, outfitters.
The exchange switchboard was primitive in design and accommodated only 50
lines, each subscriber having their own numbered red plug and corresponding
jack. A control plug was used by the operator for answering and supervision
purposes. The original service was limited to the hours between 9am and 6pm,
and two boys were employed as operators, following the usual practice of
the day. However, after complaints about the manner and politeness of boy
operators, they were replaced by girl operators - known as 'Hello Girls'
- the following year, again reflecting practice elsewhere.
In 1894 the exchange was moved to 13 Grace Hill and shortly afterwards the 50 line switchboard was extended to give a 100 line capacity. At the time of the move the exchange handled around 50 calls a day. In 1896 the original telephone company was taken over by the National Telephone Company, and by 1898 the number of calls handled by the exchange had risen to 150 calls a day, requiring the recruitment of further staff. In 1912 control of the telephone service passed to the Post Office when the GPO took over the National Telephone Company network throughout the country. At that time 529 subscribers made use of the service in Folkestone. In 1931 a new telephone exchange was built in Bouverie Square and on 13 June of that year at 2pm a new level of service was inaugurated when the Folkestone telephone system was converted to automatic working. Subscribers were now able to make local calls themselves with dial telephones without needing to go through the operator. The conversion to automatic working provoked much interest and, it has to be said, anxiety in the community. Many features of the new service with which we are now totally familiar, such as the increased number of numbers required to make a call, were at first regarded with suspicion. To overcome any problems the Post Office undertook a wide series of lectures and exhibitions to educate the public in the new system before the official opening. A working model of the exchange had been displayed in the Folkestone Head Post Office in Sandgate Road, and the conversion received much attention in the local press. By this time 1,543 subscribers were connected to the Folkestone Exchange, but in anticipation of further subscribers the equipment installed in the new building was designed to serve 4,700 callers. The next major event in Folkestone's telephone service was the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialling, officially inaugurated by the Mayor on 1 May 1963. Full automatic working was now possible with subscribers able to make long distance as well as local calls without recourse to the operator. By this time around 4,500 subscribers were connected to the system. Today, Folkestone is served by a TXE4A electronic exchange and provides a service to 15,000 subscribers. [This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]
|
||
Note: The last two TXE4 exchanges in the UK, Selby in North Yorkshire and Leigh-on-Sea in Essex were taken out of service on 11th March 1998 as the modernisation of the Digital Network was completed. |
||
HISTORY OF HULL TELEPHONE DEPARTMENT |
||
| In the late 19th century the initial formation of a telephone
company in Britain was usually based on the ownership of rights in some patent
for a new design of transmitter of receiver which was not thought to infringe
the Bell patents. Many companies failed and were subsequently absorbed by
the Bell companies as a result of litigation over these patents.
In 1880 the British Government took legal action against the United Telephone Company which had just been formed by the amalgamation of the Bell and Edison companies. The Government's contention was that the telephone was a telegraph within the meaning of the Telegraph Act 1869. This view was upheld by the court and the Post Office, therefore, acquired control over all telephone activity in Britain. Under its new status the Post Office granted licences to telephone companies in return for a 10% royalty on their business in the UK. New companies were formed and old companies amalgamated or reorganised, but by 1889 the National Telephone Company (NTC) had almost a monopoly of private company local telephone business. It was in this light that Hull City Council's undertaking was formed. In 1898 a Select Committee of the House of Commons was formed as a result of agitation by the Corporation of Glasgow for municipal authorities to be licensed to set up telephone undertakings. The Committee reported in favour of local telephone systems being operated by municipalities in competition with the NTC. The Committee's recommendation was accepted, and the Telegraph Act 1899 was passed which empowered municipalities to use rates and to borrow for the establishment of local telephone systems under licence from the Postmaster General. Out of thirteen bodies who took out a licence only six - Brighton, Glasgow, Hull, Portsmouth, Tunbridge Wells and Swansea - actually set up telephone services. Tunbridge Wells sold out to the NTC and was followed by Swansea in 1907. Glasgow and Brighton were both bought by the Post Office and Portsmouth eventually sold out in 1913. This left Hull as the only survivor. Hull City Council, in 1899, was pressed into applying for a licence by the Hull Chamber of Trade. A special committee was formed to deal with the matter and eventually a licence to operate a service for 10 years was granted in 1902. In 1906 an offer was received by the City Council from the NTC to buy the Council system. The Telephones Committee, conscious of the fluctuating fortunes of other municipal telephone undertakings reluctantly recommended that the Council accept the offer. However, at a special meeting of the same year the Council referred back to the Committee's resolution and it was the chairman's casting vote which eventually decided the future of the Hull Telephone Department. At the time of the Government's take over of private companies Hull's licence was under review. The Post Office offered a renewal which was conditional upon the Council buying all the ex-NTC plant in the area for a sum of £192,423. The Council voted in favour of the offer and so the Corporation became the sole controlling telephone authority in the district. The years between 1902 and 1978 saw the Department successfully negotiate five licences to operate a telephone service under the Telegraph Act 1899. The last licence issued under this Act was in 1978 and covers a term of 18 years. However, as a result of the introduction of the Telecommunications Act 1984, and almost a year of negotiations, the Secretary of State granted the Hull City Council a licence to cover a period of 25 years, expiring in 2010.
|
||
| DEVELOPMENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT - PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE | ||
| * Hull's first exchange was opened on 28 November 1904.
* The first automatic exchange was opened in 1922. * Step-by-step switching was introduced in 1934 and eventually installed throughout the area. * Recorded information services, with the exception of the speaking clock, were first introduced to the UK in Hull in 1952 when they had Santa Claus on the telephone. In 1985 they were running 14 services, including a job line and 2 local radio lines. * In 1975 the old Western Electric Rotary equipment was phased out, and because it was the last of its kind in the UK, it was handed to the Science Museum in Kensington, London. * Central line testing equipment was introduced in 1982. * The hand-over of the first System X exchange took place on 28 November 1984, exactly 80 years, to the minute, after the opening of the very first exchange in Hull. * During 1985 a 1,000 port telex exchange with Single Channel Voice Frequency and a new Operations & Maintenance Centre for System X became operational. Also during 1985 a packet switching exchange was installed to handle data transmissions in conjunction with the rapidly expanding optical fibre network. *By the end of 1988 all the Strowger equipment will have been replaced, the TXE2 mobiles will have been retired leaving only 2 Crossbar exchanges to be replaced in the future. * As part of the introduction of System X in 1984, one of the most significant effects to Hull's customers since, has been the elimination of party line sharing. If you need more detailed information it may be worth contacting the Kingston-Upon-Hull City Records Office on (01482) 222015. [This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]
|
||
Copyright © 1998-2007 THG and contributors |
||