DIAL PROGRAM NEARING FINAL STAGES - In less than two weeks, dial telephone service and new numbers for all telephones will be introduced in Ames.

Dial equipment in the central office is now undergoing final tests.  Extension of cable and wire lines in all sections of the city and in rural areas has been completed.  Practically all telephones have been changes for dial operation, and testing of customers' lines and telephones is nearing completion.  Final tests, also, are being made on the new switchboard designed for handling long distance, assistance and information calls.

The new Ames telephone directory is nearly completed.  It will be mailed to all customers next week.  The new directory will contain new numbers for all telephones, and complete information on how to use dial service.

All phases of the program here are proceeding on schedule, with telephone men and women making everything in readiness for the change.  Placing the new dial equipment in operation will require only a few seconds.  There will be no interruption in service.

Installation of the dial system will give Ames the most modern type of service available.  We are sure you will find it the fastest and most dependable service you have ever used.  M.L. Shelton, Manager.

Ames Daily Tribune, November 13, 1954

DIAL EQUIPMENT ARRIVES - Don Abbott of Wilson Transfer helps unload part of the new dial phone equipment at the Northwestern Bell Telephone company building Friday.  This is part of the first carload of equipment which includes 16 new switchboard positions.  Watching the unloading to the right of Abbott are Don Green (left) central office supervisor of the telephone company, and Max Shelton, manager.

DIAL DAY IS SUNDAY - Even though customers complete their own local calls by dialing, there will still be a force of 60 telepone operators here, according to M.L. Shelton, manager of the Northwestern Bell Telephone company.  While the user will be greeted by the hum of the dial town, rather than the "Number Please?" of an operator when the receiver is liften, a new switchboard with places for 20 operators to work at one time occupies the second floor of the telephone building.

Dialing "Operator," the last opening in the dial, causes a signal to light at several places along the switchboard so that any available operator may answer.  The switchboard installation was comleted almost two months ago and each operator has had 40 or more hours training in the handling of all types of calls expected.  These include long distance, requests for assistance and information on dial calls, emergence calls and many others.  The training was based on experience with similar dial switchbaords in other Iowa cities.

At specially equipped positions operators answer requests for information, time-of-day and other services.  The dial equipment is so arranged that a call is transferred to an operator if the user waits a longer than normal interval after hearing dial tone and before starting to dial the letters and figures, fails to dial the complete number, or dials a number not assigned to a customer at present.  Shelton pointed out that if customers memrely lift the receiver to listen for dial tone, calls may go to the operator.  Because it is expected that many users will make such "curiosity calls" on Sunday, a larger than normal force of operators will be on duty to assist and advise users.

The number of operators required with dial service is 35 less than the previous force, which has included a number of temporary extra people required to help in testing the dial equipment, demonstration the dial service to public groups and "filling in" at the old switchboard, while the others received training on operating at the new switchboards...

CITY OFFICES' PHONES LISTED FOR RESIDENTS - Arriving through the mail today and Saturday for all Ames residences is a telephone directory of city officials and offices.  The card, which gives a detailed listing of the new dial numbers for city officials and all municipal departments, is provided for residents by the city.

Emergency fire and police numbers may be called at any hour of the day or night.  Special night numbers for the light plants, street department, water department and three city officials, the city clerk, city engineer and city manager are listed at the bottom of the card.  Any person or business establishment not receiving a card in the mail may obtain one at the city manager's office in city hall.

The Tribune ran a special supplement on July 23
to educate the public about the new numbers of area businesses.

DIAL SYSTEM DEDICATED SATURDAY - Saturday noon, M.L. Shelton, manager of the telephone company here, held a luncheon at the Sheldon-Munn hotel for members of civic clubs and other organizations as representatives of the entire community to dedicate the new telephone building and equipment.  Before the luncheon, the group toured the new telephone building and facilities.  Max Shelton later addressed the group with opening remarks and said, "I feel confident that the new system will considerably add to the over-all good of the business and social community.  For the past 1½ years we have been especially busy trying to give good service every day and carry on the tremendous task of building a new plant and making the necessary alterations in the old plant so that there would be no service breakdown when we switch to the dial system."  Shelton thanked the group as representatives of the community for their patience during this busy period.

