vu huong
2004-09-25 06:14:25 UTC
Hello,
Does anyone know of any movies or documentaries that show footage of
old telco technology?
I remember a horror movie that came out in 1974 called "Black
Christmas". It featured a couple of cool -but short- scenes of SxS in
action. In the movie a faceless psychopathic killer hides out in the
attic of a sorority house and makes obscene and threatening phone
calls to another line in the house...all on beautiful rotary sets, of
course. :) IIRC, the movie was shot on location in Bedford,
Pennsylvania and also in the vicinity of the University of Toronto,
Canada.
The police and local CO attempt to trace the calls. The telco guy
explains how the girls need to keep the harasser on the line as long
as possible because "our phone system is mechanical and it takes a
long time for us to complete a trace."
In the movie, the telco dude is seen working on the phones at the
sorority house for a "trace setup". I also remember that a line at
the police dept was setup to ring whenever the line at the sorority
house rang. The police officer could then pick up his handset and
listen-and-talk to whomever was on the sorority's line.
There's some neat scenes of the telco man running back and forth among
different racks of SxS with a lineman's phone, attempting the trace
before the connection is broken. I have no idea how accurate all this
was; might of been just bs for the movie. Also, I don't remember any
particular telco or identifying logos shot in this movie.
But this brings up another newbie question. When did the capability
to trace calls come into existence? Was this a nightmare job to
attempt on SxS or other older systems?
Thanks!
Vu
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One movie that come to mind (of
several) was 'Tandem Rush'. And yes, tracing phone calls was a very
difficult job, usually. One or two people had to walk in the
frames, go to the telephone line on which a trace was to be done,
then follow the switch train backward to its starting point. Maybe
they discovered that the trace back led to another central office
on the other side of town. So then they had to call the distant
office, get someone interested in their problem, and get that person
(in the distant office) to walk into the frames, pick up their
connection and in essence start all over from that point. A very
well-coordinated, executed, planned ahead of time trace could be
done in maybe 20 minutes, or one that was an 'emergency'. More
routine, less coordinated traces could easily take 30-45 minutes
depending on the number of offices involved. As often as not, the
person being traced knew enough to hang up the phone before that much
time had passed. The most sickening sound in the world, to a telephone
technician in those days assigned to 'trace that call' was the
crashing sound (and yes, they were noisy) of the tandems collapsing
or coming down on being released. An ancient movie I saw once (of
police and the unknown person they were chasing) had the villian
calling police to taunt them every day. Police told the guy "we are
tracing your call". The bad guy says, "You go ahead and do just that.
I know (all the steps involved) so I figure I will sit here and talk
to you for another ten or fifteen minutes if I want to." Police look
at each other and one comments "Well, it appears the guy knows how
the system works." When ESS was installed, all that went away. Now
the technician just sits at a terminal and types a few things on
the keyboard to get all the data needed. PAT]
Does anyone know of any movies or documentaries that show footage of
old telco technology?
I remember a horror movie that came out in 1974 called "Black
Christmas". It featured a couple of cool -but short- scenes of SxS in
action. In the movie a faceless psychopathic killer hides out in the
attic of a sorority house and makes obscene and threatening phone
calls to another line in the house...all on beautiful rotary sets, of
course. :) IIRC, the movie was shot on location in Bedford,
Pennsylvania and also in the vicinity of the University of Toronto,
Canada.
The police and local CO attempt to trace the calls. The telco guy
explains how the girls need to keep the harasser on the line as long
as possible because "our phone system is mechanical and it takes a
long time for us to complete a trace."
In the movie, the telco dude is seen working on the phones at the
sorority house for a "trace setup". I also remember that a line at
the police dept was setup to ring whenever the line at the sorority
house rang. The police officer could then pick up his handset and
listen-and-talk to whomever was on the sorority's line.
There's some neat scenes of the telco man running back and forth among
different racks of SxS with a lineman's phone, attempting the trace
before the connection is broken. I have no idea how accurate all this
was; might of been just bs for the movie. Also, I don't remember any
particular telco or identifying logos shot in this movie.
But this brings up another newbie question. When did the capability
to trace calls come into existence? Was this a nightmare job to
attempt on SxS or other older systems?
Thanks!
Vu
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One movie that come to mind (of
several) was 'Tandem Rush'. And yes, tracing phone calls was a very
difficult job, usually. One or two people had to walk in the
frames, go to the telephone line on which a trace was to be done,
then follow the switch train backward to its starting point. Maybe
they discovered that the trace back led to another central office
on the other side of town. So then they had to call the distant
office, get someone interested in their problem, and get that person
(in the distant office) to walk into the frames, pick up their
connection and in essence start all over from that point. A very
well-coordinated, executed, planned ahead of time trace could be
done in maybe 20 minutes, or one that was an 'emergency'. More
routine, less coordinated traces could easily take 30-45 minutes
depending on the number of offices involved. As often as not, the
person being traced knew enough to hang up the phone before that much
time had passed. The most sickening sound in the world, to a telephone
technician in those days assigned to 'trace that call' was the
crashing sound (and yes, they were noisy) of the tandems collapsing
or coming down on being released. An ancient movie I saw once (of
police and the unknown person they were chasing) had the villian
calling police to taunt them every day. Police told the guy "we are
tracing your call". The bad guy says, "You go ahead and do just that.
I know (all the steps involved) so I figure I will sit here and talk
to you for another ten or fifteen minutes if I want to." Police look
at each other and one comments "Well, it appears the guy knows how
the system works." When ESS was installed, all that went away. Now
the technician just sits at a terminal and types a few things on
the keyboard to get all the data needed. PAT]