Originally posted by ev607797:
Automatic Electric was the supply arm of GTE.
Continuing the trivia, one of the early manufacturers in Britain was the Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co., which was created to exploit Automatic Electric's patents on this side of the Atlantic.
ATM became one of several standard suppliers to the Post Office, manufacturing ringing machines, Strowger switches, etc. In fact it's even noticeable in some of the old tone plant. The first time I ever heard a recording of American AE tone plant the ringback tone immediately reminded me of the modulated ring tone used on many of the old ringing machines here, very different from the usual Bell/Western Electric tone (different cadence here, of course).
