The Nation at Your Fingertips (1951)

★★★★★ · Technologically interesting with minor historic inaccuracy · Markus Stamm · 2002-12-25

This film provides technologically very interesting insight into the history of long-distance telephone services. However, the statement that the pepole of Englewood were the first in the world to use consumer direct distance dialling in the early 1950s is inaccurate. The first fully automatic network group spanning multiple areas was put to operation as early as 1923 in Weilheim (Upper Bavaria, Germany), the next automatic long-distance groups were installed in Switzerland (1925) and The Netherlands (1927). By the mid-1930s, direct distance dialling was available in more and more German…

★★★★★ · Cool history of the beginnings of direct long distance dialing and area codes. · epeterd · 2022-02-16

Cool short film explaining how direct long-distance dialing was first used in Englewood, NJ. A small number of cities, such as San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston had been given area codes, which allowed the caller to call someone in those cities direct, without having to go through an operator. However, at this particular time no one else could make use of this new system. The complicated switching system is shown, and the way the signal routes itself is described. Also shown is an interesting system where holes were punched into a long ribbon of paper noting the number the call is from, the…

★★★ · The Nation at Your Fingertips · Christine Hennig · 2002-11-19

This early 1950s film introduced the country to the concept of direct long-distance dialing, by showing how residents of Englewood, New Jersey, the city where the first experimental direct dial program was installed, were able to call across the country without an operator. Like many Bell System films, it's very conscious of the telephone's history and how it changed with the timesÂÂwe get to see a Victorian couple shouting into an old wall-mounted phone, scurrying young male operators (the first ones were male), and an early female operator wearing a bizarre huge early headset. What's really…

★★★ · Look, Ma, No Operator · Dodsworth the Cat · 2024-06-09

"When will the 11 million be able to dial Englewood?...The answer lies in the future," according to the narrator. Today, it seems inconceivable to go through an operator to make a call, but there was a time when direct long-distance dialing was a marvel. There are reenactments aplenty in this Bell film, mostly without sound and showing ancient phone contraptions. There's one dialogue scene of husband John having a cigarette and coffee at the dinner table while Mother calls across the country to find out about a sick grandkid. There's a whole sequence about the technical end of things with…

★ · direct distance dialing · library100 · 2004-06-17

i love this film very much because of the introduction of direct distance dial which i can diall long distance withourt operator