Comment by pests

2 years ago

> trouble recorders

This feels like a term a sci-fi author would invent in an alternate history setting to replace "error log" and I find it very humorous.

No, just practical.

The previous version was a panel of blinking lights called the "trouble indicator". When an alarm sounded, someone had to go to the panel and record by hand which lights were on. There were about 200 lights. So the trouble recorder, which recorded that info automatically, was added in larger central offices as an upgrade.[1]

[1] https://hackaday.com/2022/12/02/stack-trace-from-the-1950s-p...