The switchboard you see on the left was made by Western Electric in 1892 ( per my records) and it was designed as "the living room" model whereby small and local exchanges made operator connections from regular houses. As seen the lady on the board is processing a call while one knits and the other listens to the bakelite radio (on the far right). FYI...It is known that in 1983 New England Telephone still had manual (and manual magneto...aka spin the crank to reach the operator) exchanges, albeit very few. These very sparse systems remained in Maine until then. Opposition to this method of telephony started around then (right before Bell System divesture) from subscribers. They fought NET&T Co. The latter's case was because central offices serving "quaint" villages and towns (then) also served businesses that required fast dial-up/touch-tone speeds for credit card transactions, etc., etc. Newspapers in Portsmouth, NH; Kittery and Portland, Maine bannered "Don't Yank The Crank" upon their front pages upon Bell's intentions from affected residents. Some of us New Englanders resist change and the conversion to dial/touch-tone service wasn't exactly for historical purposes. It was a matter of "if it still works, don't fix it!!" Archives relating to these stories probably are accessible via the major newspapers in the forementioned NH and ME communities. I vividly recall of this conterversy during the early 1980s since I frequented a long-time friend in North Berwick, ME (southern part of the state) as it was rather commonly discussed in local papers then.

With cell phones, boy how times have changed in 25 years!!!