On Thursday, June 26, 2014 11:18:51 AM UTC-4, Stephen Sprunk wrote:   
   > On 25-Jun-14 13:58, hancock4 wrote:   
      
   > There's really no such thing as an "attendant" anymore; most places just   
   > dump the few remaining parts of that job on the receptionist, who is   
   > most often a temp.  And why provide extensive training to a temp?   
      
   I don't know why they would use a temp for a job like receptionist, since a   
   good receptionist is very familiar with the particular company and knows their   
   policies, personnel, and offices.  But I have seen it done.  Years ago, temps   
   would be used for    
   back office work (like converting documents to micro-fiche), and when the   
   regular receptionist was out, a secretary would fill in, never a temp.   
      
   Tom Watson wrote that IBM put great import on its receptionists and it paid   
   off in good public relations.  (Ref Father, Son, & Co.)   
      
      
      
   > > In the old days, attendants were trained to pick up on unanswered   
   > > calls and offer to take a message, page the desired party, find   
   > > someone else, or whatever action was appropriate to the   
   > > circumstances.  Attendants were trained to find an alternate party   
   > > in case of emergency.   
      
      
   > That's mostly handled by voicemail and IVR systems today.   
      
   On many voice mail systems, there is an option to press zero to get a human   
   for an important call.  But far too often doing that leads nowhere--either to   
   a dead line, a line where the mailbox is full, or in a loop back to the   
   unanswered extension.   
      
   The NJT River Line has push-button call-for-aid boxes on its station   
   platforms.  Last time I used it I got a recording that the voicemail box was   
   full.  Thankfully it wasn't an emergency.  (The River Line had pay phones when   
   it opened about ten years ago,   
    but they have finally been removed.)   
      
      
      
   > > Could you explain "call park"?  I thought it was simply HOLD.   
   > In a key system, she puts the call on hold, notes it's holding on line X   
   > and pages Bob to pick up that line.  However, that means that every line   
   > has to appear on every phone, which is expensive for analog systems.   
   > Even for digital or VoIP systems, it means every phone needs a button   
   > for each line, which means buying more expensive phones.   
   > In a PBX, the receptionist presses the "Call Park" button, and her phone   
   > tells her that the call is parked on orbit X.  Then she pages Bob to   
   > dial X.  When Bob dials X, the call is retrieved from orbit and   
   > connected to wherever Bob happens to be.  The orbits (and any calls in   
   > orbit) don't need to appear on _any_ phone, so you can do this with   
   > cheap single-line phones--and get much larger scale.   
      
   In 1971, the hospital PBX had a feature called "meet me page".  It worked the   
   same way.  When an outside caller reached the page operator, she would page   
   the doctor and provide an extension number--that would automatically connect   
   to the incoming call.     
   But I think going back to the 1940s there was a crude version known as 'code   
   call' where the person paged would be automatically connected to back the   
   requester.   
      
   As mentioned before, in a recent visit to a hospital, I was surprised by the   
   high volume of pages for doctors over the PA system*; I would've thought   
   they'd be using beepers or cell phones.  Indeed, back in '71 the hospital had   
   a trial run with beepers    
   for the doctors.   
      
      
   > You can often tell whether a retail store is using a KTS or a PBX by   
   > whether their pages say "Bob, line X" or "Bob, dial X".   
      
   I got the impression (possibly wrong) that plain vanilla phones (ie a 2500   
   set) are rare these days and that multi-line phones don't cost that much   
   more.  The big improvement was circa 1980 when electronic key systems replaced   
   relays.  With relays, they    
   had to run thick cables to each phone--a pair of wires for each line, and a   
   pair of wires for each lamp for the line.  But with electronics, only a few   
   wires were needed even though the phone provided more information and   
   functionality.  Also, I would    
   think a modern electronic key system would be cheaper than the old relay   
   systems.   
      
   Also, it apears that the trend has been from PBXs to key systems as key   
   systems became cheaper and more sophisticated.  Indeed, this is nothing new,   
   back in the 1950s Bell had a very popular 507 console PBX for small   
   businesses, but key systems with a    
   dial intercom provided better service and the 507 was gone by the late 1960s.   
      
      
   * When I was a kid, dept stores used chime signals which were sent over the PA   
   system.  Newer stores had obvious artificial chimes.  One time I was in an old   
   dept store building, and they used real chimes mounted on the wall.   
      
   Of course today, many grade crossings have electronic warning bells, not   
   mechanical.  I don't know about locomotive bells, but I guess they're   
   electronic too on new units.  It's kind of neat seeing a passenger train pull   
   in and depart with the bell    
   sounding (though many MUs don't have bells).   
      
   SEPTA's push pull engineers usually don't bother to sound the bell, although   
   they should when a car car is leading because the train is very quiet.  The   
   ex-ErieLack Pullmans have a higher pitched ding bell.   
      
   Indeed, returning to the original subject, I wonder if "modern streetcars"   
   have mechanical gongs or electronic bells.  I'm pretty sure the bells used on   
   the NJT River Line (the newest cars I know of) are mechanical.  They use them   
   briefly every time a    
   train departs a station.   
      
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