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Malcolm Knight always took a keen interest in the daily tasks of running an exchange... |
Malcolm Knight
Adopted a fresh approach to the onerous task of managing a large switchroom and his previous background knowledge of procedures enabled him to quickly devise new duty rosters. Keen to listen to the staff and improve the service, he worked long hours, undertaking a detailed study of the exchange, which highlighted a deficiency in the number of circuits. He was able to justify the provision of additional circuits and as a direct result (and partly to his surprise) productivity in the unit increased more than twofold. Malcolm was somewhat unorthodox (as a manager) in that he occasionally allocated himself telephonist duties to see how difficult it actually was to work on the board. Having had the advantage of 'writing the rule book' (during his stint at HQ producing Telecom Instructions) he found that he could use this experience both to better understand how the unit was performing and to implement any necessary changes more effectively.
Calling Zimbabwe
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15th October 1980. Calling Zimbabwe... Malcolm Knight and Gladys Gascoigne oversee a call being set up on the board, by Gloria. The position between Egypt (far left of suite) and Zimbabwe was Afghanistan; a radio circuit to Kabul. We time-shared the frequency with Moscow, but eventually the Russians were given full-time use. |
Malcolm Knight explains about Section 15 of the switchboard...
"The far left of photo, behind Gladys and me are the 20 circuits to Egypt occupying about 6 or 7 positions. Six were Strowger circuits, unique in International at the time, and we dialled straight in to Cairo's local system.
Then there was a single position for Afghanistan, right at the end of its life. It was decided to abandon the radio route and coincidentally it actually ceased on the day that the US ambassador to Afghanistan was shot dead in Kabul. This caused 2A staff a certain amount of embarrassment, because they had to tell their opposite numbers at New York, White Plains, to re-route calls via Paris. Way back then, Kabul was 'cuhbul' rather than 'carbool' as the BBC insists on telling us now. How times change!
And then 6 circuits, I think, to Zimbabwe/Salisbury. Certainly no more than 4 positions, because I once ran them all single-handed myself! Note: Salisbury is the capital of Rhodesia and Harare of Zimbabwe (the two names having been Africanised). The board labels fall between two stalls. i.e.. only one is updated to the new name."
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M.Knight.
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