| Posted by Oherian |
5/12/2005 2:22 PM | remove |
I've been informed by a friend who worked for Verizon that this is a phone switching system. I didn't completely understand his explanation, but apparently these rounded parts have rotating cores inside them. This is a phone company "central office" -- high voltage and pretty major to be in a factory, actually.
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| Posted by Emperor Wang |
5/13/2005 1:06 AM | remove |
Interesting comment. If you're friend's right, then this is an electro-mechanical switch, probably dating from the '60s. Around the outside of each column would be a kind of circular array of relay contacts. 10 contacts going around the circle, multiplied by whatever number of lines (n) the thing could handle vertically. At the center of the column was a spindle with n metallic "fingers" sticking out of it, and at the bottom would be an actuator that rotated the spindle in discrete steps. Dial extension 540 on an old-fangled rotary phone, and the first relay would step 5 times, the second 4, and the third 10, establishing a physical connection to the desired extension. This would've made one helluva racket while in full operation.
Any chance of getting more detailed pics of this device?
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| Posted by seicer |
5/13/2005 4:59 AM | remove |
Probably not. At the rate the city is talking about it, its going to be gone this month or the next.
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| Posted by Oherian |
5/13/2005 12:49 PM | remove |
That sounds like what he described. You use terms that made it easier for me to understand, though. ;)
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| Posted by Emperor Wang |
5/14/2005 3:28 AM | remove |
Thanks. I actually played with one of these relays as a kid. It was one hefty bit of electo-mechanical geekery. I'd give my left testicle to play around with a whole switch full of them right now. If you get the chance Oherian, take a few close up pics of this puppy before they trash the place an email them to me. It makes me laugh to think that the hundreds of pounds of metal that went into making these things has since been replaced by a couple grams of silicon.
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| Posted by Oherian |
5/16/2005 1:20 PM | remove |
If I do make it back up there, I will... Sadly, my schedule is so full right now I don't know when I'll make it back up that way. It's an eight-hour roundtrip, so I have to allow a full day. :-/ Seicer and I grabbed the day we took, shoving aside other things so we could make sure we saw the place at least once before it was destroyed.
Hm. I'll contact Turd Ferguson. He was discussing going up there himself. Maybe he can get you some more pictures.
As far as the silicon... Isn't it amazing how far we've progressed? Most of it has been miniturization of components, but that has made amazing changes in our world.
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| Posted by Turd Furgusen |
5/17/2005 9:08 PM | remove |
I can get up there around the first weekend of June. I'll see what I can do. PM if anyone's interested in going too.
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| Posted by Emperor Wang |
5/18/2005 2:57 AM | remove |
Thanks, Turd. I'd appreciate it if you'd pay special attention to this little beast if and when you visit the place. If it is what I think it is, this thing is a real museum piece. Cheers, guys.
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| Posted by Turd Furgusen |
5/18/2005 6:12 AM | remove |
Shit I might even snag you a relay!
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| Posted by Oherian |
5/18/2005 12:30 PM | remove |
*smacks head* Turd, I'm glad you read this, since I got offline and totally forgot to contact you. Thanks!
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| Posted by Emperor Wang |
5/19/2005 1:22 AM | remove |
If you were to 'save' one these puppies from impending destruction, I'd gladly cover your shipping costs, Turd.
And Oherian... it is amazing, bordering on scary. In my lifetime I've witnessed the introduction of the PC, the Walkman, cell phones, colour TV, microwave ovens, CD players, mp3 players, VCRs, GPS, DVDs, the internet and god knows what else. It's all cool this stuff we depend on so much, but I'm not so sure it's all good. In their own ways, each of these things isolates us as individuals just as much as they bring us together.
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| Posted by Oherian |
5/19/2005 12:36 PM | remove |
Agreed. I remember the introduction of most of those things -- I'm just a smidge too young to remember the first PCs and VCRs, though I do remember when they first became popular. (I even remember some of the old Apple II ads...)
Although these things bring us together, in some ways they isolate, and by isolating, dehumanize us as well. I think that's part of the reason for our increase in violent crime. People are no longer people, they're faces. We're not encouraged from a young age to know people as people. *sigh* But that's only one reason of many.
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| Posted by Emperor Wang |
5/20/2005 1:29 AM | remove |
I cut my programming teeth on the original IBM PCs. 4.77 MHz, 2 floppy drives, cassette tape storage interface. Back then a machine with the full complement of 640K of RAM and a colour monitor was a big deal, and a 10 MB hard disk was something to get all excited about. And to think all that once hot shit wouldn't even qualify as a decent boat anchor these days...
I read an op-ed piece aboout Iraq in today's paper that pointed out that the laws and police and courts are basically worthless when it comes to controlling the behaviour of an individual human. The author wrote that society and culture are what really determine our behaviour. Thanks in part to technology we're all drifting farther and farther apart from each other, as the social fabric that once held us all together gets thinner and thinner each year. The money grubbing corporations blasting us to hell with their advertising sure aren't helping matters much either.
As a civilization, we're pretty much fucked, aren't we?
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| Posted by juDy jEts0n |
8/31/2005 3:32 AM | remove |
I have one of those cassette tape drives. Found an old computer skeleton in a junk pile and couldn't believe my eyes. I had no idea they even used things like that! It's in my own private oddities museum right next to my first pair of converse and my silk screen of a tomato soup can. *ho hum...*
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| Posted by Bfagan |
6/21/2006 3:30 AM | remove |
Mapman, you have just begun to scratch the surface of that. There is so much that takes the spirits out of man anymore, so I agree. Humanity is just a word much anymore, the definition holds no bearing hardly these days. I think the era we are in now should be the "Dark Ages". Crime is increasing because we are too materialistic, and attached to things that don't really matter, and have seemed to let go of the things that do. Deepok Chopra and Wayne Dyer said: Life is like water. Put it in your hands. You notice you get less the stronger and harder you try to grip it. Simply let go, relax, and an open hand can hold as much as you want. I think man should think more from the inside out, rather the other way around. Oh, I do like the old phone switch, too. :)
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