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MONDAY NIGHT AT EIGHT
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Some Ramblings about the Marconi Telephone Exchange (Courtesy of Phil Hollington)I joined the company initially in 1971
for a period of two years, and then came back again in 1973 for a
period of one year, then ultimately in 1980 for a period of twenty
one years, yes I know, some people just don't know when to give up!!
The headcount of telephonists at that time was 23.5 heads, there were
three part-timers and each was counted as a half head. The switchboard
hereinafter referred to as the 'board' was an 11 position 1A lamp
signalling type. You may wonder why there were so many telephonists
and only 11 boards, the reason for this was that we were at that time
Head Office and thus were responsible for 'manning' the outstations,
these were then all over the place:-
Writtle Road,Writtle, Witham, Rivenhall, Three Bays,There was also an inter-company bus service at that time the timetable for which was displayed in the Post Room. This bus service was comprised mostly of 8 /10 seat minibuses and could be used by any employees travelling between sites for whatever reason. In addition to people, all the internal post was transported between sites using this service. Naturally there came a time when these buses became non cost-effective and the service was ceased (but I can't remember exactly when). The board was open from 08:15 until 18:30 each day and 08:30 to 17:30 on Saturday. There was a rota system to ensure that the board was covered at all times and this included lunchtime. At no time was the board closed for any reason whatsoever, even when we had a fire drill someone had to stay back to take the incoming calls and advise customers that there was fire drill in operation and thus no-one was replying to phones. There's dedication to duty for you!! Incoming calls took priority over internal calls but no-one was left waiting for more than a few seconds before being answered. Directors phones were indicated by having a red lamp and these also took priority over other internal calls awaiting answer. The answering speed was monitored all the time and posted each week, if the average went above 5 seconds we knew we were in trouble! It was a stipulation of the job at that time that all operators employed should be GPO trained, this was considered the 'crème de la crème'. Anyone who knows anything about the GPO training of manual telephone operators at that time will know what I mean. It was all about routines and specific phrases and you did not deviate from these. Even now I find I still use many of the same rules when using my telephone whether it be at home or at work. Your position was not vacated without permission from the supervisor, to go to the loo you had to ask for 'a casual', and if someone was already on 'a casual' you had to wait until that person returned. However, you didn't then assume you could just get up and go, you had to wait to be told it was OK to leave your position. It all sounds a bit regimental but those were the rules and they were accepted as such. Miss Gladys Huggins was the Senior Supervisor during my time as a switchboard operator at Marconi, it was she who put the rotas together, she who sent operators out to relieve at other sites and her word was law. I don't think I ever heard Miss Huggins raise her voice, but you certainly knew it if you were in trouble with her. Nobody ever called her Gladys, she was always Miss Huggins, she commanded respect and she got it. I don't think I've come across anyone else quite like Miss Huggins, she was a one-off and I think it's true to say that we all had a very high regard for her.  The
switchboard used to be located on the first floor behind what was then
the ladies loo. This has all changed now of course, the last I heard
was this area was being used as a dark room, I don't know if it still
is. The ladies loo has long gone, it was converted into a large office
and used for some time as the Registry until the demise of that department
some years ago. Each day, the operator on the early duty (there was
usually only one at 08:15) had to clean the board. This entailed sweeping
all the positions, between the plugs and the keys with a paintbrush
kept solely for this purpose. As the plugs were made mostly of brass
these became very black and dirty from the natural oils on our hands,
sometimes at the end of the day, the side of your thumb and index finger
where the plugs were 'flicked' up, were ingrained with black from the
brass. A GPO engineer came in periodically to effect repairs etc., and
would sit and clean all the plugs on each position with a proprietary
brass cleaner. It was important to make sure that the plugs were kept
in pristine condition, if they became too dirty or the tips worn then
the contact between the plug and the edge of the jack (the hole the
plug went into) would be noisy. Thus the operator would be unable to
check whether the extension was engaged or not. Inserting a plug into
an engaged jack was a cardinal sin, as it cut the call off ! So it was
important that all the equipment was kept as clean and free of dirt
and dust as possible. Each position had 17 pairs of cords in two parallel
rows, one cord for answering the call and the other for connecting to
the receiving end. In front of the cords were two rows of switches or
keys, these keys corresponded with the cords, the first row of keys
were the answering keys and second row the ringing keys. To dial out
there was a key located next to the dial and this had to be pushed forward
to engage it. It all sounds terribly complex, but it's like everything,
once you've learned it it becomes second nature and you do it without
even thinking about it. Each pair of cords was coloured:- Red, Yellow,
Blue, Green alternately in the same order to the end of the row. You
worked the board from left to right and always sat with an answering
cord in your hand ready to take a call. On a busy day (Monday usually),
it was nothing to have all your cords connected, and if this happened
you sat with your arms folded so that the supervisor could see that
you had a full board and were unable to continue. If the position next
to you was vacant, you took that over and worked two boards at the same
time.There was no smoking allowed at the board and certainly no eating!
