Wiring Telephone Apparatus from Computer-Generated Speech

In many instances in fabricating and wiring telephone equipment, it is necessary for the wireman to use both hands and to visually "keep his place" in the equipment. Since it is inefficient and time consuming to divert either eyes or hands from the wiring task, a spoken presentation of the wire-list sequence is advantageous. Tape-recorded, spoken wire lists have been used by Western Electric Company for switchgear wiring and cable forming at the Oklahoma City and Montgomery (Chicago) plants. The wire lists typically are read and recorded by a practiced announcer. The recordings are then checked and edited by another person in a separate listening operation. The final recording is then used in a cassette play-back whose start-stop control is wired to a footswitch. As the wireman needs items of the wiring sequence, he presses the footswitch for a time required to play back each item of the list. Because of the noisy environment he normally listens on an ear-insert earphone. The play-back normally is stopped while each connection is made. A typical wire list includes: lead length; color; beginning point; terminating point; and, sometimes, auxiliary instructions. Studies of the audio technique of wiring show accelerated training time and substantial improvements in quality and efficiency. 391