Norwood Switches to Dial Telephone Service-This Day in Norwood History-June 16, 1961

Norwood and Canton Last Towns In Area To ‘Cut Over’

When dial service begins in the Norwood and Canton telephone exchanges at 12:01 a.m. June 18, the most modern type of automatic telephone service will become available for use by local residents. The new dial office on Vernon Street, Norwood, which will be able to process an average of almost 14,000 calls per hour at peak periods, was constructed and equipped at a cost of more than $I,850,000. The new Canton office cost $1,250,000.

Norwood and Canton are the last towns in Metropolitan Boston to make the “cut over’ ’to dial. However, the delay means that the two will have the latest possible type of telephone equipment.

The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company has spared no effort or expense in providing the best service made available through modern technology, said Area Manager Joseph A. Crowley.

All calls through the Vernon Street office originating in Norwood will be handled and recorded automatically, but local telephone users in need of assistance will be able to reach an operator simply by dialing “0”.

Operator Standing By

Immediately following the “cut over” to dial, incorrect calls originating in Norwood and Canton will be directed to an operator in the old telephone buildings who will give the party the area code number and number change.

This temporary sendee will be transferred to the Bowdoin Square office in Boston when the number of dialing errors is reduced substantially Local parties who dial incorrectly will then be connected with an operator who will supply the correct information to the customer. The Boston operator will have all necessary Norwood and Canton information at her fingertips.

To assist customers in correct dial usage, New England Telephone is in the process of mailing a dial instruction folder and a South Suburban Telephone directory to all customers. The directory will contain all the new numbers.

A self-contained unit, the new dial office on Vernon Street has complete facilities for recording the source, time, and duration of all Nomood calls. This information will be brought to Boston for billing purposes.

The Master Test Center is capable of testing the efficiency of the operation of the entire dial office. Selection of a service to be tested is made manually and the result of the automatic test is available almost immediately on a punched card.

The center will make the systematic checking of more than 6,000 incoming and 7,000 outgoing calls per hour at the peak of the rush, a routine matter, said Dial conversion engineer James R. Kelly. The office will be staffed by Floor Switchman George A. Wood of Walpole in charge of operations and four-floor switchmen.

Automation of the new Dial office is so complete that it will warn switchmen of trouble immediately. The alarm system, which is both audible and visual, (a bell sounds and a light flashes) identifies the circuit where the trouble is located.

Alarms will register at the Dorchester office when the new dial office is unattended and a service call will be directed to remedy the difficulty at Vernon Street, Norwood, or Washington Street, Canton.

A complex fuse network protects the equipment against current overload from the street and from any possible lightning discharge which strikes the building.

Norwood To Power Dial Office

The power room, located below the ground level, contains transformers for the conversion of Alternating current supplied by the Town of Norwood to direct current needed to operate telephone equipment. Batteries in the power room are set to take over immediately in the event of a power failure.

A large diesel engine, also a part of the power plant is capable of generating enough power to meet the demands of the entire new system in the event of an electrical power failure of any duration.

Project supervisor William B. Swanton explained to the MESSENGER that 56 “originating registers” have been built into the new dial office. These registers generate the dial tone heard when a phone is taken off the receiver.

The number of originating registers is more than adequate to meet the demands of the 13,077 phones in Norwood, said Swan ton, explaining that the circuit is broken the instant the party begins dialing. If dialing does not begin shortly after the tone is heard, (for example, if a phone is accidently knocked off the receiver) the line will be transferred automatically and a “howling” sound will warn the party that his phone is not placed properly in the cradle.

The difficulty comes during a storm or other emergency when originating registers become overloaded because parties keep phones off receivers for extended periods without dialing, said Swenson. This is the reason people are urged to limit calls during an emergency.

Monumental Task

Area Manager Crowley emphasized the monumental task of converting more than 18,000 telephones in Norwood and Canton to dial. This work, begun in October of 1960, in addition to constructing and equipping the dial office and installing and relocating trunk lines in both towns, will be complete before June 18th when the NOrwood 7 and CAnton 6 exchanges will be a thing of the past.

New England Tel and Tel is one of the 17 companies which make up the Bell System. More than 35 million phones are serviced by this system.

As a part of this vast network of telephones, it is conceivable that a local resident, in dialing a long-distance call, may find himself connected with a party in Kalamazoo because of dialing the wrong area code. This call or a local call will require the same length of time to complete under the new dial setup, say telephone officials.

If a wrong long-distance number is reached, the person dialing should get an identification of the place called in error. Then after hanging up he should dial “operator” and report the time the call was made, where it originated, and where it went. She will make out a “credit ticket“ and t the bill from the Telephone Company will be adjusted accordingly.

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)