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Posted by on April 1, 2008, 5:21 pm
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Would anyone be accurately familiar with the functionality of the old
"Call Director" multi-line business telephone set? This was sort of a
jumbo keyset with a modern appearance. It had several vertical ones
of buttons and the handset cradle was on the side. Note--I'm speaking
of the plain variety, not the later versions that evolved into PBX
consoles or control stations.
My main question is if Call Directors had additional functionality
over the traditional popular six-button keyset or were merely a
"jumbo" keyset that simply had more lines to select from or answer.
If memory serves, the line keys were not round, but not a hard square
either. They also were wabbly. Sometimes you would see multiple
colors beyond the red HOLD button, such as blue, green, or yellow.
Unlike the 6-button keysets which were almost always black, Call
Directors were usually in color, often green. This helped with the
modern appearance.
I think they were a bit of a status symbol*, in that an office or
executive having one had more prestige. I think President Johnson,
who liked lots of phones, had one on his desk.
I'm not sure how anyone made use of all those lines. The only
application I can think of is a secretary to a large group of people
and she had a key for every line in the group. She could answer
calls, either all incoming calls or when someone didn't answer.
It was common for key systems to have intercoms. They could be either
dial or push-button buzzer. (Sometimes there was a little side
mounted button set for the intercom buzzers). Was there anything
special about Call Director intercoms?
The cabling must have been tough since I think in those days every
line had a pair as well as a pair for every lamp, plus controls. That
meant very thick cables coming out of the set (e.g. an inch in
diameter).
Thanks! Public replies, please.
*TCM just showed "The Thomas Crowne Affair". Not a great movie,
though the opening scene has many pay phones in it as operatives get
directions from the head guy. He's in a fancy office using a Call
Director. The pay phones shown were single slot and 3 slot, black and
colored, pedestal and booths.
***** Moderator's Note *****
IIRC, Call Directors used concentrators to cut down on lead count, and
the concentrators were located in the telephone equipment room.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or
I may never see it. Thanks!)
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Posted by Bob Vaughan on April 19, 2008, 8:28 am
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[second attempt - the first seems to have fallen into the bit-bucket]
>Would anyone be accurately familiar with the functionality of the old
>"Call Director" multi-line business telephone set? This was sort of a
>jumbo keyset with a modern appearance. It had several vertical ones
>of buttons and the handset cradle was on the side. Note--I'm speaking
>of the plain variety, not the later versions that evolved into PBX
>consoles or control stations.
>
>My main question is if Call Directors had additional functionality
>over the traditional popular six-button keyset or were merely a
>"jumbo" keyset that simply had more lines to select from or answer.
In general, they were simply a "jumbo" keyset, with multiple key
groups. The earlier ones, with the vertical rows of 6 buttons, were simply
groups of 6 lines (5 +hold on the first group). I think they came in
12, 18, and 30 button versions.
>
>If memory serves, the line keys were not round, but not a hard square
>either. They also were wabbly. Sometimes you would see multiple
>colors beyond the red HOLD button, such as blue, green, or yellow.
They were versions with round buttons, and with rounded square, and square
buttons. The later 10/20/30 button units had square buttons.
>
>Unlike the 6-button keysets which were almost always black, Call
>Directors were usually in color, often green. This helped with the
>modern appearance.
The 6 button sets were also available in colors, I have seen red, beige,
green, yellow, black, blue, etc. Not all colors were available
from WE.
>
>I think they were a bit of a status symbol*, in that an office or
>executive having one had more prestige. I think President Johnson,
>who liked lots of phones, had one on his desk.
>
>I'm not sure how anyone made use of all those lines. The only
>application I can think of is a secretary to a large group of people
>and she had a key for every line in the group. She could answer
>calls, either all incoming calls or when someone didn't answer.
They were very common in locations where there were a large number of
lines, where the user might need access to any of the lines, or where
additional buttons were needed to control external devices, such as
speakerphones, or tape recorders, etc.
>
>It was common for key systems to have intercoms. They could be either
>dial or push-button buzzer. (Sometimes there was a little side
>mounted button set for the intercom buzzers). Was there anything
>special about Call Director intercoms?
>
>The cabling must have been tough since I think in those days every
>line had a pair as well as a pair for every lamp, plus controls. That
>meant very thick cables coming out of the set (e.g. an inch in
>diameter).
All the 1A2 systems used line cards to control hold and lamp, one per line.
The line cards were shared across multiple phones sharing a line appearance.
Line cards could be CO lines, intercom, ringdown (hotline), or other
functions.
Call directors, like any other phone, could be used either directly
connected (through the KSU) to the telco, or to a PBX. Individual line
appearances could be supplied either way.
I used to work for a radio station, that had an old step-by-step PBX,
with about 30 line appearances on the 1A2 key system, with a mix of
PBX extensions, and external lines appearing on the phones.
We had several devices controlled by the phones, including audio interfaces
to the mixing console, and at least one device that used a button as a
status light, without any control function.
The basic configuration was 3 pairs per line (Tip/Ring, A1/A, and LG/L),
plus a pair (pair 20) for the ringer. The ringer was frequently wired
to a diode matrix to allow multiple lines to ring on a single set.
Some of the leads, such as LG (lamp ground) could be shared across multiple
lines, and in the later 10/20/30 button call directors, the spare LG
leads were used as L leads in order to shoehorn 9 lines into 25 pairs.
