Bell System Memorial- What's New

Bell System Memorial What's New

Source: "Black-Cord Fever" by Rita Mae Brown, Bell Telephone Magazine, 1983, No. 3-4, page 33.

Please Note: Minor additions, modifications or deletions may occur on this website from time to time without such action published on this page.

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September 20, 2022

Updates to our Retirees Information page were performed, and here are the highlights of what was done:

AUSWR The Association of U S West Retirees is now changed to CenturyLink Retirees Association. Thank you for Greg Snyder at CenturyLink Retirees for letting us know of the needed updates.

Lucent Technologies Retirees information has been updated with important PDF documents

AT&T SMM/Prospectus Supplement & Blackout Notice PDF was added to the page

June 20th, 2022

AT&T Trip to Iran -- February 23, 1975 to March 1, 1975 (includes detailed maps, charts, and diagrams)

A Thank you to Steven Baer for sharing a document of immense historical significance, showing how AT&T was hired by the then Imperial Government of Iran to upgrade the infrastructure of the Telephone Company of Iran. Steven Baer, worked at Bell Laboratories, AT&T and American Bell International Inc. from 1963-1983, and then the post-divestiture Bellcore (Telcordia) from 1983-2002.

AT&T Trip to Iran -- February 23, 1975 to March 1, 1975

This interesting 232 page document clearly shows how the United States of America, through Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., and it's parent, American Telephone & Telegraph, and Americas largest independent telephone company, General Telephone (GTE) were the envy of the world when it came to preeminence in the telecommunications industry, and how other countries sought to improve their telecom networks by hiring American know-how, not Chinese, which is sadly the case now, thanks to shortsighted decades long United States governmental policy that allowed our communications research, development, and manufacturing to be decimated, to where we are a shadow of our former glory in this field.

This document is dedicated to those that tirelessly endeavored to ensure that American ingenuity and manufacturing excellence was second to none.

April 20, 2022

The outdated machine hampering the fight against Covid-19

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210903-how-covid-19-could-finally-be-the-end-of-the-fax-machine

September 5, 2021

The outdated machine hampering the fight against Covid-19

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210903-how-covid-19-could-finally-be-the-end-of-the-fax-machine

February 17, 2021

Should AT&T Or Verizon Try To Acquire Nokia In 2021?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/should-at-t-or-verizon-try-to-acquire-nokia-in-2021/ar-BB1dLIpk

February 16, 2021

AT&T Pressuring Department Of Commerce To Keep China Telecom Off Blacklist

https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-att-pressuring-dept-of-commerce-to-keep-china-telecom-off-blacklist/

December 28, 2020

Local history: Long ago, Ohio Bell predicted modern telephone

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2020/12/28/ohio-bell-predicted-future-phones/4048083001/

September 12, 2020

A new link has been added to our "Links & References" page ; "A History of Telephone Communication".
https://www.emissary.ai/history-of-telephone-communication/

You can also view our "Links & References" internal page that has many more links.
https://www.beatriceco.com/tpc_links/

June 12, 2020

Major Update and Significant Records for Bell System Memorial Site, which include annual reports from before there ever was a Bell System. These are considered very important additions to the Bell System Memorial site.

1881 through 1887 The American Bell Telephone Company Annual Reports
1889 through 1899 The American Telephone & Telegraph Co Annual Reports
1970 through 1987 The American Telephone & Telegraph Co Annual Reports

To read further on the updates, go to:
https://www.beatriceco.com/pdf/12june2020_tpc.pdf

To view the Historical Phone Company Financials updates, go to:
https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/att/historical_financial.htm

April 19, 2019

In 1959, AT&T Discovered There Was a Market for a Ladys Phone
The Princess phone was pitched as the perfect extension for the bedroom
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/space-age/in-1959-att-discovered-there-was-a-market-for-a-ladys-phone

October 8, 2018

An important update has been performed on the Bell System Memorial site to correct the outdated footer and header web links, and they now point to the proper destinations. Our apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused. Our next update will be to perform a correction to the 'Books' section, and ensure that the proper Amazon links are working.

January 28, 2018

In July 2017, National Geographic had published '101 Inventions that Shaped the World'. Though an interesting list of articles on the various inventions over the decades were categorized in this particular issue, no mention was made of the single invention that had tremendous impact on billions of peoples lives; the telephone, and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. It was hardly believable that the editors and researchers could simple ignore or not bother to include this one invention that, to this day, many take for granted. Below is the original magazine in question, with the following two links to articles that the National Geographic had published, and our respective response to National Geographic on their July 7, 2017 issue, which we have yet to get a response to. Maybe this is one of those oops moments that they would like to pretend did not happen.

National Geographic 101 Inventions that Shaped the World'; July 7, 2017
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_sb_27?tag=theporcen-20&link_code=wsw&_encoding=UTF-8&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=1683301706&Submit.x=11&Submit.y=8

100 Years Ago, Alexander Graham Bell Predicted Life in 2017
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/06/explore-alexander-graham-bell-progress/

National Geographic- Telephone a Star (Reprinted From The May, 1962, Magazine)
/pdf/nat_geo_telstar_ocr.pdf

Porticus Response Letter to National Geographic '101 Inventions that Shaped the World'; December 18, 2017
/pdf/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC_stone, george 12_18_17.pdf

November 21, 2017

Below are some new links that have been added to our site for reference, and you can access them directly from the originating links:

Presidential Telephones of the United States
http://www.manufacturediscontinued.com/exhibits/telephones/presidential-telephones-of-the-united-states.html

AT&T Selected by FirstNet to Build and Manage Americas First Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network Dedicated to First Responders
http://about.att.com/story/firstnet_selects_att_to_build_network_supporting_first_responders.html

November 20, 2017

With AT&T's pending, or now litigated lawsuit to acquire Time Warner by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), this interesting article from The New York Times sheds some historical insight on the history of litigation that AT&T has had over the years with the US government.

"AT&Ts Run-Ins With the Government"
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/business/atts-run-ins-with-the-government.html

November 25, 2016

An inspiring article on Alexander Graham Bell that is sure to bring a tear to your eye. This

man had great vision, and unlike today's tech giants, he was very humble, and was not out

for personal glory or earthly riches. Sadly, Mr. Bell is no longer taught in school, or paid the

respect he deserves.

