Posted by Alan Hakim on April 30, 2007 at 17:10:41 from 212.137.131.33 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Changes in Technologies posted by LaurenceMonkhouse on April 30, 2007 at 14:53:47:
I haven't heard the term 'doll's-eye' before, but it's a perfect description. On the other hand, I only know of Strouger switches as applied to the dialling system. (Legend is that he was an undertaker who invented dialled telephones to prevent the operator diverting his business to rivals.) The Strouger dialling selector switch was in use in UK exchanges until very recently; I think all have been converted to digital by now.
Fellside 75 is indeed quite a high number, but it must have been a manual exchange - UK automatic exchange numbers had a minimum of 3 digits starting at 200. I suspect AR was visualising a small exchange in the back of Rio village Post Office, and wasn't concerned with the details we are now discussing.