The Telephone Historical Centre was an Edmonton museum of antique telephones and telecommunications technology. With interactive exhibits that allowed visitors to experience history first-hand, this venue provided visitors with an interactive experience that truly immersed them into its artifacts and history.
It displayed an extensive collection of telephones spanning Alexander Graham Bell’s Gallows Frame and Thomas Watson’s Thumper Phone to rotary dial phones and novelty telephones, plus it contained a functioning central office step switch and operator switchboard.
Manual System Telephones
Museum visitors will find several manual system telephones used by switchboard operators before automated switching and customer dialing, featuring wooden slat cabinets equipped with three separate magneto or electric generator boxes each housing an attachment hook for hanging up receivers, which were in service until shortly before 1900.
Manual service operators were able to quickly identify where calls originated by viewing the subscriber number displayed on an indicator, or hearing bells ring out in response to subscriber calls. Rural areas typically used magneto phones that required subscribers to manually turn a crank in order to generate current for transmitters; additionally they had wet cell batteries to provide direct current for direct current transmission.
This non-profit museum is managed by active and retired AT&T, Southwestern Bell, Northern Electric and MCI employees and families. The museum boasts one of North America’s finest collections of antique telecommunication equipment and research documents from AT&T to NEC to MCI including an historic step-by-step private automatic branch exchange; working Central Office step switches; an operational two position Kellogg universal switchboard; plant displays of poles cable splicing tools and antique line insulators.
Coffin Phones
The Telephone Historical Centre was one of the only museums in North America offering visitors a hands-on experience with tangible history of telecommunications. Visitors had an opportunity to touch, interact with and physically experience this formative history of communications technology. The museum featured a diverse array of antique telephones, such as Violette & Bartlett family phones. Additionally, there was a working central office switchboard (with operator panel and crossbar electromechanical switching). Novelty and classic rotary phones could also be found here. This hands-on approach to telecommunications enabled visitors to experience the evolution of telecommunications from Alexander Graham Bell’s Gallows Frame phone and Thomas Watson’s Thumper phone to modern videophones. Additionally, guided tours were available that gave guests an opportunity to interact with and experience phones and artifacts directly.
Rotary Dial Telephones
Dialing through your phone produced clicks via a mechanical switch which generated pulses that were translated by an exchange into each of the ten digits, an impressive feat of engineering at its time. This seemingly straightforward mechanism required amazing amounts of mechanical and electrical engineering talent in its day.
To use a rotary dial telephone, users would pick up the handset and listen for a steady buzz of bees (dial tone). Once this signal had been heard, they would place their finger into one of the holes corresponding to one digit, pull forward until reaching finger stop, release dialing finger stop and release.
A rotary dial governor would then interrupt the line’s direct current with an electrical switch to produce pulses at an average of ten per second, typically on its face plate which displayed printed lists of numbers assigned to each hole on its faceplate. Some phones were fitted with physical locks while other dials utilized an automated centrifugal governor system that kept constant speed.
Telephone Directories
Directories are databases containing contact details such as names and phone numbers for people. You can access many directories online for free; others require subscription or payment and offer more advanced search capabilities such as reverse phone lookup. Directories can assist sales teams and marketers in discovering potential customers.
Our collections consist of both yellow and white pages, address and criss-cross directories (or reverse directories), as well as city business directories. Yellow and white pages are printed books which alphabetize subscribers within a geographic area alphabetically while address/criss-cross directories provide search capabilities by both name and phone number.
Utilizing directories is an efficient and cost-saving way to find what you’re searching for quickly and cost effectively. When selecting your directory, make sure it is known for its accuracy and regular updates, and ensure the information you’re searching is verified before calling them directly.
