Yet Another Post about Early Telephones

"If the call was long distance, she plugged into a trunk circuit to begin making the necessary connections to another locale. The call could be completed only if all the intermediate trunk lines between the calling centers were available at the same time. The average time to complete a connection for a long distance call in 1918 was 15 minutes. This time estimate extended to two hours during World War II when the government was given priority for military calls.

"A city operator might process as many as 600 calls in an hour. A rural operator often had the switchboard in her home and was given an extra long wire for her headset so that she could move around and do other things until a call came in."

Wow. Doing the ironing, fixing up dinner...all while wearing the all-important headset in case a call came through. Sheesh. These gemlets come from the America Comes Alive! website, which has many more for your delectation.