> At least they've pretty much done away with those rotating switching
> relays. The noise was often deafening, and you carried a set of diamond
> spatulas to clean the contacts. I still have a set of those.
I never had the pleasure of working with that equipment. Everything
had gone digital long before I flipped industries. However, I've spent
enough time cleaning and aligning multitrack tape machines in the
recording/broadcast industry.
The best story passed down by my elderly coworkers was the time that
one of the offices was being painted. The NOC could see that this one
telephone switch at a unmanned office was starting to fail. The
failures were multiplying left and right. They call that building and
after 30 or more rings, the painter finally answers. He's asked who he
is and what is he doing. He responds that he's the painter.
"Please don't tell me that you are using oil-base paint?"
"Yes, of course."
"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"
The airborne lacquer built up on the contacts and fouled the entire
switch up. Took down probably 25,000 customers before they got it
fixes. Each and every contact had to be cleaned by hand.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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