system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did a phone connect to another phone overseas pre-1950's?
gpt
Major cities had a "long distance switchboard" which had access to overseas telecom lines (typically cables running under the ocean). You had to call the operator and ask for "long distance" and then talk the the "long distance operator" and tell them what country you wanted to call. They made the connection through very primitive means, sometimes literally by plugging a wire into a socket.