Occasionally a packet of polo's was offered up and down the board but
nothing larger than that or you couldn't speak properly and we all know
what it's like being on the end of the phone when someone's eating or
crunching a sweet! It just wasn't acceptable. We each had a pad on which
we recorded outgoing long distance and overseas calls, the completed
sheets were collected at the end of the day and a record kept of these
sheets for accounting purposes. All overseas calls were sent down to
the 'international' position as these could be time consuming and in
order that they could be dealt with as swiftly as possible, one operator
was assigned to 'international'. It has to be remembered here, that
no-one had any kind of dialling out facility of their own, everything
came through the board. We take overseas dialling for granted now, but
it's not so long ago that all these calls had to be booked through the
International Operator at the local exchange. A 'slot' for the call
was then booked via this operator and we on the switchboard were called
back when the call was successful (or not). Marketing people were the
biggest users of this facility, calls to China and UAE were the most
difficult to get connections to, it was not unusual to spend days trying
to get a connection. Calls of this nature which took a great deal of
time and effort to connect were strictly monitored to make sure that
once connected they were not 'inadvertently' disconnected by our end.
One aspect of this type of call was that it could take days to connect
and then only be in progress for a few minutes. It was frustrating,
but the cost of calls then was quite prohibitively high in comparison
to call costs today. No two days were alike in the life of a telephonist
back then, as the job was totally manual there was this also 'personal'
element to it. You got to know people's voices and associated them with
their extension number. Some voices were far more distinctive than others
and you only needed to hear them a couple of times to recognise them,
many users were quite 'chuffed' when you recognised their voice and
could refer to them by their name instead of having to ask 'who's calling
please?' Some of the Directors became almost offended if you had to
ask their name, they expected you should know who they were without
having to ask, they never took into account the fact that you may be
new to the job, that was not their concern. The M.D. when I joined in
1980 was Sir Robert Telford, there was nothing 'uppity' about him, if
his Secretary (Pauline Easton) was out of the office or had left for
the day, he was quite happy to make his own calls and never shouted
if he was kept waiting. At the end of the day between 17:30 and 18:00
there was usually only one operator left on the board. If Sir Robert
picked up his phone (Ext 192), and you were already dealing with a call
you couldn't just abandon that call, you saw it through. If Sir Robert
had put his phone down by this time, you'd ring him and ask if he still
wanted to be connected somewhere, he was always most appreciative of
little services like this and never took it for granted. There were
of course exceptions, and these people could make your life a misery
if you let them. There were the impatient ones who if they were not
answered immediately would start 'flashing' - this was what happened
if the telephone receiver was 'jiggled' up and down, it made the lamp
flash. This was a signal for an emergency call and we would always answer
with 'emergency which service please?' Naturally, there were some who
abused this and thought they could get away with it every time, but
there was an unspoken rule for these people, 'make them wait and give
them something to complain about'. We didn't have to do this very often,
but when we did, the abuser of the system was made fully aware that
we all knew what he/she was up to. Fortunately there were not too many
incidences of this kind, which I like to think says a lot about the
telephone service provided at that time. Saturday working was part of
our contractual hours but nobody particularly liked working on Saturday
because it was so quiet, as with all jobs, when it's busy the time went
that much quicker, but Saturdays were a real drag!!  As
with everything, time moved on and we eventually had to replace our
beloved switchboard with a modern version. So in July of 1983 all the
operators were sent to Wellingborough on a two-day training course to
learn to operate a new electronic switchboard. Our numbers had been
reduced quite dramatically by this time, many of the outstations had
gone so the days of relieving for sickness and holidays etc., had long
passed. The new electronic switchboard required only six operators plus
one supervisor for the administration work. This was a time of great
change and learning for the whole company, everyone had to get used
to using this new switchboard. Directors were initially the only people
allocated DDI lines (Direct Dial In), but these gradually increased
until it's now the norm as opposed to the exception to have a DDI line.
Initially too there were many users who could only call internal extensions,
or perhaps only dial local calls. Many modifications have been made
to the software of the new exchange over the years to accommodate the
ever-increasing demands of the users. As with everything in this throw
away society though, this 'new' switchboard is now obsolete (and has
been for many years), so the next step will be the scrap heap I guess,
but I doubt it's passing will be felt as much as the old 1A lamp signalling
board. The personal touch has all but gone with the ability of the users
to get their own calls. It was a sad day when that board was finally
'dismembered' and its 'innards' piled in heaps in the yard. Because
of where the switch room was situated there was some difficulty in getting
all the equipment out, it was eventually achieved by lowering it out
of the window above the staircase which leads up to the present post
room on the first floor. I can't tell you whether or not any of the
positions were put into a museum or not as I have no idea. I would like
to think that this is the case, but I don't even know anyone left here
now who would have any memory of this grand old piece of history to
be able to tell you. |