It was early IBM had introduced the golf ball typewriter but many offices still relied on manual typewriters. At Canley there was a typing pool below β for those of you too young to remember, it was a room occupied by a number of women, each one equipped with a typewriter and a Dictaphone. When I got to Lode Lane, I found that the department had two secretaries and they worked to the same system although, if they were feeling generous or knew how bad your writing was , they would come and take down the letter in shorthand.
Each letter was held in the book between two sheets of blotting paper on the assumption that we would sign with a fountain pen. Telephone calls had to go through the main switchboard. She would dial the number and leave us to it. Incoming calls came by the same route: the caller got through to the switchboard and the operator would put the call through to us. About the only evidence that we saw of any technology was introduced by John Chatham who bought a Sinclair pocket calculator.
By the standards of the day it was tiny and an object of fascination. When we were moved to Longbridge, there was no change on the tech front. Watford Gap services on the northbound M1 used to have a couple of rows of phone boxes near the entrance to the main building. At Euston station, there was a row of them opposite the entrances to platforms 14, 15 and Heading home in the evening there was always a queue of people waiting to use them.
They could be bought in stationers, especially in railway stations and motorway service areas and they were good for a certain number of credits.
The difficulty was that there was no indication on the card of the number of credits you had left so it could get tricky to make sure there were enough for the call. When you wanted to talk, you held that button down.
