The Imperial Telephone Exchange

[Robert_Hall]

I would not be surprised if it was at the KGB, !!  Yes, the clicks & buzzes, it actually became rather tiresome after a while.
[will you just get on with it?]
One sometimes felt they were still using the original equipment.
I recall only one call to Leningrad, & it was a real bitch to deal with.  I think they had one  woman in control & nothing passed by her !
It was one museum director to another- I have no idea of their names- but that woman would not let go until she was sure of the connection. Heard the parties talking. Then said something like "I shall remain on the line if you need me" . Spooky.  We just closed the key when conversation started.
I have asked my pals at Telephone Pioneers if they have in their archives anything from the old Russian Bell system.  Doubtful, but one never knows.
And yes, David, I would greatly enjoy meeting you in London on my next visit.  I come over at least once a year, more if I can.
Stay in Stockwell now, after many years in Islington.

[Robert_Hall]

p.s. David:
The ear crusher?  I hated those things. still have a couple myself.

[Robert_Hall]

I do apologize for my choice of word. I meant no offence.

[Christine Martin]

Hello all you telephone buffs,

Have any of you noticed the international dialling code for Russia is - 007?   I wonder which came first - 'My name is Bond, James Bond' -  aka 007, Ian Fleming's brilliant spy spoof or international dialling code numbers.   I suspect the former and whoever thought of it as a dialling code, must have enjoyed a chuckle.

Christine

[Robert_Hall]

Hi Christine
I do not know when 007 was published, but I do have a bit of history on the dialing codes:
In 1960 the world was divided into  "zones".  North & Central America=zone 1, Europe+3&4, etc.
For some reason, the codes for the USSR were 68&69. These codes were used by operators. Over the years there have been many changes & the UUSR was given zone 7- the only country in this zone, in 1964. Whether one uses the 00 or not depends on where one is calling from. All this  is regulated by the ITC [as CCITT] which is now part of the UN.  The codes were worked out by AT&T [Bell Labs] and  the other major telephone companies, most of which were nationalized. This was to get a uniform system of dialing working.
The system actually goes back to the 1840's with telegraph & 1920's with radio   codes, but that is a different story.
There are still a lot of unassigned codes, but a new countries [namely former Sovet states] naturally want their own code, they may not conform to the original geographic zone system. That does not matter, though, as that was mainly just cosmetic id-ing, had nothing to do with the actual routing of the call.
Cheers,
Robert

[Belochka]

Since the first telephone cable was installed in Tsarskoe Selo, could we presume that the Alexander Palace was the first subscriber?

There is something amusing about the connection that Alexander III installed Alexander G. Bell's invention at the Alexander Palace first.

Was the phone number 001?

My Russian literature of the time refers to that contraption as an apparat rather than a telefon. Is this a correct assumption?

[BobAtchison]

There were quite a few telephones in the palace - there's a list of them on the site.  Nicholas would not permit a phone in his office, he disliked them.

The phone discussion is very interesting.

As you will remember there was a direct line in the Pallisander Room to the Winter Palace.  The was also a radio phone there in 1916.

Bob

[David_Newell]

I could operate that switch, they really did not chnage untill we went computerised in the 80's. Great inof the phone logs would be intertesting. Off to Paris today as I seem to spend more time on trains these days. Best tyo all, have spoken to Robert in a while have been to busy. Hope all ok.

David Newell, London

[Douglas]

Dear  Imperial Telephone Fans:

We  read in Lilli Dehn's book about her experiences with telephones in the Alexander Palace.

During those last desparate days at the Palace before the Imperial family was placed under house arrest, she reports  of having to go down into the basement to make telephone calls to Petrograd [St. Petersburg]  to inquire on the health of her son Titi.  

Lilli tells us that the telephone exchange was  in the basement was guarded by two  soldiers.

Lilli Dehn had great courage and stayed with Alexandria until the bitter end.  She was finally and literally forced to leave the palace when Kerensky ordered her and Anna V. to  vacate.

As you can imagine, the departure scene was one of unimaginable anguish.

Douglas

[helenazar]

Joanna,

If I recall correctly, the phone I took a picture of was hanging in one of the other sitting rooms, I don't think it was the Mauve Boudoir, and it definitely was not in the Maple Room....

Helen

If I recall

In Helenazar's beautiful photographs from her trip, number 72 is a photograph of "original phone" in the Alexander Palace! I had no idee that it looked like that and I must look again at the Ericsson site to find one like it ! Helen was it in the Maple or Mauve room?

Many many thanks
Joanna

[BobAtchison]

The phone room was downstairs in the basement.  There were only two phones that did not go through this switchboard.  One was a direct line to the Winter Palace in the Pallisander Room and the other was the portable radio telephone.

Ncholas didn't like telephones and refused to have one in his office.  There was one to reach the officer-on-duty on the opposite side of the Imperial wing.

Not all of the wall devices that look tlike telephones are part of the phone system in the palace.  Some ot these are connected to the rooms of various palace services - like heating and the maids for example.

[BobAtchison]

Nicholas didn't like to use the phone and refused to have one in his office.  The story sounds a bid odd to me, I can't see Nicholas crying over a telephone.

That telephone could have gone to the Winter Palace.  It looks like it might have fit in better there.

Here's a close-up of the two phones in the Pallisander Room - neither of them look like the one in the museum.

[BobAtchison]

Nicholas valet had a wall phone.  Nicholas's Aide-de-camp had a desk phone.  Calls to Nicholas from the outside went to the Aide-de-camp.

Private calls went to the room he was in at the time.

[Joanna]

Interesting article on the history of the telephones in the Alexander Palace:
http://kremlin-9.rosvesty.ru/news/41/

A couple of translation quotes:
- The only telephone in Nikolai II's suite was located in the kamerdinerskoy, which was located on the mezzanine, above the personal rooms of the tsar.
- Aleksandra had telephones in the mauve and palisander rooms and one additional telephone line, receiving station located in lyceum wing. It was laid in order to connect AP with Mogileve.

Joanna

[Joanna]

Mike & BobG, In the article I am translating this as:
А для Дворцового коменданта В.Н. Воейкова была устроена личная (дублирующая) телефонная сеть с коммутатором на полсотни номеров.
Palace Commandent V.I. Voiekov had a duplicate telephone network with a 50 number switchboard.

Was this duplicate network within the AP also or in Voiekov's office located on Srednaia?

Joanna