Exhibit of the Month – June 2026. The first call center?

The July exhibit at the Warsaw Gasworks Museum features a device that was used daily in the gasworks’ administrative office. The wall-mounted telephone switchboard took customer calls and allowed two calls to be handled simultaneously – an analog equivalent of a call center, where a human operator served as the “switchboard operator.”

This German-made exhibit from the 1930s encapsulates two eras of telephony within its wooden casing. On one side is a dial for an automatic city switchboard (the plate bears the German inscription “Amtsverb.,” short for “Amtsverbindung” – connection to the city).

On the other hand, there’s a manual crank straight out of earlier models. A built-in inductor, driven by the crank, generated the voltage needed to signal a connection. This voltage was strong enough to light a light bulb.

We invite you to visit the Warsaw Gasworks Museum, where you can see this and other exhibits with your own eyes.