T Ousands Turn out for Pen Ho Se 1978

@ Vol. 1 No.6 Merrimack Valley Works October 1978 Fiber Optics FT3 a Works Product Set for 1980 The Merrimack VaIl~y Works and Western Electric's Atlanta and Reading Works plan production of a lightwave communication system scheduled for service in December 1980. Designated FT3 ("F" for Fiber Op tics and "T3" to follow the TI and T2 product line names), its first route will serve Southern Bell in Atlanta, Georgia. The Merrimack Valley Works will prodiJce certain transmission elements, including intermediate regenerators and digital multiplexers that combine the signals into the final form for transmission. The regenerators recreate the pulse stream and the multiplexers change the form and speed of the digital pulse's stream. Lightwave Transmission Product and Project Engineer Ed Faber says the Works will start manufacturing the equipment in January 1980 for ship ment to Atlanta that May. He says the planners have not estimated how many Works on-roll employees the program will effect. The Atlanta Works will manufacture the FT3 Iightguide cables, and Reading "Hello, Mickey?" The recent Open House saw hundreds of kiddies talking to Mickey and Snoopy at the Design Line* display in the auditorium. will make the lasers and the photo • Trademark of AT&T diodes . Fiber optics is the use of hair-thin pen Ho se 1978 glass fibers to transmit light signals. T ousands Turn Out For Hospitals use it to photograph the body's interior. Government uses it for Over 11,000 visitors ate 11,470 escorted family and friends around the first Open House evening. aircraft communications. The com pieces of cake, received over 10,000 Works, showing them their desks, their "This Open House is better than the puter industry connects computer Open House Safety Glasses, made benches, their co-workers, and their last one," said Nancy Harlow, wife of peripherals with main computers or $200-worth of calls on a six-foot supervisors. Works employee Earl Harlow. "There data bases with it, and the auto in Touchtone* telephone, and walked "I feel like I have always been are more displays and more signs tell dustry is installing it in ' certain miles throughout the Works during here," said Life Member Beulah Cor ing you where you're going and what dashboard panels for warning signals Open House September 19,20,21, and mier. "I worked here 20 years, and you're looking at. I saw more this time and readouts. 23 . retired last year," she added sitting in than last, and I Ii ke the safety glasses." The telecommunications industry is Often carrying babies in their arms the Private Dining Room designated as At the Gate 4 entrance Open House developing fiber optics to transmit or pushing carriages, employees the Life Member reception area on the visitors received safety glasses to wear telephone calls. A laser that pulsates' (continued on page 8) 44.7 million times per second' will transmit the sigrtals for the Bell Ins ide----------~-----------------------, System's FT3 program. Lightwave communications have .* Donating Blood is not as blood •• It was a clear, crisp day for the •• WE's BIue Cross Plan extends its several advantages over conventional curdling as you may think. Works Works family outing at Canobie hospital dental care coverage. It TI and T2 systems: employees tell how they benefit Lake Park. A pictorial account on may save you from a few tooth -FT3 regenerators can transmit from giving the gift of life. Page 3. page 5. aches. Page 6. (continued on page 3) 2 --BELL OTE Communications Act Hearings Continued Around U. S. in Sept. While most of you savour those last warm days of Indian Summer, a Bell System team concentrates on a snow-covered vi llage in upstate New York about Divestiture of Western Electric from Criticism of the divestiture proposal 15 months from now. AT&T, international telecommunica also came from representatives of The village is Lake Placid, site of the 1980 Winter Olympics. The team is charg tions, and rural telephone issues were organized labor. Local officers of the ed with providing telecommunications service to the games. chief items of discussion during the Communications Workers of America, Western Electric, Long Lines, and past month's hearings on the the International Brotherhood of Elec New York Tel have already begun VanDeerlin - Frey rewrite of the 1934 trical Workers and the Commercial preparations for the event that will Communications Act. Telephone Workers' Union voiced transform the sleepy village of 3,000 Addressing common carrier matters strong reservations over forcing into an international city of 50,000. during the House Communications Western Electric out of the Bell The Lake Placid job is big, but not Subcommittee's one-day hearings in System. unprecedented. The Bell System sup Boston and Chicago were represen Local 1365 C. W .A. President Frank plied telephone service to the 1932 tatives of the telephone industry, com Talarico, representing about 5,200 Winter Olympics also at Lake Placid. petitive interests, consumer groups, people at the Merrimack Valley Bundled against the cold, linemen in labor organizations, and regulatory Works, testified in Boston, saying, "I those days checked switching ar bodies. am personally convinced that this bill rangements for a system including a Bell System representatives testifying will adversely affect the cost and quali 50-pair cable, coin phones, and some against a section of the bill calling for ty of communications services to the low-speed teletypes. In 1980, a Number the divestiture of Western Electric were people of this country." 