Openreach, the current engineering arm of BT is steeped in many years of history. There are still people who have worked there for 30+ years and this is considered the norm.

The strange terms for tools, testers and many other items often refer back the stores cataloguing system and it's strange way of calling things. The Analogue meter I talked about is called a 9083, as that is it's model number in the catalogue.

I've always assumed it was called a mole because it goes underground so you don't have to, it's a universal term used in every part of the country so it must date back to when the technology was first introduced.

The one I have no idea about is the Butt Phone. It's what we called the Yellow (now Blue, although they were originally Blue before they were Yellow) test phone that is used to test basic dial tone on the line. not sure why they call it a Butt Phone? Maybe because a complete arsehole uses it most of the time ???

I always found working on the cables fun, members of the public would often come up to me in the street when I had a box or joint open and ask "How do you know what to do with all those wires?" It's a very simple system using a very simple colour code which is most remembered by a simple rhyme (W)e (R)xxe (B)usty (Y)oung (V)irgins, not very nice but it sticks in your mind.

Cheers

Cris.