Check our website for upcoming telephone shows (original) (raw)

Check out the TCI YouTube channel here.
See the video of the 1994 TCI show in St. Louis -- provided by Steve Schack.
Don't forget to subscribe to our TCI PhoneVideos YouTube Channel!

Use "Contact Us" to report anything that doesn't work or is confusing. Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and make any suggestions for future additions (to be added to our already long wish list). Constructive comments are always welcome.

Thanks,

The TCI Library Administrators
- Paul Wills, Remco Enthoven and Paul Fassbender

Major TCI Library Sections

To browse the Library by category, start with Browse the Library in the Black Menu Bar above and select Document Repository.

When searching, watch for these formats and abbreviations in document titles:

BSPs - e.g. C38.904NY_iA_Oct58_Keysets_Receiver_Amp

Catalogs and booklets - e.g. 1923 WE Catalog 5 - Telephone Apparatus and Supplies T-667-A

Articles in documents - e.g. 65jun_BLR_p214_No1_ESS

TCI Members Only Documents (MOD)

In addition to documents in the Library, TCI Members can access documents that were contributed to TCI with the restriction that they are made available to TCI Members only, and are not to be posted on any publicly available web site.

Most are large manufacturer catalogs, restricted distribution documents or files that have had extensive processing by TCI volunteers, such as page straightening, clean-up and OCR.

The MOD area is accessed from the Members Area menu entry on the TCI site or the Members Only Docs link under TCI Sites in the menu above on this page.
Go to Members Only Docs

Not a member? Join now!

BSTJ Archive

Check our our comprehensive index with hotlinks to articles in the Bell System Technical Journals published from 1922-1983, provided by Sam Etler. Follow the BSTJ Archive link under "Browse the Library" in the black menu bar above.

You can do an on-page search by keyword (usually initiated in a browser using Control-F), then click to pull up the complete issue.
Go to the BSTJ Archive

Telezonia and Teletrainers

Check out the 1964 Teacher's Guide and Student's Guide for Telezonia -- the Bell System's program to educate elementary school students in how to use the telephone. The program started in 1950 and used several generations of Teletrainer hardware. Paul Fassbender and John Novack have collected BSPs for many of them. Find them with a simple search for "teletrainer" Also check out articles in the October 2018 Singing Wires and on www.paul-f.com/Teletrainers.html

Call-a-matic Automatic Dialers

Call-a-matic

First there was the 1671, then the 2671. Find out the differences in the BSPs and read about the history in a Bell Labs Record article. Simply search for "Call-a-matic"

Reference pages for Kellogg, Stromberg Carlson and Select-O-Phone

The TCI Library hosts the web sites created by Mike Neale. Check them out for downloads of technical and marketing literature. Pages open in a new window.

kelloggtelephone

strombergcarlsontelephone

selectophone

Site links can also be found under TCI Sites in the black menu bar on each TCI Library page.

Note that the documents on these sites are currently NOT found using the TCI Library's search feature. We hope to add them to the Library as volunteer time and priorities permit.

BSRS - Bell System Repair Specifications

Incredibly hard to find documents. Formerly D-series BSPs. Scope and plan: "These documents are primarily intended for use in Western Electric Company Service Centers in the repair of apparatus and equipment removed from Telephone Company plant." As documents are scanned and added to the Library, they will be filed here: BSRS Thanks for the scans to Astrid Smith - Connections Museum, Seattle (THG). OCR by TCI.

Each document uses a novel issue control process, updating each page individually. An index page has an issue number and date, with the current revision level of each page in the document!

Categories for Automatic Electric Catalogs and Brochurres

Browse the Library > Document Repository > Catalogs, Manuals... > Automatic Electric > AE Catalogs

Browse the Library > Document Repository > Catalogs, Manuals... > Automatic Electric > AE Circulars/Brochures

Shortcuts: AE Catalogs, AE Circulars/Brochures

SWITCHERS! Find switching documents faster.

Use these Menu Bar entries:
Browse the Library > BC Switching Library > Western Electric > WE Switching Docs Browse the Library > BC Switching Library > Automatic Electric > AE Switching Docs

Updates Wanted for “Dials and Pushbuttons” by Stanley Swihart


The TCI Library provides a page to collect comments and new original research related to areas covered in this monumental 584-page dial reference.
Go to "Dials and Pushbuttons"

Thanks to Terry Michaels for contributing 29 issues of "AT&T Radio Notes," spanning 1959 - 1966. More issues and more periodicals are welcome.
Go to "AT&T Radio Notes"

Western Electric Card Catalog, ca. 1989

Thanks to Astrid Smith, Connections Museum, Seattle (THG), a database of over 18,000 cards in over 500 categories, and dating from 2/28/1913 to 9/30/1989 is available on their site here: http://catalog.spmh.us/

Also available here: https://www.telecomarchive.com/cc/ (OCRed pdf's) Thanks to Sam Etler.

Filenames in the index indicate Category, Part Number, Card No for part, Card Date. e.g.
ringers, , 1, 1964-04-30.jpg
ringers, , 2, 1985-11-29.jpg
ringers, C4A C4B C4C, 1, 1983-04-29.jpg

Where:
ringers, - card catalog section heading
C4A C4B C4C, - list of coded part numbers that apply (i left out color codes)
1, - card number, in the sequence for that part number
1983-04-29 - date of issue of the particular card

Where the part numbers field is blank, that's supposed to be the
front-matter for that section.

Use a Control-F search in the index to help find a keyword, category or model number of interest.

Also see the related TCI Library pages: WE Card Catalog and Northern Electric Catalog Cards. Links are under "Browse the Library" in the black Menu Bar.

Bell Laboratories Record Cumulative Index

Chuck Hensley has compiled a complete index covering material in all BLR issues! (September 1925 - December 1978)

This monumental 422 page work was completed by scanning individual index documents, appending them into a single file and sorting them by keyword. It is fully searchable by keyword, making research a lot more effective. Thanks Chuck!

Find it by searching for Complete Index BLR Go to the Complete BLR Index

Bell Laboratories Record articles

There are a lot of scans from Chuck Hensley's collection of BLR magazines in the Library.

You can easily navigate to the BLR folder by starting at "Browse the Library" in the menu bar and selecting Document Repository / Catalogs, Manuals... / Western Electric / Bell Labs Record.

Shortcut: https://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/document-repository/catalogs-manuals/bell-system-we/bell-labs-record

HINT: A neat way to see articles on a topic in chronological order is to go to Search / Basic Search and enter a BLR subject query using a keyword or keywords describing a topic of interest. This is great for researching the evolution of products or services. For example:

Experiment with other subject keywords.

(If you enter these queries in the search box in the upper right corner of the window, the results will be sorted with Newest additions first. You can change ordering to alphabetical to sort the results in chronological order.)

Ericsson Historical Documents

Product Catalogs from 1886-1976, LME Review issues from 1924-2003, annual reports, and other publications can be downloaded directly from the Ericsson site:
https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/history/sources