"When we think of the telephone and its inventor we likely think of Alexander Graham Bell. On March 10, 1876, at the age of 29, Bell spoke to his fellow worker Watson positioned in another room, uttering the famous words over the new device that would change the world: Mr. WatsonCome hereI want to see you.
http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2016/november-december/the-man-who-worked-with-all-his-might

August 18, 2015

AT&T and the government have been 'friends' for a really long time

To read further on the Fortune Magazine article, go to:
http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/att-nsa/

June 1, 2015

UPDATE To October 27, 2014 News: PHOENIX Beatrice Companies, Inc. today announced that our Technologies subsidiary will divest ownership in our bci360i small business IT business, and zyclopz, which handles web site design, and software programming. The Porticus Centre, it was decided, would remain with the company, and would not be divested.

To read further on the official press release, go to:
http://www.beatriceco.com/pdf/1june2015.pdf

October 27, 2014

PHOENIX Beatrice Companies, Inc. today announced that our Technologies
subsidiary will divest ownership of all assets relating to our company
owned physical and virtual assets relating to "The Bell System Memorial"

historical web site, and physical equipment relating to Western Electric.

The Bell System Memorial is part of The Porticus Centre, and is one of

the highest visited research web sites around, and has been featured on

USA Today as one of the top sites of 2003. The Bell System Memorial

has grown from a few thousand unique visitors, to hundreds of thousands

to one million monthly.

Partial listing of assets to be sold:
-Phone switching equipment
-Phones
-Bell System Practices (BSP) manuals
-Manuals
-Books

-The complete full library from MCI Communications
-Tools
-bellsystemmemorial.com, bellsystemmemorial.org, and gtememorial.com
web sites and full digital records.

Interested parties can go to:
www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/tpc_divest.htm to inquire on full
inventory of the business assets that are part of the asset divestiture,
and the contact information. We are open to serious individuals or
businesses that would like to acquire The Bell System Memorial and
its 100 years of history, or even the entire Porticus Centre, if
there was interest.

March 27, 2013

We have also added the 2012 AT&T, Verizon, Avaya, and Bell Canada Enterprises Annual reports to the site. To see all the new additions, click on the "Historical Financials" link on the left side. In addition, we also added the 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1953 AT&T Annual Reports. These particular reports are significant because of the new technology that was being developed at the time, including the transistor in 1952 and the DEW Line project in 1953, just to name a few.

December 18, 2011

Okay, we have quite a few updates to talk about and we have not been updating this page as often as we should.

Firstly, we have updated the "Ratings, Reviews & Comments" and "Become a Member" section to where both the Beatrice Foods Memorial and Bell System Memorial now have their own sections to become a member. Before they were combined, but now you can become a member on either one, and post reviews and comments on a particular site. Click HERE to go to the Testimonials and Member Site.

We have added two new important historical documents relating to the Bell System's involvement in World War II, and these are rather hard to find, and we wanted to share them with site visitors as soon as we received them into our archives. These are listed on the Miscellaneous page under "The Bell System and the WWII and Cold War days". They are the Telephone War Digest Number I, dated 1943, and the other is the Battle Front Report to Employees, dated 1945.

Finally, we have updated the Bell System Practices (BSP) & Technical Manuals page with new manuals and technical brochures from Avaya, AT&T, Lucent, and CommScope. So, if you are needing to programme your particular phone system, or need official documentation, click HERE to see what is new.

November 9, 2011

A thank you to Kimberly Morgan from Verizon Information Research Network for her contribution to our Historical Phone Company Financials. Kimberly sent over to us in .pdf form, the 1995 NYNEX Annual Report; 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 Bell Atlantic Annual Reports; 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 GTE Annual Reports; 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 Verizon Annual Reports. Thank you Kimberly for taking the time to compile and send these over, it is appreciated, and are a welcome addition to the site, and helps fill in a gap in our Historical Phone Company Financials.

We have also added the 1966 AT&T Annual report to the site. To see all the new additions, click on the "Historical Financials" link.

November 1, 2011

We are in the process of consolidating our web servers into one system, and the beatriceco.com will be the parent site. We are going to phase out the porticus.org server, and all inquiries to porticus.org will transition to beatriceco.com. This transition will be seamless, and you should not notice any changes, other than the web URL. However, it will take a couple of months for the web search engines to update their web crawl. In the meantime, it you have our sites bookmarked in your favorites, it is recommended that you update the URL's to the newer system. After December 31st, porticus.org will automatically be forwarded to https://www.beatriceco.com/btitpc/ Same great information and organization.

September 17, 2011

We have been making great strides to ensure that The Bell System Memorial is current and up-to-date with the proper web site links, articles and corresponding video and .pdf files. As an added benefit for those that do investigative research and require proper documentation, we make sure we have links to third party web sites. The Bell System Memorial attempts to maintain everything in-house so our IT staff can keep the information you view here relevant. However, we have noticed that there are links that we refer to that have great information relating to other important aspects of The Bell System, but have either shut down, or are no longer being updated. This is unfortunate, because then this deprives those who seek such information from being able to enrich their knowledge further. The Porticus Centre would like to reach out to those that have setup sites relating to anything to do with relevancy to The Bell System; i.e. AT&T Long Lines Microwave, Central Offices, telephone tribute stories, etc. Our aim is to ensure that not only Bell System physical documentation is preserved, like equipment, printed materials, and photos, but also digital information as well. If you have such a web site, or know someone that does, please contact us. Preserving our technological heritage, and those that dedicated themselves to it, is important now more than ever.

July 23, 2011

A new addition to our Bell Canada web site; "These be your Kings", which was published by Northern Electric in 1937, chronicles the English and British monarchs from 1066 to 1937. This is an interesting booklet, and and thank you to Robert McKinnon for your contribution in helping us expand our historical archives for Bell Canada and Northern Electric. Click HERE to go to the book.

July 20, 2011

"Bringing Canadians the Best Networks for 130 Years" is the slogan on page 20 and 21 of the 2010 BCE Inc. Annual Report. Some neat history and photos are there as well. Click HERE to go to the 2010 BCE Inc. Annual Report. Also, we have added the 2010 Verizon and AT&T Annual Reports to the Historical Financials page. Click HERE to go to the site to see these reports.

Also, so we don't forget, Avaya Holdings Corp., parent company of Avaya Inc. announced on June 9, 2011 that they will become a publicly traded company once again. TPG Capital and Silver Lake purchased Avaya on November 9th 2007. Click HERE to go to the official Avaya News Release.

