#bell system

[goshyesvintageads]

AT&T Corp, 1979

[thegikitiki]

Two Phones That Ring As One...

Bell System Telephones, 1966

[commodorez]

This is the guy in charge of Vintage Computer Festival Midwest. He dressed in that classic Bell System corporate attire, and served as the event's auctioneer for the yearly fundraising auction. Nice belt buckle!

VCF Midwest 20

[spockvarietyhour]

AT&T, 1924

[syncallio]

I got one more Esterbrook J, and this one is black.

And also quite possibly stolen from someone's place of work.

If you're wondering what the imprint means, Bell System was an American telecom monopoly. They basically owned the entire phone system in the USA from 1899 to 1982, when the federal government forced them to split up. To this day you can find signs like these in older neighborhoods:

I shudder to think what things would be like now if they hadn't been split up.

The Bell branding on this pen is noticeably deeper than that of the Esterbrook imprint. Seems, I dunno, symbolic?

Anyway, it's a good pen, and I delighted in filling it with ink that would have been Improper in its former office days.

[thingsilikealex99a]

Anita Ventura couldn't find a thing to wear so she had to improvise.

It'll do.

Note the old-timey Western Electric Bell System "Automatic Answering Service" machine behind her...

It recorded onto a magnetic drum, was full of vacuum tubes, weighed fifty pounds and was built like a tank.

It was very simple to use.

[wordfromoursponsor]

"Someday you may pay bills by phone. You will simply insert special plastic cards into a telephone set that dials automatically, and then detail the dollars and cents by pushing numbered Touch-Tone® buttons. In this way you will ring your bank's computer, identify your account with a code number, and tell the computer whom to pay and how much." (1965)

[machetelanding]

1949