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operators manually connected thousands of local calls from is Port Perry Bell Telephone switchboard every year when it was tocated in the Bell office at 197 Queen St, beside what is now Emmerson Insurance. The above picture shows some of the lo- Dorothy J. Martyn, Muriel Hooey and Patricia M. Warri Photo courtesy Scugog Shores Historical Musuem Five years after the turn of the century, the Bell Telephone Co. purchased some 87 miles of line and 54 telephones from three local doctors - David Archer, Edgar L. Proctor and Samuel J. Mellow, who each owned a small telephone system. The purchases increased substantially the company’s presence in the community and the number of Bell subscribers in Port Perry increased to 72. Telephone expansion continued in town and by 1911, new and larger quarters were needed to house the switchboards and tel- ephone offices. Over the next few years, the increase in the number of telephones in Port Perry was nothing short of phenomenal - leaping ahead by about 100 sets per year. By 1916 there were 637 telephones in town. Expansion slowed following these years of rapid growth and by 1929 the number of sets stood at 856. The depression made its pres- ence felt on the telephone business here and by 1933 the number of telephones in service had fallen to 592. But by the early 1950s the use of telephones had made a recov and a fourth operator was added to the switchboard to handle the increase in calls from its 1,238 subscribers. The long awaited announcement of the coming dial service was made in 1957 and the necessary construction and installation work to prepare for the cut-over was carried out in the community by Northem Electric and Bell Telephone crews. In April 1958, just two months before dial phones went into service, B The SUOTWeeM (aprile oc inm i aly mao ARS Perry. Shortly after 3 am. the telephone system will be converted from manual to dial operation. The changeover will take less than two minutes to carry out The “cut-over” will be made with virtually no interruption in tele- phone service. At a given signal, a gang of men wearing goggles will go into action at the manual exchange to disconnect all the lines to the old switchboards. he goggles are necessary because of the method of discon- nection, which allows fuses to be ripped out by the thousands. This operation will require about 30 seconds. As soon as the old exchange is “dead”, a signal will be given to another gang of men at the new exchange to remove the “block- ing tools” from the dial switching equipment. fools”, which are ust prevent the dial switches from working while the manual exchange is still in operation, are at- tached to cords so that they can be yanked out in a few sec- Once the “blocking tools” are pulled out, the dial system will be in full operation. WINDOW SHUTTERS installing the new rome in homes and businesses in preparation for the conver- sion. Then finally, at 3:01 a.m. on Sunday, July 6, 1958 the switch was pulled and within minutes the new dial system took over. The following day, Reeve JJ. Gibson made the first call on the telephone speaking with Ivan Kerry far away in Charlottetown, PEI. course since then we've watched as touch-tone dialing took over from the old rotary phones and communications technology has soared by leaps and bounds. But for a short time, 50 years ago, dial telephones were the talk of the town! My how times have changed. ve JJ. Gibson makes the first dial phone call trom the municipal office in July 1958. By J. Peter Hvidsten Focus on Scugog Purchase FRAMED shutters for the price of UNFRAMED! ECLIPSE" SHUTTERS OMESTEAD FURNITURE & APPLIANCES. 1918 Scugog St., Port Perry 905-985-2451 Expires August 31, 2008 website: www.focusonscugog.com AUGUST.FOCUS.40 Pgsindd 19 FOCUS - AUGUST 2008 19 venne 10:47:41 au |