Mike Lazer-Walker has repurposed a 1927 Western Electric 551-A switchboard into a hectic game that tasks players with quickly learning the obsolete job. “Hello, Operator!,” although controlled by a ...

The rise of generative AI — and ChatGPT in particular — has raised a lot of alarm bells in some industries worried that the technology could make many humans’ jobs obsolete. And those concerns are ...

Before smartphones, landline telephones were the way most people kept in touch. And until direct dialing became common, a switchboard operator's assistance was often needed to help with long-distance ...

A reunion of Maine switchboard operators highlights the challenges of making a phone call more than 50 years ago and what it was like to handle... Telephone operators of another era gather to ...

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Our phones were forever being hacked. Faye Paulson at her switchboard at the Dunolly telephone exchange, 1982, one of the last manual ...

Before smartphones, most people kept in touch using landline telephones. And before direct dialing was common, some calls were handled by switchboard operators. During the 1950s, more than 220,000 ...