July 2, 2011

Looking for those rare Bell System/AT&T movie archives on technology, recruitment, training, and much more? Look no further than to the new AT&T Tech Channel that has numerous videos and film footage going back to the early 20th Century. Click HERE to go to the AT&T Tech Channel.

May 20, 2011

A revision is being introduced to our "Yellow Pages" for locating parts and accessories, and our Western Electric Store is introducing their very own section for repairing phones, and obtaining accessories for your old equipment. There will be a special AT&T toll-free number that you will be able to reach The Western Electric store, which is (651) 787-DIAL (3425). This change will result in the bulk of the free advertising to be dropped from our site, and we do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Click HERE to go to the Western Electric Store.

April 3, 2011

A thank you to John M. Poer who helped restore the Princess Telephone User Manual. The restored version is much clearer than the original that we have had on our site. If you require the use of this manual, you can view it by clicking HERE.

March 20, 2011

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Deutsche Telekom AG (FWB: DTE) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approximately $39 billion. The agreement has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

To read further on this latest in telecom mergers, Click HERE.

January 1, 2011

We have made some changes to the Bell System Memorial web site that will help make it easier to do research. Our Books section has been updated to include ISBN for all books, and a special order link to each book has been provided to make it easer to order the book you want. Also, the Bell Canada site has been updated to include a complete list of their past and present logos, as well as a recently submitted list of photos of a Bell Canada Splicer, from former Bell Canada employee, T.J. Logie.

Conrad Otto, former Engineering Manager from Southwestern Bell also sent to us some photos of his time with the Bell System Center for Technical Education. Click HERE to view the photos.

February 10, 2010

By popular demand, The Porticus Centre now has "Member's Center". This is offered through Google, and the link to join is listed on both the Beatrice and Bell System Memorial web site home pages. This will allow members to share information with each other relating to Beatrice and Bell, and is a great resource that we are happy to finally provide for you.

November 19, 2009

It was just announced today that The Porticus Centre will merge with Beatrice Companies, Inc. and will be part of the Beatrice Consumer Products, Inc. subsidiary. This merger will help ensure that The Porticus Centre maintains the level of quality and reliability that so many of you have relied upon over the years, and this commitment is reinforced by our parent, Beatrice.

October 23, 2009

It's official. As of today the entire Bell System Memorial web site has been updated to reflect the new graphic layout that was initiated in 2006. It took exactly 3 years to finally complete, but it is finally done! We had to go and make sure that any dead web links were removed and any that we could update, we did out best to do so. If any one out there ever comes across broken or dead links or other missing information, please let us know, it would be greatly appreciated.

September 20, 2009

News just came in that Qwest Communications will be fully integrating Malheur Bell, and will be closing the Ontario, Oregon office. This will also spell the demise of the Malheur Bell name as well, as this now only leaves Bell Canada and Cincinnati Bell as the only remaining phone companies that have retained the "Bell" name. Click here to read the article.

August 22, 2009

The modifications to the Bell Operating Companies sites have been completed, and they contain the detailed names of the various local phone companies that fell under the jurisdiction of the seven BOC'S. Click here to view the links to the new sites. Keep in mind that the sites will only now reflect the three remaining BOC's; AT&T, Qwest, and Verizon, plus Bell Canada, and Cincinnati Bell. We have also revamped and launched a new Bell System Yellow Pages and Bell Directories site, which has up-to-date directory listings for listed persons, and businesses. You can also use this new site for maps and directions, and is a worthwhile site to save in your favorites. Click here to view. Tell others about the new Bell Directories.

August 21, 2009

Beginning the weekend of August 22nd, we will be updating the Bell Operating Companies pages to reflect more recent and updated information, which will include

more logos to reflect the Bell Telephone Companies that are now part of Qwest,

AT&T and Verizon. There will also be a more interactive side to these pages as well, which will include current "about us" and "products and services" so that you can see

what the successors to Alexander Graham Bell's legacy are offering. The Bell Canada site listed here will also be updated to reflect the new information relating to Canadian offerings. When you get a chance, take a look.

August 12, 2009

The Historical Phone Company Financials site has been revamped to include new financial information from other Bell companies, plus the recently insolvent Nortel Networks. Click here to view the reports.

August 8, 2009

The new SYSTIMAX Solutions site is now available. Click SYSTIMAX to view the new site, which is dedicated to the employees who manufacture the high quality product that comes out of each their facilities and also to those installers who support American manufactured voice and data network cabling and information outlet products. This site has samples of some of the history of SYSTIMAX, and also supports current documentation for the new line of products that SYSTIMAX manufactures. We have also included important links, manufacturing locations, contact information, and where to purchase SYSTIMAX. SYSTIMAX is truly American, and now more than ever, we need to support what little manufacturing is left in our country. If you are an end user, insist that your installer use only SYSTIMAX. If you are an installer, insist on doing what is right and use only SYSTIMAX. Not only is SYSTIMAX using Western Electric heritage and quality, but they are also producing their products in America.

August 7, 2009

AT&T, Inc. and Bell Canada announce that both companies will have a wireless roaming agreement for each of their respective customers when roaming in each companies wireless footprint. Click at&Bell to view the report. Interesting to note that in the article, someone took the time to combine the at&t and Bell logo to signify the new agreement.

May 2, 2009

New photos have been added to the site. The first is of the Burlington Western Electric Plant from 1951, 1, and the other is of BellSouth Services, 2.

March 20, 2009

The 2008 AT&T Annual Reports have been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click 2008 to view the report.

January 29, 2009

More pages have been given a face lift. Click Bell System History, The Day the Bell System Died, and Bell System Advertisements to view the the new pages.

January 25, 2009

Some old pages have been given a face lift. Click AT&T Divestiture, Automatic Answering Service, Bell System Property - Not For Sale, Bell Chime and Bell Operating Companies to view the the new pages.

November 1 , 2008

Starting on November 2nd, a rare collection of Western Electric handset cords that were part of the last batch manufactured in Phoenix, Arizona before the plant was shut down goes up for auction on eBay. Many of the colors are the hard-to-find white and black and these are U.S. manufactured cords! Proceeds will go to help fund The Bell System Memorial web site. Click eBay to view the store of items.

October 9, 2008

The 1986 AT&T Annual Report has been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click 1986 to view the report.

