Telephones followed a slow curve in adoption, mainly because the necessary infrastructure was still in its building stages. Initial telephone connections were limited in distance and ease of use: some early mechanisms for telephone exchanges required cumbersome action on the part of the users. Eventually the idea of operator-assisted dialing was adopted: the switchboard women (and they were almost exclusively women) would connect the caller with the party they were trying to reach. This system lasted nearly a century, from first adoption to last call, through advances in long distance wires, satellite communication, and of course direct dial.

On this day, October 11, in 1983, the last of the hand-crank telephone calls took place in Bryant Pond, Maine. In contrast to the modern telephones of that age, the hand-cranks were mostly unpowered, ringing only with a hand crank by an operator. Signals to the operator would take place via a similar crank in the house.

The Bryant Pond switchboard was the last central office manual exchange in America. The rest of the country had switched automated exchanges, allowing callers to reach their party without the intermediary of the operator.