From: Arthur Krewat <krewat@kilonet.net>
To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Bell Labs data center in 1969/70
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2019 15:39:37 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <e4662baa-e275-905a-bc48-b9e619f4f865@kilonet.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20190317185228.06007214EF@orac.inputplus.co.uk>
This kind of telephone history always get my "phreak" up ;)
On 3/17/2019 2:52 PM, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> Hi Steve,
>
>> For a long time, California was viewed as hostile to phone companies,
>> or at least AT&T, and I remember clearly people saying that Bell Labs
>> would never have a location in CA as a result.
> Here's what Larry Luckham told me in a private email that he's since
> said could be copied to the list.
>
> Larry wrote:
>> Of the thousands of web pages that I have posted the one of the Bell
>> Labs photos is the one that generates a dozen queries a year. Had no
>> idea that would be the case when I posted it. The photos are also the
>> most ripped off and reposted of anything I've ever done. But, to your
>> points.
>>
>> The facility I set up in Oakland was temporary and for a specific
>> experiment that ran for roughly 4 years. You may recall that
>> beginning in the mid 60's the Bell System was experiencing a huge and
>> unpredicted demand for 411, information operator services. The lead
>> time to provide the trunking and other facilities for 411 operations
>> was something like 25 years. The public facing response was the "$55
>> million dollar phone call" ad campaign intended to point customers
>> back to printed directories. The inward facing response was to figure
>> out a way to handle each request for service faster so that the
>> existing trunking and other facilities could meet the growing demand.
>>
>> At that time information operators relied on printed directories much
>> the same as the customer's printed directory, except that theirs were
>> loose leaf, reprinted monthly, and supplemented with a yellow daily
>> addendum. They were also printed in a larger format to make reading
>> easier. A division of the Labs called Business Information Systems
>> Corp. out of the Raritan River Center was tasked with the project and
>> given a very short timeline. A computer database and electronic
>> display terminals driven by a very powerful search engine was the
>> result. Special operator terminals were designed and built by Western
>> Electric. The search engine was contracted out to Computer Corp. of
>> America (CCA) which had been founded by some guys from Minsky's AI lab
>> at MIT. Then the idea was to try it out in a live environment.
>> The San Francisco Bay Area was selected as reasonably representative
>> and that's where I came in. I was already managing the data center at
>> the local Bell company, Pacific Telephone and Telegraph,
>> San Francisco, so I was recruited to make it happen. I built the
>> mainframe data center, PT&T provided space in an information operating
>> room a few blocks away and CCA came onsite to do the programming.
>>
>> The testing ran roughly 4 years. I had moved on before it ended, but
>> it was successful and was implanted, at least to some degree, but this
>> shop was dismantled and everyone went home. Then technology did what
>> it always does, it ran over everything and changed the world.
>> Along came the PC, the Internet, smart phones, etc.
>>
>> It's been a very long time and I'm sure I've forgotten, or
>> misremembered stuff, but that's kind of what I remember.
>> Hope it sheds some light.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-03-17 19:47 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-03-13 13:25 Doug McIlroy
2019-03-14 8:10 ` Rob Pike
2019-03-15 4:03 ` Kevin Bowling
2019-03-16 21:30 ` Steve Johnson
2019-03-17 18:52 ` Ralph Corderoy
2019-03-17 19:39 ` Arthur Krewat [this message]
2019-03-18 15:04 ` John P. Linderman
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2019-03-12 16:02 Dan Cross
2019-03-12 17:14 ` Clem Cole
2019-03-12 17:17 ` Jon Steinhart
2019-03-12 17:29 ` Clem Cole
2019-03-12 17:31 ` Jon Steinhart
2019-03-12 17:42 ` Paul Winalski
2019-03-13 0:17 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2019-03-13 1:37 ` Dave Horsfall
2019-03-13 8:41 ` Peter Jeremy
2019-03-14 22:12 ` Al Kossow
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