Decades after retiring, women who once operated the switchboard at Ma Bell still keep a strong connection — to each other and their past. Nearly 50 retired operators gathered Friday afternoon in ...

Mike Lazer-Walker has repurposed a 1927 Western Electric 551-A switchboard into a hectic game that tasks players with quickly learning the obsolete job. “Hello, Operator!,” although controlled by a ...

Over the course of the past 50 years or more, technology has moved at such a pace that jobs people used to do have been replaced by computers or other forms of automation. Jobs such as bowling alley ...

Before smartphones, most people kept in touch using landline telephones. And before direct dialing was common, some calls were handled by switchboard operators. During the 1950s, more than 220,000 ...