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Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham

You have to give it to Thomas Edison - he was prolific - if not always on the right lines, perhaps the time has not yet come for the Aerophone (though some people's use of the modern Mobile, one could be forgiven for thinking so - "I'M ON THE TRAIN" etc).

The Aerophone consisted of a speaking trumpet controlled by the outflow of compressed air which amplified the human voice. It could be heard clearly through receiving hearing trumpets as far as six miles. Read more in The NY Times 25 Mar 1878 https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E0CE7DA163FE036A05756C2A9659C946990D7CF

In "Edison, His Life and Inventions" it is described as "a steam machine which carried the voice a distance of one and a half miles."
 
Astonian said:
hi aiden ;
what was the number to the one around from the cricket ground
the one i am refering to is on the pershore rd just along from i think is an indoor cricket hall
it comes between edward rd and edgbaston rd years ago it was a very busy exchange
it had about thre rows of lady operating ;there must have been about 12 in a row or more
all chatting ,and giving info; out pulling in and out there boards not stop ;
there was a lady on each end of the rows ;looking up and down the rows waiting and loking for anybody whom as got problems with there lines
it was my first and only one time i have ever been in a telepone exchange looking with intrest at all there boards and seeing how they handled it and they spoke
and belive me it was trying to get intop fort knocks we had to used a pass word for a certain gentleman
and with id ,before we could past the first door ; this office is still standing today
i think there is some kind of an indian meeting hall next door know which as an insian sign on it but it is still there but i do not know if its operatioal today ; do you know ?.
best wish Astonian ;;;
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Hi All
New to the forum but have found it all so interesting. Maybe the exchange you are referring to was Calthorpe exchange (somewhere near Calthorpe Park) on the Pershore Road. The Exchange at Dogpool was Selly Oak Trunks and Selly Oak Automatic Exchange was somewhere around Selly Park Road - Oaklands road?
I used to live at the 'Off Licence' on the corner of Dogpool Lane on the opposite corner to the exchange, there was also a Birmingham Municipal Bank there too. In the photo you can just see the corner of the 'Offie' on the right hand side. The picture was taken from the corner of St Stephens Road (Woodwards Corner as it was known)
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Welcome to the forum & this thread Bob.

I always wanted to live at the offie...

Your attachment has not come out - can you try again please?
 
Exchange names where sometimes not too indicative of the places they covered because the combinations of letters on the dial could already be used for another exchange.

Oldbury was BROadwell because dialing O would in those days have got you the operator, although the Oldbury exchange was in the area known as Broadwell
Quinton was WOOdgate because there was no Q on the dial but the Quinton exchange was some distance from Woodgate.

London exchanges had some wierd names like TCY and HOP presumably because there were so many more exchanges and they had run out of placenames
 
Very intersting to have a list of the old Birmingham Exchanges. Any idea if there is anywhere a list of old London Exchanges. Google directs me to the same website as the Birmingham list but I cannot see London numbers.
 
Thanks for that Aidan. The Border Police did not like me accessing that website. I got UNSAFE WEBSITE flashing up at me. However I carried on. I recognised many exchange names from the depths of my memory like SKYport for London Airport exchange. Amazzing how many exchanges had been set up with names just covering the City area. Exchanges I thought were just made up like TCY turn out to be GPO Telephones internal numbers. I did dial a random number on the TCY exchange many years ago to see what would happen and it was answered with TCY and the number so I just appologied for a wrong number and rang off.

I have see several references to AFN All Figure Numbers but I remember at the time the publicity was ANN All Numbers Now or was that the next phase of the change over. At the time I was working for Shell in Birmingham and our telephone number was EDGbaston 9898. We were changed to 021 455 9898 but several of the stickers which the telephone engineer stuck on the dials of our telephones said 021 454 9898 so he had to go away and check this.
 
I was interested to note that you can browse and search 1970's phone directories on Ancestry, on standard membership. Apologies if already mentioned.
Reminding us of our own or a friend's previous address and number.
Lu
 
That's a good point Lu and it hasn't been mentioned before. I have just used it to confirm when my Grandparents moved house- great!
 
The attached picture of the installation of telephone cables in Colmore Row in 1908 was originally posted (but much larger) by Frothblower on Lyn's "old evening mail pics ..." thread. [Thanks, Froth! ;)]
 
Thanks - great photo.