October 8, 2008

The new SYSTIMAX Solutions Catalog is now available. Click SYSTIMAX to view the catalog. SYSTIMAX was once known as AT&T Network Systems and the bulk of their products are still manufactured in the U.S.A. in Omaha, Nebraska at the old Western Electric facility. So, if you are in telecommunications and use phone jacks, face plates, computer patch cords, patch panels, telephone and computer/data wire, but are not aware that our country still makes these things, then look no further than SYSTIMAX and start supporting American made products and send a message to China that their chemical infested garbage will no longer be tolerated on the American telecommunications network. American jobs are at stake, and everyone can do their part.

October 6, 2008

The 1989 AT&T Annual Report has been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click 1989 to view the report.

September 29, 2008

The 1902 and 1903 AT&T Annual Reports have been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click 1902 and 1903 to view the reports.

September 29, 2008

BCE Inc. (Bell Canada Enterprises) introduced a new logo on August 7, 2008. Click here to view the new logos for Bell Canada. Also, to view the BCE News Release announcing the launching of the new logo, click here.

September 28, 2008

Ok, after a long hiatus of no updates to the Bell System Memorial web site, we are now going to periodically get back to posting some new materials and update the site like we promised.

The 2006 and 2007 AT&T Annual Reports have been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click 2006 and 2007 to view the report. No longer will Avaya, Inc. financials be added to the AT&T Historical Financials section, as TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners, acquired Avaya, Inc. for $8.2 billion on November 9th 2007. Agere Systems Inc. was acquired by LSI Corporation on April 2nd 2007 for $4 billion and will also be omitted for future listings. Finally, Lucent Technologies, Inc. merged with Alcatel of France which occurred on April 26th 2006 and thus ended the ten year independence of Lucent, and the combined Alcatel-Lucent will not be in the AT&T Historical Financials section. It must be noted that for those who do not remember, Avaya and Agere were both part of Lucent, and Lucent in turn was part of AT&T.

Listed briefly is a historical breakdown:

-1881: Western Electric becomes the manufacturing arm of AT&T and is also the purchasing agent for the Bell System.

-1925: Bell Laboratories was formed by merging the Western Electric Research Laboratories, which was created in 1907, with the Engineering Department of AT&T.

-1983: AT&T Technologies, Inc. created as a result of Bell System divestiture that will occur on January 1, 1984, and assumes the well known corporate charter of Western Electric Company.

-1996: AT&T Technologies, Inc. was renamed Lucent Technologies, Inc. and was completely spun-off from AT&T. Bell Laboratories went with the Lucent spin-off, with AT&T retaining only the part of Bell Laboratories that pertained to communications research, which AT&T calls AT&T Laboratories.

-2000: Lucent in April sold their Consumer Products division to VTech Consumer Phone Services. The Business Systems division was spun-off to become Avaya, Inc., and June saw the microelectronics division spun-off into Agere Systems. (Lucent retains Bell Laboratories).

-2006: April saw lucent itself merger with longtime competitor Alcatel.

Recently, we now have some new additions for the AT&T Historical Financials section that will included the 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1910 and 1912 AT&T Annual Reports.

December 21, 2007

Finally, after thirteen months of trying to transfer the bellsystemmemorial.com domain from

IPOWERWEB, today it is now unified with the family of Porticus domain names. Thank you to David Massey for putting pressure on IPOWERWEB to release the domain name. All we can say about IPOWERWEB is that their customer service is not very responsive and has caused nothing but aggravation and wasted time in attempting to get something that should be relatively simple to accomplish. But all that said, we welcome back bellsystemmemorial.com to the family.

June 30, 2007

BCE (Bell Canada Enterprises) Reaches Definitive Agreement to be Acquired By Investor Group Led by Teachers, Providence and Madison - BCE Board Recommends Shareholders Accept C$42.75 (US$40.13) Per Share Offer.

This marks the end of an era for an Independent Bell Canada, a company that traces its roots back to days of the Bell System and Melville and Alexander Graham Bell. Click here to read the official BCE news release.

June 24, 2007

The 1983 No. 3/4 Special Commemorative Issue of the Bell Telephone Magazine is finally up on the site. This was the last published before the divesture of the Bell System Click here to see the issue in the original format.

June 16, 2007

The Bell Canada page has been updated with the new format. Click here to see the new changes.

June 10, 2007

The Retirees Information page has been updated with new links and information. Also, those of you who used to work for the equipment side of the Bell System might find the following news article of interest.

Former AT&T workers connect at reunion

For the more than 300 people who packed a hall in the Bossier Civic Center on Saturday, the line never stopped at Shreveport's landmark high-tech manufacturing plant on Mansfield Road.

May 14, 2007

Two sections to the Bell System Memorial site have been updated with the new look. The Trading Post and the Yellow Pages have been re-configured with new information and old information deleted. Work will begin in the coming weeks to finally scan and upload the 1983 No. 3-4 Bell Telephone Magazine and additional AT&T Annual Reports.

March 12, 2007

The 1911 and 1913 AT&T Annual Reports have been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click here to view the reports. Also, we now have the 1983 No. 2 issue of Bell Telephone Magazine which has much information about the preparation for divestiture of the Bell System and the new designated RBOC regions. Many thanks to Jeff Charles for his allowing us to scan the original magazine and add it to our digital archive. Jeff also provided the copy of the 1983 No. 3-4, which will be added once it has been scanned and converted to pdf. The Bell Telephone Magazine sub-site has been updated to the new look and the 1983 No. 2 magazine is in its original colour format with pictures and all. Click here to see the new sub-site and magazine.

February 6, 2007

The 1908 and 1909 AT&T Annual Reports have been added to the AT&T Historical Financials. Click here to view the reports.

January 30, 2007

After many months of having put aside scanning the AT&T Annual Reports from 1907 onwards, the American Telephone & Telegraph Annual Report for 1907 has been scanned and converted to pdf. Click here to view the report. A new and quicker method of scanning has been used and will hopefully result in more reports and documents being uploaded.

December 2006

This month has been quite busy with preparing for the continuing updates and modifications to the Bell System Memorial site. With the new links and new pages and new documents that will be in the works coming next year. Already we have had offers from people that want to help contribute new materials to the Bell System memorial site, which we thank those people very much for helping in expanding the research material here. The contribution of materials either in electronic form or hard copy form is always welcome and is in the tradition to the Porticus Mission to share and preserve historical business documents.

