Este es un breve resumen de los recursos técnicos sobre comunicaciones de los que disponíamos en aquellos años, no había ordenadores, llegaron muchos años después, incluidos los terminales de Renfe o Savia (para reservas aéreas), pero eso merece una entrada en el blog aparte.
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In the 70 communications systems and reservations were very poor, probably travel agencies representing the services sector with the greatest need to communicate with the outside world more effectively and in less time. Any request from a client requiring at least a reservation and the only conventional method was the telephone.
On the left is a copy of the Herald model of Telefónica used in those days and it was the most common. As you can see, no keys and, of course, re-call, which forced us again and again to repeat the numbers dialed that invariably communicated constantly.
Over the years, travel agents were ready for a great technical advance as was the model with keys, making it much more bearable as dialing numbers now leaving us no signs on the fingers.
Any reservation: bed, rail, hotel, plane, boat tours, various arrangements such as visas and other many other things, require direct assistance provider, where he attended daily agencies buttons or a phone call through which the reservation was made, but always kept in the air the question that was well done and for the dates requested and nothing was written.
The first central computer terminals (not pc's) came much later, well into the 80's, but this is a topic to be discussed later in this blog in a monograph.
But travel agents in those years we had a system of "high technology" which itself allowed us to confirm in writing our reservations but could only be used with virtually hotels, tour operators and correspondents. That system was called "Telex".
Transcribe definition teletype (or telex) contained in Wikipedia:
"A teletype, telex or telegraph RTTY is a device for data transmission, now obsolete, used in the twentieth century to send and receive typed messages point to point through a simple communication channel, often a couple of telegraph cables" .
In the agency Wagons-Lits in Alcalá, 23 street, Madrid, in the 70's, there was a person, a specialist in this machine, whose job was solely to manage all the messages that the other employees (between 80 and 100 people ) gave she in the forms that existed at the end. Later, after making the reservation, the employee received a paper copy of the original coil left in the journal file.
The appearance of one of these messages can be seen in the image on the left.
In header sender information, the Agency Madrid/Alcala had the number 27714-E WALI
Also included data of the recipient (ex. a hotel).
Then the body of the message as short as possible because communications were very expensive, and ultimately, new codes of sender and receiver.
The following words are from a page that our students visit regularly looking for "inspiration" (and I would have liked to have had something like that in my student days for "inspiration"). Talk about facts about the telex, worth reading:
"In 1958 appeared a teleprinter exchange system call directly, called Telex, that within ten years had more than 25,000 subscribers. Telex system allows its subscribers to send messages and data directly to other subscribers and, through international network operators, to many other parts of the world. telex subscribers can also send messages to non-subscribers through communications centers are bringing the message in the form of telegrams.
The first central switching Telex service was installed in Madrid and set up two high-frequency circuits, in Irun and Badajoz to link with France and Portugal respectively.The service with France and Germany was opened on 8 February 1954, through direct circuits to Paris and Frankfurt, February 17, opened the service with Portugal, direct circuits Madrid-Lisboa, ranging Telex communications to Austria Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, U.S., Belgian Congo and Tunisia through the positions of Paris and Frankfurt am Main in 1954 in the absence of direct circuits. In that year had a telex service, telex machine in Central Madrid. The exchange of international standing had a capacity of one hundred subscribers, but only had 18 at the time of its inauguration ..
The telex service maintained a steady growth until 1987. Of the 4,405 subscribers in 1968 and priced 11,161,000 minutes passed in 1975 to 12,020 subscribers and priced 54,808,000 minutes, reaching in 1987 the maximum use of the service with 41,956 subscribers and 120,758,000 minutes assessed. Telex service since it did not decrease due to increasing competition from facsimile communications
At the end of the twentieth century the telegraph was no longer as a result of development and socialization of telephone service took place during the second half of the twentieth century and the telecommunications revolution recorded in the last third of the communications system more fast and efficient since its introduction in 1855 had played for nearly a century. The gradual expansion of telephone service in Spain, accelerated from the decade of the sixties, the emergence of new communication services through telephone networks, such as fax and data transmission networks, from the seventies , and by the early nineties the expansion of the Internet and consequently the development of electronic mail, diminished the importance of telegraphic communication, manifested in the sustained reduction of telegraph traffic. "
Details: http://html.rincondelvago.com/historia-de-las-telecomunicaciones_1.html
There were two things on that machine magic for us was the acme of communications and that made us possible to contact service providers in most of the world quickly and because we confirmed the booking, usually in the act, and, most important in writing.
The first of the magical things that concerned me was the key that I show to the right.
I tried to find a picture of it on the internet but there is no quality to make it, so I made the picture trying to be as identical as possible.
This key is always pressed when we required the immediate attention of our provider so we confirm a reservation on the spot, given their importance or urgency. It was the doorbell, when you press a buzzer sounded in the transmission of the recipient (eg a hotel) to attend at the time our request. A reservation agent approached, read our petition and tell us:
- "MOM" ... (We waited a few minutes and ...
- "CONFIRM THE RESERVATION FOR MESSRS. XXXXX, 15 May, a HAB. DOUBLE ..."
The left image shows where it was located this key, but not much quality can be seen to extend a keyboard part.
The second of those magical things was this:
A small strip of paper drilled.
This strip of paper was essential to quickly communicate our requests. When it was a long text (a list of passengers in a group), first wrote the text only on the machine, without having made the call and generate drilled that tape that was created as keying words to transmit time after real.
This strip was generated in the left side of the machine (see circle) and at the end of writing the text, the strip was placed in the device for this purpose, which was to the right (see circle), then calling the recipient and, when getting online, he spent the strip, which faithfully reproduced the desired text.
A marvel of technology !, Recognized as such throughout the world.
I could not resist to put the video you have below. It's about seeing how one of these devices but in this video, it analyzes its humorous use.
Hope you like it.
This is a brief summary of the technical resources of the communications that we had in those days, computers had not arrived after many years, including terminals of Renfe and Savia (for airline reservations), but it deserves a separate blog post .
CWT Market recoge aproximadamente unas 25 aplicaciones que ofrecen servicios que van desde la reserva de taxis y restaurantes a la localización de redes WiFi.
