File:Bell telephone magazine (1922) (14569482300).jpg

Identifier: belltvol20elephonemag00amerrich (find matches)
Title: Bell telephone magazine
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: American Telephone and Telegraph Company American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Information Dept
Subjects: Telephone
Publisher: (New York, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., etc.)
Contributing Library: Prelinger Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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s with strong memories; an epi-demic of measles occurred in Low-ell, Massachusetts, and Dr. )\IosesGreeley Parker, a member of theBoard of Directors, viewed withalarm, from his standpoint as a phy-sician, the possible condition of af-fairs if more than two of the four op-erators should be taken with themeasles, and proposed that the sub-scribers should be numbered. His associates demurred, as theywere of the opinion that the subscrib-ers would give up their telephonessooner than submit to the indignityof being known by number, but inview of the contingency of the servicebeing paralyzed they finally yielded,and to the surprise of all, the new ar-rangement was cheerfully accepted bythe subscribers, who appreciated theimprovement in service which resultedfrom the change. With the introduction of numberdesignations, telephone directories ofcourse began to show customers num-bers. When local operators were re-lieved of the responsibility of remem- 19^1 Providing the Information Service 153
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A Modern Information Bureau Equipped with Frequently Reprinted Records Pictured here is one of the largest information bureaus of this type in the Bell System.The arrangement of operators positions, the accessibility of records, and the privacy affordedindividual operators conduce to the furnishing of an Information service which is pleasing to customers bering the names of all their custom-ers, and their locations on the switch-board, they were able to concentrateon the numbers of new customerswhose telephones were connected be-tween directory issues, and usuallywere able to supply these numbersfrom memory. As the business con-tinued to grow, however, this addedresponsibility became too much forthe local operator, and finally the In-formation specialist came into being.From its early beginnings, the pro-vision of Information service has beenthe subject of the study and develop-ment which are characteristic of the Bell Systems approach to the task ofrendering a pleasing and efficient

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