On an interesting note. While researching information on Mountain Bell (Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph), we came across something unique about one of the Bell operating companies in the State of Oregon and found a Bell company called Malheur Bell, which is odd since US West eliminated the various Bell names in their territory in 1991, but this obscure Bell company kept it's name and the Bell logo! Click here for

information about Malheur Bell. Malheur Bell will be added on the US West section of the Bell Operating companies. Click here the Bell Operating Companies Site.

Also, for those of you who visit this site that are cable or network installers with your own business or work for a company doing this type of work, you might be interested to know that the heritage of Western Electric and the quality that they were known for is still alive and well through SYSTIMAX® Solutions. This company used to be a part of AT&T up until it was part of the Lucent spin-off in 1996. Lucent in turn spun-off AVAYA Communication in 2000 and then AVAYA sold the SYSTIMAX® Solutions unit to CommScope. To find out more about SYSTIMAX® Solutions, Click here. The great thing is, after talking to the people at SYSTIMAX®, it's great to know that most of their product is U.S. manufactured, not cheap Chinese cabling or patch cords.

It's Official, AT&T received approval on December 29 to acquire Bell South. Both the Cingular and Bell South name will be phased out in 2007. Click here to read further about the momentous event. With all the telecom mergers in the U.S. recently, it makes one wonder what the point in the anti trust suit of 1974-1982 was for and all the billions spent on defending/prosecuting and the thousands of jobs lost.

September 2006

In September 2006, Bell System Memorial became a part of The Porticus Centre, a non-profit entity that is dedicated to the preservation and archiving of historical business documentation for select companies. An overhaul of the original site that David Massey had put together is being planed and new materials will also be added. The web site is now being hosted by AT&T Web Hosting Services.

August 2006

This website has been basically dormant since late 2005. The hosting contract with IPowerWeb.com will expire on September 14th if it is not renewed.

Update: I have been in discussions with an interested webmaster who would like to do whatever he can to keep the site alive when the renewal comes up in September! Details will be posted later.

October 2005

Now for the latest addition to this website...some neat photos of a solar powered motor built by a scientist in Sweden based on the experiment shown in the Bell Labs Science Kit called "Energy from the Sun". Click here for this latest addition to my website.

October 11 - Added Photos from Roy D. Welch from the 1950's and 1960's era of Southwestern Bell.

October 30 - Added "End of the Line - The Rise and Fall of AT&T" to the web page on books about Ma Bell.

September 2005

With all the rumors going around about the new name for SBC/AT&T once the merger is completed I was amazed at what I uncovered on the Internet. Check out this link!

August 2005

Added photos and scan of old National Geographic article on Telstar. See the bottom of the Telstar page for these new additions and credits for the person who contributed this material.

July 2005

Don Lively sent me two new documents he authored to add to his existing documentation on this website. He states, "Along with a few other old Bellheads, I've been pushing a little group we call CARE (Citizens Against Regulatory Excesses). We intervene in California regulatory activities which we believe run against the interests of stakeholders in telecom." You can read these two new documents by clicking on the following link:

TELCO STAKEHOLDERS INFORMATION FORUM DOCUMENTS

March 19, 2005

My father passed away. It will be several months before I'll be doing a lot of updates to this website. My mom will be moving in with our family in a house we are having built which may not be finished until end of December at the earliest. It will be a challenge!

Prior to March 19, 2005

The web hosting company I use for this website has increased the server space allocation for new customers but won't do it for me unless I add on additional time to my contract which I just renewed a few months ago. And when they do upgrade my account they will wipe out all of my files! So this means that if I choose to do this that this website will be down for who knows how long. I don't know why they can't just increase the space like they have in the past without starting over from scratch.

Anyway, if you visit this website in the near future and get error messages instead then you will know most likely why. It takes several hours to upload several hundred megabytes of files back to the web server via my DSL line and that would only happen after they tell me they are ready for me to reload my pages. Seems that they could do that for me from their backup tapes they create every day.

If I do the upgrade it will give me space for some other ideas I have and will have either a sub-domain or a second (and new) domain sharing the server space. Stay tuned...

Added Photos from Chuck Warder & Larry Legge -nice black and white photos from the early 1900's of C&P telephone

Added to the Miscellaneous page:

"Rules for Troubleman" - a document from the year 1911 outlining the do's and don'ts for the "telephone man" of long ago. Contributed by "Bill", a Service Technician for Verizon / Bell Atlantic since 1978.

"Bell's Telephone" article from page 277-288 of the December 1877 publication called "The Manufacturer and Builder".

February 2005

My married daughter who has taken on the main editorial responsibilities of the Singing Wires newsletter this year has also made a template for a new look for this website of mine. And I like her ideas but finding the time to implement them is another story! Over 135 web pages will have to be modified and most likely split off into even more web pages (especially the "Miscellaneous" web page with its numerous unrelated topics!) Anyway, I'll be working on this idea of hers for some months to come but have no idea when the new look will be ready for uploading to the Internet. For starters, gone will be my dumb idea of the color spectrum menu bar at the left. Hopefully I'll have this all done by mid year :-)

January 2005

"Plan of Reorganization" - Legal Document - Civil Action No. 82-0192, December 16, 1982. This almost 500 page document was loaned to me to convert to electronic format by Edward Inghrim. It details how AT&T proposed to accomplish the Bell System divestiture by January 1, 1984. I have not had time to proofread the electronic conversion results so there will be some errors as you would expect from any Optical Character Recognition (OCR) conversion of images of text to real text. Hopefully in the months to come I'll have had time to proofread and correct the errors.

Added scan from the February 1953 "Radio and Television News" magazine of a Bell Labs advertisement boasting of the new 500 set. Also from that same magazine was an ad for Raytheon's CK722 and CK721 transistors which were the first commercially available transistors for hobbyists and general purpose use in new designs. These were on sale just under five years after Bell Labs announced the transistor invention.

December 2004

Added a 1989 document to the Bell System History page called "The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) by Sheldon Hochheiser of the AT&T Archives.

November 2004

The author of the book "The Rape of Ma Bell - The Criminal Wrecking of the Best Telephone System in the World" gave permission for me to scan and convert the paper copy of the book to electronic format (PDF file) and place on this website.

The book was last printed back in 1988 but the material in the book is so important to understanding why we have such a mess in the telecom world today - a direct result of the Bell System divestiture in 1984 - that I wanted everyone to be able to read its content. The news media won't tell you what went on behind the scenes or the tremendous cost to the consumer nor will the government admit what a mess they made for consumers, employees and the stockholders of the once great AT&T and associated companies of the Bell System.

