Connect Operator Phone Socket People Wanted Telephone Long

Telephone service has gone through many changes in the past. Long before we had cell phones, all "land lines" (fixed telephones) were connected through a "telephone exchange," or an electronic system that connects telephone calls.

A person known as an "operator" would sit in front of a large board called a "plug board" or "switchboard" with many "sockets" (things that something else can be pushed into to connect electronically). The operator would "manually" (using one's hands) move "cables" (wires covered in plastic) from one socket to another to connect callers with the people they wanted to speak with.

The caller would lift the "headset" (the piece of a phone that one puts next to one's ear and mouth) and the operator would say, "Number, please?" Then the caller would state the number that he or she wanted to call. The operator would move the cable to the right socket to make that call. If it were a "long-distance" (not local) call, the operator might have to connect the cable to a socket that would connect to another operator, who would then have to do the same thing, creating a long "chain" (connection) before the long-distance call could be placed. This took much longer than just "dialing the number" (typing numbers on a phone) like we do today.

In the past, when more than two people wanted to speak over the phone, they had to use "party lines," or shared "lines" (telephone connections) where more than two "parties" (people) could participate. These party lines didn't allow the callers to have any privacy, and may people could "eavesdrop" (listen to something that one is not supposed to hear) on the conversations.