Bell Telephone Laboratories
used to run some pretty interesting advertisements in magazines back in the 1940s
through 1960s that touted the many communications innovations coming from their
scientists and engineers. They built what was indisputably the worlds best, most
reliable telephone network. It, along with the
Interstate Highway System, is credited for a large part of what fueled America's
growth so significantly after World War II. This ad from a 1949 issue of
Radio & Television News magazine tells how repairmen used a specially
designed sensor to trace out faulty phone lines by listening for a test signal sent
out by the central office.
What caught my attention about this ad was the uncanny resemblance the man in
the photo has to Melanie's father - especially with the ball cap and glasses. She
was amazed when I showed her the picture.
Another thing the picture brought to mind was that the owner of an electric company
(Simpson Electric) I worked for prior to going into the USAF landed a spot
in an
Ivory Soap commercial when they were doing a series of commercials
featuring construction workers that depended on Ivory ("99-44/100% Pure: It Floats")
to clean the grime from their hands and bodies at the end of a hard day. He had
been a lineman earlier in his career.
Bell Telephone Laboratories Ad
He finds trouble by ear.
As this cableman runs his pickup coil along the cable, his ear tells him when
he has hit the exact spot where unseen trouble is interfering with somebody's telephone
service.
Trouble develops when water enters a cable sheath cracked perhaps by a bullet
or a flying stone. With insulation damaged, currents stray from one wire to another
or to the sheath. At the telephone office, electrical tests on the faulty wires
tell a repairman approximately where to look for the damage.
A special "tracer" current, sent over the faulty wires, generates a magnetic
field. Held against the sheath, an exploring coil picks up the distinctive tracer
signal and sends it through an amplifier on the man's belt to head-phones. A change
in signal strength along the cable tells the exact location of the "fault."
Compact; light, simple to use, this test set makes it easier for repairmen to
keep your line in order. It is another example of how Bell Laboratories re-search
helps make Bell Telephone service the most dependable in the world.
Bell Telephone Laboratories
Exploring and inventing, devising and perfecting, for continued improvements
and economies in telephone service.
Posted September 1, 2023 (updated from original post on 11/26/2018)
Bell Telephone
Laboratories Infomercials |
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Key to a Crystal Gateway
- June 1949 Popular Science
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Bell Telephone Laboratories - Time Domain Reflectometry - December 1948 Popular
Science
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The Future Holds Great Promise - August 1949 Popular Science
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Waveguide: 7/47 Popular Mechanics
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Wire Wrapping - 10/1953 Popular Science
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X-Rays, 4/60 Radio-electronics
- The Battle of
the Atoms, 4/1948 Radio News
-
The Transistor, 6/1952 Radio-Electronics
- 90-Mile Laboratory
for Telephone and Television, 6/1945 Radio News
-
Wire-Wrap, 10/53 Radio-Electronics
-
EDT Crystals, 10/47 Radio-Craft
- Germanium Refining,
5/54 Radio & TV News
- Crystal Timekeeping,
1/46 Radio News
- Transatlantic
Cable, 11/56 Radio & Television News
- Pipe Circuits,
11/48 Radio & Television News
-
Coaxial
Electron Tube, 6/54 Radio & Television News
- Thermocompression
Wire Bonding, 3/58 Radio News
-
Radio Relay Stations, 8/52 Radio & Television News
- Isolators,
6/56 Radio & Television News
- Punch
Cards, 3/55 Radio & Television News
-
Over-the-Horizon
Communications, 10/55 Radio & Television News
- Memory
Devices, 2/58 Radio & TV News
-
Adventure in Silicon, 5/55 Radio & Television News
- Pipes of Progress,
6/55 Radio & Television News
-
Project Echo, 11/60 Electronics World
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Inertial Navigation - September 1960 Electronics World
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Testing Phones - November 1947 Popular Science
-
Jacques Bernoulli, February 1960 Radio-Electronics
-
Type-O Carrier System, October 1952 Radio-Electronics
-
Electron Microscope, 4/1952 Radio-Electronics
-
Thermistor, 11/1946 Radio-Craft
-
Germanium Crystal, 1/1954 Radio-Electronics
-
Lens
Antenna, 5/46 Radio-Craft
- Quality Control, 6/46
Radio News Article
- Transcontinental
Radio-Relay, 10/51 Radio & TV News
- Solar
Battery, 7/54 Radio & Television News
-
Germanium Transistors, 1/54 Radio & Television News
- Cavity
Magnetron, 10/45 Radio News
-
The Cableman, 10/49 Radio & Television News
-
Coaxial Cable, 12/49 Radio & Television News
-
Tin
Whiskers, 12/55 Radio & Television News
- Relay
Contact Inspection, 7/55 Radio & Television News
- Transistor's
10th Anniversary, 6/58 Radio & Television News
-
Wire
Wrapping, 10/53 Radio & Television News
- Junction
Diode Amplifier, 11/58 Radio News
-
Nobel Prize Winners, 2/57 Radio & Television News
-
Diode Speeds Voices, 8/58 Popular Electronics
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Microwave Relays, 7/59 Electronics World
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