To go to the download page for the book, please click HERE.

Also this month I added photos of my Western Electric 5320 model - a cross between the older 302 model but the look of the 500. It was a transitional model for Western Electric after World War II to use up the stockpile of 302 model parts while introducing the model 500. Click HERE to go to the page.

September 2004

This month marks the beginning of the third year of the BellSystemMemorial.com domain name! Although this website has existed as a "sub domain" on other domains for about 7 years, the growth in "hits" and the growth in site size accelerated enormously after it got its own domain on the world wide web. During last month the bandwidth exceeded 25 Gigabytes! Compare that with two years ago when it only generated about 1 Gigabyte of bandwidth.

My hosting service IPowerWeb.com will be upgrading my server space and bandwidth when my account is renewed. this month. This means I can finally upload some files that there was no room for in the past.

A bunch of articles from several Bell Telephone Magazine were recently scanned and have been added to various pages on this site where related topics are located. These new scans are found on the following pages:

Bell Telephone Magazine articles on Divestiture, Phone Phreaks and more
Added information from a 1982 Bell Telephone Magazine to the timeline on the AT&T Divestiture page.
WHITHER DIRECTORY AND VIDEOTEX OPERATIONS? - Of the 10 modifications Judge Harold H. Greene mandated in the agreement between AT&T and the Department of Justice, one that has called for a great deal of corporate adjustment is the provision setting forth conditions under which printed Yellow Pages, White Pages directories, and electronic information services may be provided.
Phone Center Store article
Bell Canada: A New Balance - Article from the 1975 Bell Telephone Magazine.
Year of Decision - Article about Theodore Vail from a 1975 Bell Telephone Magazine
How the Bell System Looks to the Public by Louis Harris, from the Bell Telephone Magazine, Autumn 1978 issue
SELLING THE BIG SIX - 1983 - Issue 1 - Bell Telephone Magazine - How the Bell companies are making it convenient for customers to buy their phones. And how customers are responding. or Sale: More than 100 million telephones
The Bell System: The Legacy and the Promise
Dear Reader: We Stopped the Presses - The divestiture announcement just made it into the Bell Telephone Magazine's last issue for 1981 which was to be printed in January 1982.

July 22, 2004

Added Bell Atlantic / Diamond State Telephone Genealogy Chart to the Bell Atlantic history web page. A big thank you to Jim Bowden for this and other Bell Atlantic historical contributions to this website.

June 24, 2004 - Added photos of Alexander Graham Bell to the Bell System History page.

June 23, 2004 - Additions made to the Trading Post page and Bell System Employee Stories page.

June 20, 2004 - Added new web page with article titled "What Killed Ma Bell?" written in 1984 by Melvin D. Barger.

June 18, 2004 - Added photo to the Western Electric model 2500 page of Northern Electric 1500 telephone sent to me by website visitor in Canada.

June 18, 2004 - Added Western Electric 3-slot payphone coin collection box photos and instructions for opening and resetting the locking mechanism of the box to the Western Electric 233G page.

June 5, 2004 - Added Brad Morrison's contribution of photos he took of a fully restored Model A Ford, Bell System telephone truck at the old car show in Iola, Wisconsin in 2002. Click here to view new page.

June 4, 2004 - Added scans to the Bell System Logo page of two 3M company advertisements from a 1982 magazine showing the reflective 3M decals on Bell System vehicles.

May 28, 2004 - Added a new page with some photos and newspaper articles on the sabotage of AT&T Long Lines microwave towers and other Long Lines facilities and equipment.

May 20, 2004 - Added an article from the Southern Bell Magazine dated January, 1983 titled "Restructuring Plan - The Road Map to Divestiture". It gives some historical insight into how the divestiture was to happen. To view the article, go to the AT&T Divestiture page.

May 9, 2004 - Added photo and story of AT&T Long Lines Department TD-2 Microwave Radio Restoration Van to AT&T Long Lines web page.

April 24, 2004 - Added AT&T Long Lines web pages to this website. The AT&T Long Lines book I scanned for these new pages is now online but some proofreading is still in the works.

April 18, 2004 - Added photos I took at Zoo Atlanta of the BellSouth sponsored Panda Bear exhibit to the BellSouth page.

April 9, 2004 - Added photos of my newly acquired 2N23 point-contact transistor to my Bell Labs Transistor page.

April 3, 2004 - Added TelecomPioneers information and AT&T Long Lines Retirees Mail List to the Retirees web page.

March 28, 2004 - Created a new entry point for my website while still retaining the old home page. It is hoped this will give website visitors a faster way to locate the web pages most likely to benefit them based on their interest or purpose for the visit.

March 19, 2004 - Added scan of Western Electric stock certificate sent to me by Robert P Mohalley, CEO Strategic Optical Systems, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. It is located on the Western Electric History page.

March 17, 2004 - Added "Bell System Recorded Announcements" web page of call intercept recordings of Jane Barbe and other famous voices that were used during the Bell System and even till today.

March 14, 2004 - Added pictures to the Bell Canada page (at bottom) of some odds and ends sent to me by an ex-Bell Canada employee.

February 16, 2004 - Added a new web page on Bell Labs' Solar Battery work and a brief history of photovoltaic technology with timeline. Added Southern Bell pendant photo to "Odds and Ends" page.

January 23, 2004 - Added 1922 Postcard showing Wisconsin Telephone Company building in Racine, Wisconsin to the Bell Operating Companies page. Contributed by Brad Morrison. Added Larry Bayern's contribution of scans he did of Multi-button telephones to the Western Electric Telephones page.

January 2, 2004 - Corrected broken link on About this Site page that pointed to a copy of newspaper article. Added "Walking Fingers" Bell System logo to the Home page and the Yellow Pages. Added info on the Western Electric Telephones page on how to wire a Princess model 702B that has a 5-conductor line cord so that it will ring on today's private lines (when previously wired for party-line service). Added screen shots to the the Western Electric Telephones page of the Lucent ordering website for old Bell System Practices documents, using the Princess phone as an example. New web page created - References and Links on the Bell System.

