The Bell System's Best Sellers

Special Group Is Busy Writing and Revising "Bell System Practices," Operating Handbooks of which the Associated Companies Acquired a Million Copies Last Year The Bell System's Best Sellers A. B. Covey THERE IS a small office building in cables, open wire lines, radio systems, lower New York City whose en- carrier systems, and the many types trance is so inconspicuous that a of central office equipment. The in- chance observer might pass by with- stallers use them as instructions for out even noticing it. Should he enter installing telephones, private branch the building, however, and proceed exchanges, and Teletypewriter equip- to the third and fourth floors, he ment. The construction forces use would find himself in a beehive of them in the construction of cables and telephone activity. For the two open wire lines. The maintenance floors house a group of men from forces use them in the maintenance the Engineering and Plant Depart- of all forms of central office and ments of the Bell System's Associated private branch exchange equipment, Companies who have accepted tem- subscribers' station equipment, cables, porary assignment with the Opera- and open wire lines. PRACTICES are tion and Engineering Department of also used for training purposes both the A. T. and T. Company. These on the job and in training schools. men are engaged in the preparation They are used not only in every and revision of urgently needed Bell Operating Company but also in the System PRACTICES. Western Electric Company and the Bell System PRACTICES are the in- Bell Telephone Laboratories. structions which describe the best During I 9 5 1 these Companies ac- methods of engineering, installing, quired over one million copies of the constructing, and maintaining the tele- PRACTICES. phone plant. The engineers use the Bell System PRACTICES are, obvi- PRACTICES as guides in the design of ously, an integral part of telephone 88 Bell Telephone Magazine SUMMER operations. They are as important in their preparation, and now the working tools as any the operating situation has arisen again. The forces use. Thus, they play an im- Companies have responded with the portant part in providing the public largest group of PRACTICE writers with the best and the most telephone in history, organized since the mid- service at the lowest possible cost. dle of last year in the separate estab- The preparation of such informa- lishment already referred to. tion * has been one of the major In preparing PRACTICES, those functions of the Bell System head- writers are following a plan estab- quarters organization for almost lished over 20 years ago. Let's take three-quarters of a century. Dur- a look at some of the developments ing that time, these instructions have which resulted in the creation of the grown from a few circular letters Bell System PRACTICES Plan, the to a library of over 9,ooo separate events leading up to the organization pamphlets or sections. Many times of the present special writing group, it has been necessary to call on the and also a brief look at a typicial Operating Companies for assistance writer's job. *While the discussion here is limited to Bell System PRACTICES, information of many other Early Forms of "Practices" types is issued by the General Departments of the A. T. & T. Company as part of the con- IN I 879, The National Bell Tele- stant process of furnishing advice and assistance to the Operating Companies. phone Company was already estab- lished, with headquarters at 95 Milk Street in Boston. W. H. Forbes was president, Alexander Graham Bell was electrician, Theodore N. Vail, general manager, and Thomas A. Watson, general superintendent. There were approximately 16,ooo telephones in the country at that period, and Mr. Watson was spend- ing most of his time trying to make them work. The subscribers of that day were not very critical of the fail- ures of the telephone apparatus; they were amazed that it worked at all. But the difficulties experienced by the licensees, or agents, as they were called, resulted in a continual stream of questions to the National Bell in Boston on the design and maintenance of the telephone apparatus. Answers to such questions were The book-case contains about a third of the provided by means of circular letters, present active sections of Bell System Prac- tices. They are kept in binders for con- and a number of these are still pre- venient use served. It is interesting to note the The Bell System's Best Sellers ----------------- general similarity be- tween those early letters and the drawings, descriptions, and data incorporated i n the present-day Bell Sys- tem PRACTICES. Many years later, Mr. Watson was con- sulted on the histori- cal facts about the A group of "Practice" writers at work in their special information furnished quarters the "Operating Com- panies" in those early days of the telephone. The need ard procedures were not always fol- for this kind of information could lowed. One tale relates to an op- best be explained, he responded, by erator who undertook to clean the a trip he made through the West in switchboard plugs with steel wool. 1878 to inspect the telephones that It seemed like a good idea-espe- were then in use. cially as the plugs were thoroughly "My route took in Chicago, Mil- cleaned. The "out" was that fine waukee, Pittsburgh, Washington, and steel slivers adhered to the plugs, all of the larger cities on route," he so that when they were inserted in said. "I found our telephones giving the switchboard jacks they "shorted fairly good satisfaction to the users, out" the jack contacts. The plug although to me, when I tested them, cleaning was necessarily followed by they seemed to work badly. I was a thorough job of jack cleaning. especially dissatisfied with my call Another "off the record" yarn tells bells. Both telephones and bells had of an equipment attendant who was evidently been neglected since they having trouble with a bay of equip- had been put into use; apparently ment which contained a good many nothing had been done to them in the relays. Each morning, when he came way of cleaning or adjustment since to work, he found an accumulation they left the shop. My time on this trip was largely spent in showing our of trouble reports which past ex- men how to adjust the instruments perience told him were caused by and impressing them with the need of "sticky" relays in the bay. Finally, constant inspection to keep them he resolved to take drastic action; working at their best." Thus, from and each morning thereafter he hit the start there was a real need to get the bay a wallop with a short length into the field people's hands the nec- of two-by-four. The method was essary information on the proper temporarily effective, but ultimately maintenance of the equipment. it was recognized as not a standard While not a matter of record, method of clearing the trouble. stories handed down from the "good Such incidents, however apocry- old days" make it appear that stand- phal they may be, do emphasize the Bell Telephone Magazine SUMMER ------------------------ .. still preserved on .. crofilm at the Bell phone Laboratories. The numbered fications made possible the construction of the . early open wire and ble lines. Viewed in the light of present-day standards, the methods were crude, but they filled the needs well, as is evidenced by the long periods of satisfactory service the lines dered. World War I IN THE DECADE ing World War I, there were more ments in the PRACTICE situation than in any An early "Practice," covering the No. 7 subscriber's set other similar period in Bell System history. In place of PRACTICES in Bell System practically all of these, the Operating operations. Companies played an important part. Two important PRACTICE devel- The developments were a direct re- opments stand out in the period up sult of concerted efforts to provide to the end of World War I. information in pamphlet form for use in the field. Those of particular in- I. The inauguration of standard terest were : drawings as a means of furnishing information to the Operat- I. Numbered Bulletins ing Companies on new circuits 2. Transmission Maintenance and equipment. This method Practices is still in use. 3· Handbooks of Outside Plant 2. The introduction of the num- Engineering Practices bered specifications, covering 4· Transmission Practices principally outside plant con- 5· Bell System Maintenance Prac- struction items such as cables tices and open wire lines. 6. Building Practices Copies of some of the early draw- By I 930, PRACTICES were being ings, dating back to the I 88os, are issued to the Operating Companies The Bell System's Best Sellers covering a major part of the operations carried on by the Plant and En- BELL SYSTEM PRACTICES gineering Departments. The trans- I. Central office maintenance, cover- mission people had their method of ing methods and procedures for main- distribution, the outside plant another taining central office equipment. method, the maintenance people still another. There was a real and obvi- 2. Private branch exchange installa- ous need for a coordinated plan of tion and maintenance. distribution. Again the Bell System 3· Station installation and mainte- team went into action: a new Bell nance, which covered both telephone System PRACTICES Plan was evolved. and telegraph stations. This provided for the inclusion, in one comprehensive scheme, of all 4· Toll test room operation, describ- instructions used by the Plant and ing the operation of toll test boards Engineering people.

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