I can't remember if you could do the same with the A or A1 leads.
The earlier phones with the 6 button groups were simply wired as 6 buttons,
with no special wiring tricks. The line cords were frequently undersized
to reduce size, and eliminate extra unused pairs, although there were always
spare pairs provided for buzzers, etc.
The nice thing about these phones, is that the A/A1 leads were just contact
closures, and could be used to control external devices, which made them
a natural choice for use in radio stations, etc. There was frequently a
spare set of contacts in the hookswitch available as well. On the basic
6 button phone, the WE 2564 lacked the extra hookswitch contacts, and the
2565 included them.
The phones and KSU's were available from several manufacturers, including
WE, Stromberg-Carlson, ITT, etc. Special phones were available as well,
such as panel phones, or button fields for use in dispatch consoles, etc.
>
>
>Thanks! Public replies, please.
>
>
>
>*TCM just showed "The Thomas Crowne Affair". Not a great movie,
>though the opening scene has many pay phones in it as operatives get
>directions from the head guy. He's in a fancy office using a Call
>Director. The pay phones shown were single slot and 3 slot, black and
>colored, pedestal and booths.
[snippage]
***** Moderator's Note *****
In New England Tel, the LG and L leads were called "Lamp Gain" and
"Lamp": the "L" leads were wired in common, and the "LG" leads were
connected to the lamp voltage from the KSU's.
Was this a common practice outside NET?
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
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Posted by on April 20, 2008, 10:05 am
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> The 6 button sets were also available in colors, I have seen red, beige,
> green, yellow, black, blue, etc. Not all colors were available
> from WE.
Going back to rotary days, both my memory and what I see in old movies
is that 6 button rotary keysets were almost always black, maybe beige
in a manager's office. In contrast, back then rotary Call Directors
seemed to be always in color, often green or beige in an office
(popular colors of that era).
Cordless PBX consoles, which were modeled after Call Directors, seemed
to be almost always in beige.
In the late 1960s the Bell System came out with new types of rotary
key sets where the buttons were much bigger and had the line number on
the button head instead of on a separate strip. The buttons ran
horizontally above the dial and the set had a squarer profile. Many
of these, both wall and desk, just seemed to be to more buttons in a
newer style. But there was a _separate_ product line known as ComKey
which had extra features, tone ringers, and came in three sizes*.
Anyway, these newer style keysets seemed to be always in color.
Touch Tone keysets seemed to be often in color.
I think ComKey was last the "traditional" (G handsets, incandescent
lamps) system developed; after that they had the fancy Merlin key
system which were very different.
In our area the Bell System charged an one-time extra fee to have a
color phone in rotary days. But when Touch Tone came out colors were
free. (Tariffs in other regions may be different). The also started
offering packages for home in which color was free as well. It seems
into the later 1960s charging for color ceased.
* I worked in an office that had ComKey sets. I didn't like them, but
perhaps I'm prejudiced since I didn't like that job. I didn't care
for the tone ringers or tone/voice intercom loudspeaker.
***** Moderator's Note *****
When I workedin toll at N.E.T., we always took out the small pieces of
metal that prevented more than one button being pushed at the same
time, so that we could talk on more than one line at a time. This
"brute force" conferencing worked surprisingly well.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or
I may never see it. Thanks!)
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Posted by harold@hallikainen.com on April 22, 2008, 12:20 am
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options > ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> When I workedin toll at N.E.T., we always took out the small pieces of
> metal that prevented more than one button being pushed at the same
> time, so that we could talk on more than one line at a time. This
> "brute force" conferencing worked surprisingly well.
>
> Bill Horne
> Temporary Moderator
I did the same thing with a 5 line key set in the radio station I
worked at in 1970. We had a talk show, and it was nice to be able to
conference calls. At the time, our congressman was Leon Panetta. He
would call once a week, and we'd conference him with local listeners
who called in to the show. I had built a hybrid to do the two wire to
four wire conversion out of several resistors and capacitors.
Harold
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Posted by on April 22, 2008, 12:22 am
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> When I workedin toll at N.E.T., we always took out the small pieces of
> metal that prevented more than one button being pushed at the same
> time, so that we could talk on more than one line at a time. This
> "brute force" conferencing worked surprisingly well.
Occassionally savy customers tinkered with their keysets to allow
multiple line buttons to be depressed at the same time so to have a
conference circuit. I presume this was forbidding by the phoneco, but
was it because it could damage the network (combining two lines
causing 'balancing' problems?), or just a loss of revenue from not
renting a conference circuit?
I've seen keysets today that have a button to join two lines.
PBX cord switchboards could have an optional conference circuit with
two trunks and three extensions or five extensions. I don't know if
that circuit had internal components or merely joined wires together.
To this day our Centrex Operators make up high volume conference and
telelecture calls. We can add on one party for a three-way call from
our desks.
At home, everyone has pay-as-you-use 3-way calling (75c a pop or
subscription). I've used it from time to time to coordinate dinner
arrangements; it does make things easier having everyone all at one to
agree on something.
Local Bell operators could arrange coference calls, for a fee. I
wonder if they still have that feature. Likewise for long distance
operators. That service used to be mentioned in the phone book, but
it is not now.
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