3 Electronic Switching System that John F. Prendiville, Vice President He said,. "We are also concerned Western Electric recently developed -Engineering, New England that this bill could change the effec will handle switching to meet the Telephone, at the Boston Hearing, and tiveness of our performance, the quali demands of the Olympic Village. R. Douglas Watson, Long Lines Cen ty of the product that we manufacture, * * * * tral Area Vice President and General and could result in the loss of jobs." Manager in Chicago. (continued on page 8) Telephone representatives from Japan, Australia and the United States Merit Scholarship Tests to be recently took part in an international phone call that marks the beginning of a new era in overseas calling. The ceremonial call introduces a new signaling process that will aid customers Administered on October 24, 28 in calling overseas, reduce the time it takes to place a call, and lead to more Western Electric employees' children tion requirements. Winners are chosen efficient use of the worldwide communications network. who will complete high school and on the basis of test scores, academic The new process represents a change in the way overseas calls are placed. enter college in 1980 should take the records, leadership, and significant ex Instead of sending the information needed to establish a call along the same 1978 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude tracurricular activities. circuit as the phone conversation, the new process transmits the information on a Test/National Merit Scholarship The renewable scholarships cover up separate path. Qualifying Test (PSA T I NMSQT) to to four years of full-time study at The system increases the call capacity of the network as well as reduces the qualify for the 1980 WE Fund Merit regionally accepted U.S. colleges. Reci time required to complete the call. Scholarships. pients must pursue studies toward a * * * * The test will be administered in over traditional baccalaureate degree. 17,500 high schools on Tuesday, Oct. All WE Fund Merit Scholarship win 24, and Saturday, Oct. 28. ners will be chosen from students who The annual Merit Scholarship iden qualify as semifinalists based on their No, this is not Willie Bell's replace tifies and honors exceptionally talented PSA T INMSQT scores, and then ad ment. The rodent pictured here is the high school students and aids as many vance to finalists in the Merit Program. fiesty Norway rat that puts an enor as possible in obtaining a college No entry blanks are used. The test is mous bite on the Bell System. Costing education. the application. telephone companies hundreds of Western Electric chooses its Fund thousands of dollars annually, this rat winners through the National Merit can inflict up to 18,000 bites per week Scholarship Corporation from among on telephone wire and cable. Each bite children (natural or legally adopted) of Editor's Note is capable of nut-cracking 7,000 on-roll employees or retirees. Also pounds-per-square-inch force. eligible are children of deceased Roger CuIIiford is the photographer Woodpeckers, squirrels, gophers, employees who had a minimum of 15 who snapped the terrific front-page and other rodents also peck and chew -years' service and were on active or photo of Bob Parisi in last month's wire and cable by the mile. pension roll at the time of death. Valley Voice. To politely stop this expensive snacking, Bell Laboratories' engineers in Atlan AU WE Fund Merit Scholarship can ta have developed a new guard that shields aerial cable from woodpeckers and didates must meet the NMSC competi- rodents. The triangular guard designed to slip over telephone cable prevents animals from getting the best bite on the cable, thus reducing damage. The new guard, purchasesd under Bell Labs' and WE specifications, is now available to Bell Telephone Companies around the nation. * * * * Published for the employees of Western Electric's Merrimack Valley Works Twelve college teachers will have attended Western Electric's Corporate North Andover, MA 01845 Education Center by the end of 1978 as participants in the Professors at CEC 617-681-2307 Program. Nancy Rigazio Under the program, professors take courses in engineering or technology of Editor fered at the CEC.

Load more