The Verge's offshoot Version History had a piece on the Western Electric 500 and at one point came to the conclusion that since At&t was a monopoly at the time, it made good economic sense to build the phones as solid as possible!
Not "as strong as", but "as flexible as". 99% of those fucking USB/Firewire cable failures could be avoided with (a) a proper strain relief gusset and (b) not being a 3mm cable with a 10cm minimum coil radius.
@idogcow @ardgedee +++ to both of you! I wanted my Grandma Amanda’s Bakelite table phone when I heard that Southwestern Bell was coming to collect it. Alas, she was too German to allow for such hi-jinx….
Feel like I should add that the worst USB cable tangle you've ever seen is not as bad as what a run of the mill handset cable could manage in a single day's use.
And there's a huge difference in construction and quality between a modern office phone's handset cable and an early '70s Bell Telephone handset cable.
@idogcow > "...since At&t was a monopoly at the time, it made good economic sense to build the phones as solid as possible! "
Only because they leased the phones. The more easily damaged the phones were, the more Bell had to spend on service calls and replacements. Once people owned their own phones quality went to shit, and that would've happened with or without dissolving the monopoly.
@idogcow weirdly, the one thing that was very fragile on WE phones was the socket from the wall cable. I dunno how many phones I've seen at surplus/thrift places that have this socket smashed
@ardgedee ooh, I never thought of that. The socket does seem to have almost an engineered break line in it, just right for a screwdriver to go in ad fuck things up. Had to repair my very late model WE Princess that way
And there's a huge difference in construction and quality between a modern office phone's handset cable and an early '70s Bell Telephone handset cable.
Only because they leased the phones. The more easily damaged the phones were, the more Bell had to spend on service calls and replacements. Once people owned their own phones quality went to shit, and that would've happened with or without dissolving the monopoly.