W.L. Huffman, vice president of Northwestern Bell and general manager for operations in Iowa gave a short talk.  He said that the company was "pleased that Ames was getting the finest equipment in the world."  Huffman added that the company was happy to make the new plant available to one of the "finest communities in the state."

The first local call on the system was made at the luncheon when Mayor Joseph Lawlor called Dr. James Hilton, Iowa State college president on two phones especially connected in the ball room.

The first long distance call was made by Mr. Harry Brown and Mrs. Harry (Tilden) Brown to C. Pearl Bigalow at Puyallup, Wash.  The three families, Browns, Tildens and Bigalows were the first telephone users in Ames.

SERVICE WILL BE OFF ONLY A MINUTE - Dial telephone service comes to Ames shortly after midnight tonight.  One step in the $1,000,000 telephone project under way for more than two years will be completed.  The cutover itself is a complex operation, with a force of 37 telephone men working with split-second timing on a series of operations carefully planned, tested and rehearsed.

Final "dress rehearsal" for the cutover was conducted Friday afternoon under the direction of Dale Pollock, wire chief for the company.  Each person having a part in the operation was in his assigned place and the "dry run" provided added assurance that there will be no hitch in the actual cutover.

Telephone users will know the change-over has taken place only when they lift the receiver after midnight tonight and hear the hum-m-m of the dial tone instead of the familiar, "Number, please?" of the operator.  The exact time of the cutover, which will interrupt telephone service for only a minute or less, is a close-guarded secret, lest curiosity callers complicate the operation.  Normally, calls are few at the time selected and a few minutes before "zero" hour, callers will be warned to be brief, or requested to wait until the cutover is completed.

Cutover chief Pollock will be seated at a specially installed telephone switchboard, with telephones at seven locations in the building.  On advice from the night chief operator that the switchboard is clear of calls, Pollock will signal a foreman in charge of eight men in transparent masks and hoods that make them look like men from Mars.

This group is standing before an equipment frame in the old building where all telephone lines enter the building.  Ropes anchored at floor and ceiling are threaded behind rows of fuses or heat coils.  These fuses prevent stray electrical currents, such as lightning, from entering the equipment, yet lets the telephone current through.

In the new portion of the building, another crew of workmen is already in position before other equipment frames.  On signal from the dispatcher that the old office is "dead," each pulls on a wooden frame to which are tied a series of plastic wedges called blocking tools.  As the frames are pulled, the hundreds of blocking tools are removed from the equipment and all telephone lines are connected to the dial equipment and Ames' new dial telephone service comes to life.

In the new operating room, a force of fully trained operators will be on duty ready for the first signal lamp indicating a customer needs assistance, an emergency, a long distance call to be dialed direct to a telephone in some distant city, or a request for information.  The new switchboards idle until now, will be manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Another series of operations going on at this same time in the long distance terminal equipment room - it is less dramatic, but fare more complicated.  A force of men started working early in the evening and will continue for hours after the zero hour.  Their job is to make changes in the long distance lines so that calls can be dialed between cities by operators.

As the number of calls decreases during the evening, one circuit after another is taken out of service while the men here make tests and adjustments working with men in terminal rooms in other cities.  For example, there are eight long distance circuits to Chicago.  By cutover time four will be ready for the dial system, the remaining four carrying the late night traffic through the old system...  Altogether, there are 76 long distance lines carrying calls from Ames to other places...  The ringing machine has been running continuously for two months.

Each telephone line connected to both the old and new offices was tested to be sure the new connection was right.  Each customer was called and the dial on his telephone tested...  Immediately following the cutover itself, another series of tests will be made, first calls to the fire and police headquarters, to the hospital and other emergency telephones.  Visits will be made to those public or coin box telephones available all night to test and adjust them and to place new instruction cards and directories.  Others will be visited as they open for business Sunday or later...

GIVE FIREMEN ADDRESS BEFORE HANGING UP - Fire Chief Kenneth Taylor asked Ames residents today to be sure and give their address and location when making emergency calls.  With the new dial system, firemen cannot check back on calls if the person hangs up before giving his address.

Two days after Dial Day, a new dial phone was used 
for a front-page vegetable size comparison photo.