The big rollover!

[PRR]

> In which case, much of the time people spent taking up a transmission line WAS the time taken to dial a number.  ..., so strategies for reducing dial time were important financially.

Correct from 20,000 feet.

The actual Key Resource was the Strowger (but never use that word inside the Bell System). A step-by-step switch. Pulses come in from the rotary-dial, a step motor moves a contact finger among banks of contacts.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Uniselector_Stepper_detail.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Drehwaehlerbatterie_4893.jpg/800px-Drehwaehlerbatterie_4893.jpg

Banks of these in a Central Office:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Catford_Strowger_Switch.gif

These were needed for the 5 to 50 seconds of Dialing. Once dialed, most mature SxS switches latched the connection another way then became available for the next call dialed.

These were very expensive to make and maintain. You wanted a minimum number per town, yet hardly-ever fail to make a connection.

Actual tranmission lines were *usually* abundant. When Bell saw a 100-pair cable half-loaded, they scheduled installlation of a 250-pair cable. Wire will always be necessary, traffic always rises (uh, not no more). Switchers, they tended not to over-invest because the technology changed constantly. At a point, Strowgers were junked and CrossPoint installed at a savings. Later, transistors replaced mechanical switching. Then digital trunking put For Sale signs on the Central Office spaces.
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> the heuristic of ... and bigger-going-from-top-to-bottom.

Which is of course the opposite of calculators.

And there's reason, but it is misty now.

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> the same folks that plan out automotive dashboard displays.

Then something has been lost. I have two Hondas of similar bones. The one I drive less often, I read the gas-gauge as "Warm". (They moved the gauges for no apparent reason.) If the shift knob is in Drive, I can NOT read the heater control. The "dots" (LEDs) for the heater mode are not IN the place you press but above it. And this is before you get to newer cars with EVERYTHING on one joy-knob.

The 1941 Plymouth and 1962 Willys were much more ergonomic. (True, they DID less.... the only heater control on the Willys was a gator-clip to turn on the fan...)

[aron]

When the forum first started, Mark was one of the people I knew would be awesome to have around. Thanks for all of the posts and for being such a great person!

[Kipper4]

Thanks for all your help Mark Happy Postmas.