Talk:Rotary system

Service life
From 1968 to 1984, I was a technician working for the New Zealand Post Office (NZPO), which provided telephone service throughout New Zealand until the formation of Telecom NZ in 1987. I never worked on Rotary equipment but serviced "Step-by-step" Strowger exchanges, and sometimes worked on the inter-working equipment that connected them to those Rotary exchanges.

I want to record here that as of early 1968 when I started work for NZPO, there were four Rotary exchanges still in service in Auckland. I personally visited each of them, in some cases multiple times. Wellesley Street exchange (WLT) catered for all subscribers (mostly businesses) in the central city. Telephone numbers on that exchange began with digit '3'. I think Wellesley Street continued in service for several years after 1968 and closed after an upgrade to the Airedale Street Strowger exchange, which was opened in April 1968. The other three Rotary exchanges in Auckland were the suburban exchanges Devonport 1 (DA1), Devonport 2 (DA2), Mount Eden 1 (MOD1). I am certain that Devonport 2 was still in service in 1973. When any of them closed, I do not know. I have superficially searched for more data, but found none. It is remarkable that the service life of those exchanges was in the vicinity of, and may have exceeded 50 years. Perhaps the OR data given here will corroborate someone's research. Akld guy (talk) 03:24, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * The service life is a bit longer than that, . The missus and I went up to the Budapest Telephone Museum the other week. I am not sure they are strowgers but all mechanical, not electromechanical though. It was lovely to hear the chunk chunk chunk of all the gears turning as they dialled. It is the last I think working L71A in the world, I think. Kept up by a group of volunteers and costs 1000 forint (3 quid) for the two of us to get in. A hidden treasure in Budapest. Mostly run by a chap with a mop of white hair. Why he can't get a proper mop, I don't know.  Si Trew (talk) 23:05, 20 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Just in case you wonder, I sold on ebay the History of Telephone and Telex Exchanges as the most boring book imaginable. I got twenty quid. Si Trew (talk) 23:10, 20 April 2017 (UTC)
 * By electromechanical I mean that there is a bit of juice coming into the back of them, but they are not run on relays and stuff. Si Trew (talk) 23:15, 20 April 2017 (UTC)
 * It is kept up by a group of volunteers. Or maybe I should say enthusiasts. It is immaculate, not a spick of dust on it. They moved it from somewhere in Budapest to the museum, god knos how they managed it. He had worked for Budapest Telecommunications (translating) for forty years. It is a delight. Si Trew (talk) 23:18, 20 April 2017 (UTC)


 * By chance I came back here and discovered your comments. Yes, according to the links, the Budapest exchange equipment is still running, but I used the term service life to mean its length of service for the telco, not as a museum piece. The Rotary system equipment worked on the motor-gears-shaft-gears system. Motors at the end of each row of equipment drove shafts via gears, the shafts conveyed rotary motion to the racks where another gear set would drive the line-finder via a clutch when required. I will never forget the sound made by the line-finders as they scanned around the bank of contacts - a whirring sound with loud clacking. Akld guy (talk) 02:35, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Yes, that is the rotary system I meant too, just hard to put into words without pictures. I wasn't talking about rotating fields for planting peas every third season or anything :) It is bizarre or not in Budapest because it was somewhere near the Danube (Pest is quite flat but Buda is a bit hilly, not mountainous but where it is is about 300 metres above the river, in the "Vár" that is castle which is very touristy and has musea and stuff but is still a bit out-of-the-way, the museum, and they hauled it up and reconstructed it piece by piece and the exchange still has an outerconnect to the outside world, but it is not where it was originally built). It is well worth a visit if you are ever over this way. The volunteers/enthusiasts only speak Hungarian but there is no need, really, the exhibits speak for themselves. (I do speak some Hungarian, but technical language can be tricky: What is "Strauger" in Hungarian? The rotary gear-and-shunt you say, in British telecommunications is generally known as a Strauger, but I have no idea what it might be in Hungarian. It might be "Strauger", or it might not be. A dictionary will not tell you.) Si Trew (talk) 11:47, 31 July 2017 (UTC) (= Strowger switch?)


 * Hi Akld Guy, will expand sometime, but I can tell you that the last rotary exchange in Wellington was Khandallah (7A/7A1; 1922-1984). Wellington Central (but not the other Wellington rotary exchanges) got 7A2 registers and I can remember watching the illuminated sequence switch in the Central register going from start to 25 (I think=call set up ) in about ten seconds. Was in the Auckland Regional Engineers office in the 1960s and got a friend a telephone (604-864) on the vacant leg of a two-party line on Mt Eden I exchange (the CPM’s office just put him on the waiting list, but I checked the numbers in the cable terminal in the street serving him and found a two-party line with one leg vacant. In Christchurch Ferrymead Heritage Park has some rotary equipment but don’t know if it is static or working! (How about MOTAT?) PS re Strauger in Britain (BPO) Simon Trew, do you mean Strowger switch. Hugo999 (talk) 09:30, 2 June 2020 (UTC)