On this Day, in 1878

[digitS']

1 September is unofficially commemorated as Emma M. Nutt Day.

She was the first woman telephone operator, hired by Thomas Edison on September 1st and on the job for over 33 years.

Here she is with her sister Stella (closer to the camera & not serving in the job as long but the second woman telephone operator).

 

[digitS']

From me (& Jim Croce), here's something of a tribute to her and others who had this job.

 

[Alasgun]

And we still had “switchboards” 55 years ago while serving a tour in South east Asia!

 

[flowerbug]

that would not have been very much fun to stand there and patch calls through all day. i hope they could take breaks. i remember later seeing them sitting instead of standing. (remember Lily Tomlin ? "One Ringy Dingy...")

 

[Dahlia]

It was fun reading that little history tid bit, so I Googled the same thing for today and found this on th web -

Great Fire of London
On this day in 1666 the Great Fire of London began accidentally in the house of the king's baker; it burned for four days and destroyed a large part of the city, including Old St. Paul's Cathedral and about 13,000 houses.

 

[digitS']

Cities always seemed to have a "Great Fire." Because of the location and starting point, London's Great Fire was internationally historical.

A city nearby had its great fire just a short time after European Americans arrived and began building modern structures in the late 1800's. The newspaper building had escaped burning and a photo from its tower, a few years later, shows the canyon where the bricks had been dumped was filled and serving as a horse corral. It is now the site of the city library. Meanwhile, the lagoon on the other side of the river became the city dump. It had been an important location for an Indian village previously.

Moving through the next century ... dialing long distant without operator assistance was not possible — I don't remember when that changed. Seems like the area code came a few years earlier. I'm sure, it varied by location, it had to be sometime after computers no longer required punch cards. Don't you suppose?

Steve, & Ernestine, the Switchboard Operator, "Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?"