December 27, 2003 - Added scans to the Western Electric Telephones page of Western Electric's "The Telephone Book" three-ring binder of marketing material on the following products: Traditional Wall Phones (like the 2554 and 554) - Traditional Desk Phones (like the 2500 and 500 series) - Trimline Phone - Princess Phone - Panel Telephone - Intercom Only Telephone - Automatic Telephone - Mobile Telephone - Card Dialer Telephone - Touch-a-Matic S Series Telephone - Touch-a-Matic 16 Telephone - Touch-a-Matic 32 Telephone - Touch-a-Matic 32 Adjunct Telephone - Touch-a-Matic 12 Adjunct Dialer - The TeleHelper Speakerphone.

December 24, 2003 - Added color scans of Western Electric's "The Telephone Book" three-ring binder of marketing material on Design Line telephones to the Design Line Telephones web page.

December 23, 2003 - Added to the DEW Line page a letter sent to the Lucent archives by Robert F. Marfina concerning other military projects that Western Electric was involved in for national defense. As a side note, in the months ahead I hope to also add to the Western Electric Telephones page some material Robert sent me and will be sending me from his days with Western Electric.

December 18, 2003 - My web hosting service iPowerWeb.com has increased my server space from 500 megabytes to 800 megabytes. That means I can now start adding more Bell System archive material on my website in the months ahead!

December 14, 2003 - Added "Major Milestones in Transistor Electronics" to the Bell Labs - Transistor page.

November 30, 2003 - Added "The White Alice Network" PDF file to the DEW Line Project page.

November 28, 2003 - Added color slide photos and "The DEW Line Story" PDF file to the DEW Line Project page.

November 6, 2003 - Split off BellSouth, Bell Atlantic (Verizon) from the Regional Bell Operating Companies web page into their own web pages and moved SBC material from the Regional Bell Operating Companies web page to the existing SBC web page.

November 2, 2003 - Added a new web page titled "The DEW Line Project". The DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line Project was just one of the Bell System's involvement in the USA's defense systems. On this page you will find some brief information and a gallery of photos sent to this website by Ollie Ekstedt. Added photo to Miscellaneous page. Added BSP section of the amplified handsets to the Handsets page. Added additional text to Life in the Bell System page. Other minor changes made to website.

October 18, 2003 - Corrected an HTML error caused by Micro$oft FrontPage when it created hyperlinks as absolute instead of relative for the menu item "Visitors Comments". This is one of those unpredictable things FrontPage does and they haven't fixed the bug yet! Of course this is typical from a company that pushes new software out the door before it's ready. Look how many security patches Micro$oft had to come out with just for Windows XP so far! But that's a subject for a different website :-)

October 13, 2003 - Added a "Comments Page" for those wishing to send feedback about this website. Added "About This Site" page to allow the home page to be more brief.

October 12, 2003 - Corrected a previous addition to the Bell Labs experiment kits web pages "From Sun to Sound" and "Energy from the Sun" where the Northern Electric (Canadian) solar cell photos was placed on the "Energy from the Sun" web page instead of the "From Sun to Sound web page.

October ?, 2003 - Added BellSouth vehicle photos and descriptions - submitted by Eric Paschal, BellSouth Network Services Regulatory Support.

October 7, 2003 - Added "Yellow Pages for Telephone Parts and Repairs" (mirrored from my former sister website, TelephoneTribute.com) to provide contact information for those trying to locate parts or repairs for their antique telephones.

October 3, 2003 - Added photo of a real Carterfone sent to me by Stan Schreier. Added a page on the CARDIAC learning aid by Bell Laboratories.

Added more old photographs; these are of the Bell Laboratories facility in Murray Hill.

Added a nice document called "UNDERSTANDING THE NORTH AMERICAN NUMBERING PLAN" to the Miscellaneous web page. It was sent to this website by its author, David H. Bench.

Added scans of some really old telephone bills sent to this website.

Added two great articles by Don Hurter that have disappeared from cyberspace until I located an archive containing them (minus the photos). The two articles are linked from the Miscellaneous page and are found here and here. I have been unable to contact Don since the articles were written in 1995 and he left no forwarding address.

August 2003 - 95% of the changes mentioned below are now complete. For the next several weeks I'll be checking for dead internal links and orphan files.

New web page added: "Who really invented the Transistor". Andrew Emmerson uncovers conflicting claims and some revisionist history surrounding the transistor.

May - August 2003 - MAJOR WEBSITE CHANGES!
The ownership of my sister website, TelephoneTribute.com was transferred to a new owner and webmaster in May. Running two websites was just too much for me to keep up with in my spare time so I put the other website up for "adoption" to a good home! The new owners (volunteers!) consist of a fellow telephone collector, Ron Christianson, and his webmaster, George Triant who jointly run the Cyber Telephone Museum.

What this means for the Bell System Memorial website is the relocation of the Western Electric and other Bell System related files from the TelephoneTribute.com domain to this domain. The files have already been removed from the other website but will take a few weeks for me to incorporate them into this website so please be patient. By the end of August I should have the Western Electric telephone schematics, photos, posters etc. up and running.

April 2003 - Added copy of "Our Living Past - A Strategic Asset" an AT&T's FOCUS magazine article, January 26, 1988 to the Miscellaneous web page. Added copy of article from the February 1993 issue of AT&T's FOCUS magazine on the VideoPhone model 2500 to the Picture Phone page.

March 2003 - Added copy of the US patent for the discovery of the transistor effect to the Bell Labs Transistor page. Added the Trading Post web page to assist those trying to locate Bell System related items or to sell/trade Bell System items. Added maps and more detailed descriptions to the Bell Operating Companies page.

February 2003 - Added some great reading material by Don Lively which exposes how the government managed to ruin the telecommunications industry in 1982 and again in 1996! Check out the three documents submitted to this website by Don by clicking HERE. Thanks Don for your contribution to this website!

January 2003 - IPowerWeb, my domain hosting services company, has allocated more space for my web sites. I now have more files available on the Internet than were available last year. Changes were made accordingly to the pages that were affected by this availability of additional files. Scanned the entire 100 page book that came with the Bell Labs Experiment #2 kit on solar energy and made it available in PDF file format.

June thru November 2002 - Massive changes in web servers, domain names and file locations dominated this time period. Technical problems are still being worked out. An additional domain (www.BellSystemMemorial.com) and server hosting account were applied for on September 14th to help resolve some of the problems with space limitations. Some new additions to this website, but these additions were overshadowed by the aforementioned challenges.

May 2002 - Added full-color brochure called "The Bell System's Line of New Products and Services" to the Western Electric Products page.

April 2002 - Added two PDF files to the Miscellaneous page - Aging Problems of Plastics and Automatic Intercept Service, both from an old Bell Laboratories Record magazine.

