The most entertaining thing I saw today (by far) was this report from June of 1950 about how the telephone system in the dorms worked. Prepared at the request of Building and Grounds chairman George Brown, it describes what today sounds like a labor intensive Rube Goldberg machine. It’s only four pages long so I reproduce the whole thing here in hopes that you enjoy it as much as I did:
They seem to have followed these recommendations, by the way.
Bonus:
Wow. Mind boggling. I’m still scratching my head on their logic of why an elderly man instead of a younger man would best be suited for the job. As someone who has been retired for three years, the $44 a week wage scale sure sounds tempting.
Presumably elderly men could be paid less than younger ones. This was before the time of awareness of pay discrimination based on age, gender, etc.
Clearly there was plenty of awareness. “Hey, we can totally discriminate on the basis of age!” 😛 🙂
I do not think they believed elderly men are better suited but that given the pay, only elderly men would take the job. There is no indication that younger men would get a higher wage for the same job