What is a “Step Office”?
In old communication ‘central offices’, there would be
floors of mechanical step relays (called selectors) that move “click” and move to the next connection with every digit that was dialed.
So if you dialed a “5”, it would go to the first set, and
and move over “5” physical connections, and andvance to
yet another bank of selectors.
With scores of calls occurring at a any given point it
was like being inside a giant machine.
When there were ‘call-ins’ for a radio station, thousands
of people would try to call in at the same time and the
sound was quite impressive.
They were later replaced by ‘electro-mechanical’ devices,
and then yet again by ESS offices - which were completely
computer driven.
So long ago....