XPost: rec.audio.pro, comp.dsp   
   From: johnwilliamson@btinternet.com   
      
   glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:   
   > In comp.dsp Bill Graham  wrote:   
   > (snip)   
   >   
   >> If we didn't have the computers, we wouldn't have the telephone service. I   
   >> read way back in the 80's that if it weren't for the digit dialing system,   
   >> every woman in the US between the ages of 18 and 80 would have to work for   
   >> the telephone company.   
   >   
   > Much of the telephone switching system previously worked without   
   > computers, at least not what we call computers today.  Stepper   
   > relays were pretty important, and not really computers.   
   >   
   > They were probably used for billing pretty early, though.   
   >   
   Here in the UK, strowger exchanges used a pulse counter driven by a   
   central clock gated by the line voltage. The clock frequency varied   
   according to time and whether it was a long distance line, and at the   
   end of every accounting period, someone took photos of all the meter   
   readings, with a couple of dozen (hundred?) on each frame. Then dozens,   
   if not hundreds or thousands, of women sat down and compared this   
   month's reading with the last one and worked out the bill. Then someone   
   invented the digital exchange.....   
      
   --   
   Tciao for Now!   
      
   John.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)