On Monday, April 13, 2015 at 5:52:40 PM UTC-4, Larry Sheldon wrote:   
      
   > The high school I attended in the 1950s had identical cord boards    
   > sitting side-by-side--one labeled "Automatic Electric", the other    
   > "Western Electric".  The offices and such had Pacific Telephone    
   > instruments connected to one cord-board, the same offices plus    
   > department heads and selected (don't know how) othe4r teachers had the   
   > funky, odd sets connected to the other.   
      
   > The (full time) PBX operator was not supposed to complete calls from one    
   > board to the other, but for certain selected teachers (ibid.) she did.   
      
      
   I had seen arrangements where AE and WE switchboards sat side by side, and   
   wondered if they could've been physically interconnected.  Now I know.   
      
   The govt regulators were very strict about Bell's rental-only policy and no   
   inter-onnected equipment*.  Part of it was legitimate concern to protect the   
   network against a homebuilt unit that put house current onto the phone line.    
   But a big part of it    
   was protecting Bell System rental revenue.  Those rentals, especially for   
   business equipment, cross-subsidized the very basic phone service for the   
   poor, helping to create universal service.  That was very important to the   
   regulators (ref Awl).  Bell    
   liked it too, to help build a large customer base, and for good public   
   relations.  Back in the 1960s, bare-bones phone service (which did include a   
   telephone set and all maintenance) cost about $3/month, which was pretty   
   affordable.   
      
   * Certain equipment, such as paging systems and dictation machines, could be   
   customer owned by interconnected.   
      
      
   Anyway, for younger readers (if there are any), the deal was that Bell System   
   services and products were rented only.  In an organization, this could add   
   up.  So, what many schools and factories did was put Bell phones only in   
   places where the people    
   would need outside connections.  The rest of the organization would be served   
   by a privately owned system, often built by Automatic Electric, but not   
   connected to Bell phones.  Obviously, some organizations, perhaps many,   
   "cheated".   
      
   So, as Larry described, there would be two switchboards, or someone would have   
   two phones on their desk.  AE phones had a funky look to them.     
      
      
      
   > In later years she moved to a brand-new junior high school that had the    
   > neatest arrangement I have seen to date--they had non-bell service so it    
   > was probably AE and it ran on a closet full of Stroweger switches.   
      
   The beauty of the AE system described above was its economy--since it had only   
   one channel, it needed only one Strowger switch and a few control relays, and   
   fit into a compact cabinet.   
      
   When the Phila school district replaced its old AE systems, probably a few   
   collectors were able to save some.  It would be neat to have such a system.    
   Some serious collectors have a whole PAX set up in their homes.   
      
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