Mike Meyers’ CompTIA Network+ Certification Passport, 4th Edition (Exam N10-005), 4th Edition

The Dawn of Long Distance

Have you ever watched one of those old-time movies in which someone makes a phone call by picking up the phone and saying, “Operator, get me Mohawk 4, 3-8-2-5!”? Suddenly, the scene changes to some person sitting at a switchboard like the one shown in Figure 8.2.

FIGURE 8.2   Old-time telephone operator (photo courtesy of the Richardson Historical and Genealogical Society)

That was the telephone operator. The telephone operator made a physical link between your phone and the other phone, making your connection. The switchboard acted as a circuit switch, as plugging in the two wires created a physical circuit between ...