They didn't have TV in them days.

At least the engineer has sensible trousers sensibly hoisted up.

I wonder when the red & white Punch & Judy tents came in (& why they were red & white)?
 
Mike Fisher said:
Joined GPO Telephones 3 Sep 1962 signed official secret act over a stamp. Made reduntant from BT 30 Sep 1995. Spent 27 (1965 to 1992) years on Strowger exchange maintenance at Springfield Telephone Exchange ,Stratford Rd, Hall Green
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Hi Mike,

I joined GPO a year later in 1964, and was I believe in the first Y3YC. Was yours a 2 year apprenticeship? I took redundancy in 1998 after being in TElephone House and Midland all those years.

Best wishes Peter
 
Aidan said:
Thylacine, thanks for this, it is a good write-up (of course) on the general history, although anything outside of London is dismissed as "the provinces". A fascinating cross-over with BET (what were they eating/drinking/smoking?)

I love the old wiring diagrams from the PO Electrical Engineers Journal and I must get one framed as art work (getting permission to hang it may be more problematic!), possibly one of the 746 Telephone.

The Timeline gives fascinating detail about the obstructionist behaviour of the Post Office which really seems to have set back the development. Even more reason to celebrate our Piercy!
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I remember the good old PO Electrical Engineers Journal. Very useful to carry around if you were after promotion!

Regards Peter
 
Thylacine said:
Mouth-watering diagrams, Aidan! Not quite on topic, but I went through an electronics craze in my teens: I remember listening to Radio Luxembourg on a little transistor radio I actually assembled myself (probably a Sinclair). No printed circuits in those days of course: lots of soldering and screwdriver work. And the transistors were big. I used to love the colour codes on the resistors and take pride in being able to decipher them (couldn't do it today!). I've long been a sucker for a circuit diagram!
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Hi,

The mention of colour codes reminded me of those for the cables. I remember the unprintable mnemonics used by the Jointers

Also the term used by the upper class internal workers to describe their external colleagues. Maybe able to get away with
this one; hairy-arsed jointers

Best wishes Peter
 
Thought we might have to shoot you, but you seemed to have got away with it. Most interesting thanks Peter.
 
It's all history now but the UK generally was way behind North America with respect to telephones. Not now seemingly...most people seem to carry one. Anyway, in Brum my family never had a telephone and I doubt if my father and mother ever used one. This was not unusual and few...very few...of those that I knew had a device well into the sixties and when I started work in 55 I dreaded having to use one; being so unfamiliar with such useage. All of this when nearly every abode in the US and Canada had a phone.

It's the reverse now maybe and I suspect that useage has become a nuisence for many...being forced to overhear someone elses needless conversation...constant advertising of windows and doors....kids texting in class. It all has become, occasionally usefull but mostly a pain. I suspect that this is a minority view...but I don't care.
 
Hello DavidGrain if you go onto google and type in The Birmingham Anchor Exchange. it will tell you all about it. its an interesting read. all the best formula t.
 
Ref Rupert's post. My parents had a phone in the house but that was a minority then. I remember when I was little at my grandparents house only the house opposite had a phone in the whole road because he had been in the ARP during the war. When I started work in 1960 there were only the two phones, external and internal in the department, next to the boss's desk and it was the job of the junior in the office to walk all the way from the back of the room to answer the phone. Every one watched me on my first day because all my predecessors had been very nervouse never having used a phone before and made a hash of it. I walked more confidently that I felt up to the phone answered it and when the caller asked for my boss I handed it over to him telling him who was calling. Everyone was amazed
 
We have all seen the TARDIS in Dr Who but can anyone say when the last police boxes where taken out. I also can't remember when the last AA & RAC boxes went although I still have my key on my car key ring. And does anyone remember the fire alarm boxes on street corners.
 
David, Wikipedia has an excellent illustrated history of the police box. I wonder if any remain in Birmingham or the Midlands? It appears that they are still in use in Glasgow (where they used to be red). Pictured below: Glasgow police boxes old (courtesy of Phil Rogers at flickr) and new.
 
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Following my post about Police Telephone Boxes last week. By coincidence I saw this in London on the Embankment on Saturday. The post was in a sorry state with the door missing as was the telephone and the lamp glasses. From its position I would say that this was a City of London Police box rather than a Metropolitan Police box.
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