Just dawned on
me that the fundamental shape (width) of all my
industrial computing is based on the 19" rack, from the earliest to
the latest piece of equipment, but who originated the 19" rack? AT&T?
Good question! I'm a little curious about that too. I also remember
(very vaguely) seeing some 24" rack panels and such in some catalog,
ages ago, but I don't recall ever running into any hardware that
used it.
Bell did indeed invent the rack, as far as I know from my telco
friends. And some telecom gear used or uses the wider format.
In fact, some computer industry racks have both sizes of mount in
them; look at the Dell racks, for example.
Telcos tend to view racks as flat devices, and gear going into them
is fairly shallow. If it's big, it's big up-and-down.
De