March 2002 - Added information for Bell Telephone retirees on an organization called Association of BellTel Retirees, Inc. to the Bell System Employee Stories page. Updated logos on the RBOC Table of Changes. Added scans from vintage postcards of the Eastland Disaster to the Eastland Disaster web page. Created new page for The Transistor and added photos and text from Bell Labs website to the new page.

February 2002 - Added divestiture costs information to AT&T Divestiture page in response to an inquiry by a Yale student. Added article on the CARDIAC kit to the Bell Labs Kits page. Added a link to a special 60-page Bell Labs e-publication on the Picturephone to the Picturephone web page.

January 2002 - Added Ricardo Delacuesta's personal story to the Bell System Employee Stories web page. Added a separate page for Western Electric's Design Line phones.

December 2001 - Added more Bell System photos, scanned by and contributed to this web site by Ross Hamilton of Canada. Added hyperlink on the home page to a text file of the possible explanations for how the phrase, "Ma Bell" came about. Added information on the creator of the Bell logo and the new (1984) AT&T logo to the Bell Logo History page. Added "Breaking Up is Hard on You" song to "The Day the Bell System Died" web page. Early technical history of Touch-Tone dialing document link added to Bell Labs page.

November 2001 - Added new book review on my web page, "The Rape of Ma Bell", called "A Voice in the Wilderness". Added new information on the Bell Labs science kits thanks to the input from a visitor to my web site. Added news-breaking story on my Bell Labs web page from the Bell Labs website about a transistor consisting of one single molecule! Added three more Bell System advertisements to the Bell System Ads web page.

There were other changes as well but not of huge significance compared to the ones above.

October 2001 - Added photos of Bell System kettle, burner, and teapot to the "Odds and Ends" page. Added "AT&T equipment survived trade center collapse" to the "Miscellaneous" page.

September 2001 - Added links to Bell Canada page and removed outdated material of the Bell Canada corporate family tree on that page. A big thanks to Emily Purchase (Administrative Assistant, Mayor's Office, City of Brantford "The Telephone City") for sending me this information!

June 2001 - Added Telstar article to the Bell Labs page. Changed my email contact address due to recent spamming problems. Added Western Electric radio transmitter ads to my Western Electric Products page.

May 2001 - Added photo of Verizon van to the Bell Operating Companies web page, courtesy of Bill Cook. Added Southern Bell's new rates for July 4, 1983 to Bell System Property page. Removed "Multimedia" page (files linked from that page are now on a separate disc). Created new page for future use called "Miscellaneous".

April 2001 - Corrected paragraph on Multimedia page. Added Bell logo animation to home page. Added "Timeline of the Legal History of Telecommunications
and the Divestiture of AT&T" to the AT&T Divestiture page. Added side notes to bottom of "The Decision to Divest" page. Added photo of Western Electric fan to Western Electric Products page. Added two modern-day AT&T commercials to the Bell System advertisements page. Added Frank Bennett's scanned images. Corrected bad links and eliminated unwanted orphan files. Added photo collection of Sandra Mears' Speech Synthesis kit to the Speech Synthesis Kit page. Corrected errors (word "modem" replaced with correct word "modern" - an error created by the optical character/word recognition software confusing "r" next to "n" and thinking it is an "m") in the documents Western Electric and the Bell System (Word DOC) and the text version.

March 2001 - Corrected some HTML errors on the following pages: Eastland Disaster, Western Electric Products, Odds and Ends of the Bell System. Added photos sent to me by Edward Kelly to the Historical Photos page. Reorganized and added new material to the Bell System Advertisements page. Added cartoons to three web pages.

February 2001 - Added "Bell Laboratories Record - 25 years of Transistors - December 1972" booklet in PDF file format (see Bell Labs web page). Added "Century One - A Prologue" (PDF file format) to the Western Electric History page. Added copy of instruction sheet that came with the G6 handset on the Western Electric Telephones page.

December 2000 - Added Bell Labs Science Experiment Kits photos (detailed descriptions of each kit will be added in a future update). Revised Western Electric Products page. Minor modifications to html code in menu to correct a glitch in the Internet search engine display of results.

November 2000 - Removed Bell logos on page headers and other locations. Moved web pages to same server as Tribute to the Telephone. No longer associated with BellSystem.com. Changes site name to A Memorial to the Bell System. New menu structure.

October 2000 - Added "Bell System Links" page. Reworded index (home) page. Added new story "Life in the Bell System". Added table showing changes of the Baby Bells since 1983. Added two more photos to the Picturephone page. Added "Transmitter Tests" picture to the Western Electric page. Added page called The Decision to Divest: Incredible or Inevitable? By Trudy E. Bell, Senior Associate Editor - Reprinted from IEEE Spectrum Online. Added Manufacturing the Future: A History of Western Electric by Adams, Stephen B. and Orville R. Butler to the Western Electric History page.

September 2000 - Added AT&T "American Bell" logo and more Bell System advertisements plus two "Reach Out" multimedia files to the Bell System advertisements page. Added a picture of BellSouth building in Birmingham, Alabama, USA along with some updates on "what happened to all the Baby Bells since 1983?" on the RBOC page which was contributed by a web site visitor. Added a multimedia MPEG file on the Breaking Up Is Hard To Do page.

August 19, 2000 - Added AT&T Long Lines logo to the Bell Logos page.

July 22, 2000 - Started the groundwork for a web page on Bell Labs. Also, check out my new page with old photos from a local Bell Operating Company.

June 23, 2000 - Added an old Readers Digest article on the Western Electric history page called "Mama Visits the Factory". Also added a new page called "Historical Photos of Bell System Equipment and People". Added new advertisement "His genius gave wings to words" on the Bell System Ads page.

June 13, 2000 - Added a page on the Western Electric "Mirrophone" (not "microphone"!). Read about this rare find!

June 4, 2000 - Added a page on what is was like to work for the Bell System as told by former employees.

May 6, 2000 - Added 20 new Bell System advertisements to the Bell System Ads page.

March 30, 2000 - Added info to the WEco Telephones page on the Western Electric Design Line telephones that were made available to consumers in the 1970's.

March 8, 2000 - Added more photos of my telephone collection to the WEco Telephones page.

January 30, 2000 - Added new Bell System Advertisement scans to the Bell System Ads page. Added new scan of a photo from Photonics magazine of the Picturephone to the Picturephone page.