A female employee at Glasgow telephone exchange, Pitt Street, in the 1920s.
In 1906 the General Post office acquired Glasgow Corporation's telephone system and in 1912 it took over the running of virtually all Britain's telephone services, including the remaining independent systems in Glasgow. The original telephone exchanges were manual, but in May 1912 the first experimental automatic public exchange was inaugurated in Epsom, Surrey. It was not until 1922 that the GPO selected a standardised automatic exchange and started systematically installing them across the country.
Reference: 1540.89.29
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
Keywords:
General Post Office, GPO, telephone exchanges, telephone operators, telephones, women