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BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM 1953

 ,rrc
A Magic Deoice

The telephone is a marvelous device. It catches a spoken word

and turns it like magic into something we can not see or hear that
speeds along the wires or through space to anorher telephone.
There the magic is undone and the hidden word comes forth, just
as the enchantments cast upon living persons in the old fairy stories
finally were broken by charms - and everyone lived happily ever
after. Our modern fairy story is the story of electricity. The trans-
mitter in your telephone casts a spell upon each word it catches,
sending it noiselessly on its way. The receiver breaks the spell and a
living word issues, bearing i$ message from a far-distant speaker.
 THE TETEPHONE
Mechanicol Vibrations

Your telephone rings. You answer it and the person calling

speaks to you. As you converse you are faintly aware of the wind
[Link] around the corner of your house and a street car rumbling
past. Somewhere in the distance a train uhistles and in another
part of the house a door slams.
Those sounds are aibrations - mechanical vibrations - that set
air waves to vibrating against your eardrum, which causes a mes-
sage to be transmitted to your mind. Each of them has its own
number of vibrations per second - that is called frequency.
The motion which you give to the molecules of air when you
speak is not like that of the wind where a multitude of air mole-
cules sweeps along. In a spoken word, or in any musical sound, the
molecules dance back and forth. First they advance, pushing against
the eardrum, and then they retire and the membrane of the ear
springs back. Over and over again this happens, hundreds and even
thousands of times every second. The higher pitched the voice of
the speaker the higher the frequency and the more rapid is the
dance. And yet it is a dainty dance, for the weight of a snip of
human hair only about one-thousandth of an inch in length would
press as heavily upon the sensitive eardrum.
Sound waves do not travel very far or very fast. Actually they
poke along at only 1,075 feet per second and the farther they travel
the more faint they become. But when their electrical counterParts
travel, as in a telephone circuit, their speed may be increased as
much as 900,000 times. Though they, too, weaken as they travel
along, they may be amplified at intervals and repeated with prac-
tically the same clarity and tone as when they were spoken, no
matter how far they have traveled.
Alexander Graham Bell was able to invent the telephone be-
cause as an expert in instructing the deaf, he had extensive knowl-
edge both of vocal cord vibrations and of the operation of the
human ear. His interest in the electrical transmission of speech
grew naturally out of his broad knowledge of acoustics and his
experiments with an invention intended to send several telegraph
 Right; lf you could see the mol-
ecules of oir, this is the way
Ihey nighl look ol ony one in-
ston, when someone is folklng.

messages at one time over a single wire. This "harmonic telegraph,"

as he called it, utilized strips of steel organ reeds mounted so that
they would vibrate over electromagnets.
One day in 1875, while he and his young assistant, Thomas A.
Watson, were adjusting these instruments,'W'atson gave one tight
reed a pull with his finger and the reed on the instrument at the
other end of the connecting wire reproduced the sound. When
Bell heard this faint sound he knew at once that the speaking
telephone of which he had dreamed was a possibility !
Bell knew that when he spoke, everything within sound of his
voice vibrated in response to his vibrating vocal cords. He knew
that as people talk, nearby books vibrate, chairs vibrate, walls,
tables, pictures, lamps vibrate
- but so slightly that such vibrations
 When the molecules of oir which ore
sel in nrofion' by lhe voiceol lhe
speoker rush ogoinst the diophrogm of
lhe lroasmiller they bend it in. When
lhey rush owoy it springs bock.

could only be measured by very sensitive laboratory equipment.

(Nowadays you can prove this to yourself by turning up the
volume of your radio until the windows, dishes, and other objects
in the room rattle.)
Knowing this, Bell reasoned correctly that a thin metal disk, or
diaphragm, would vibrate as he talked against it, just as he knew
an eardrum vibrates. The tiny particles, or molecules, of air, set in
motion by the voice of the speaker, would move the diaphragm just
as they move the eardrum in direct proportion to the intensity and
pitch of the various sounds. ,[Link] the twang of that reed proved to
Bell that such vibrations could be transmitted electrically.
So that June evening in 1875 he had Watson fasten a thin metal
diaphragm of magnetic material to a small drum head, and back of
it place an electromagnet, which is a soft iron core with wire wound
around it. He reasoned that as the diaphragm vibrated back and
forth in response to the vibrations of his voice, it moved first to-
ward the magnet, then away from it. This would induce a current
to flow in the coil of wire around the magnet, first in one direction
as the diaphragm moved in and then in the opposite direction as
the diaphragm moved out. The coil of the magnet was connected
by a wire to a similar instrument at the other end of the line. Thus
the wire would carry electrical currents of varying intensity sub-
stantially identical with the varying vibrations of the diaphragm.
Just as he expected, these varying currents, flowing over the wire
and around the electromagnet in the other instrument, caused the
magnet to pull its "receiver" diaphragm back and forth in ac-
cordance with the direction of current flow. This disk, vibrating
identically with the disk in the sending instrument, repeated Bell's
speech sounds. After months of further experimenting and refine-
ment he created an instrument that transmitted the first intel-
ligible sentence, on March 10, 1876.

Eell's frst lelephone (1875). lt fronsmilled ond repboled speech sounds bul nol words.

Electrical Vibrations
The discovery made by Bell which led to his invention of the
telephone was that waves of electricity can be created that have
the same pattern as the waves of air you set in motion when yotr
speak.
Just how the telephone manages to do this was better understood
after the electron was isolated by the English physicist Sir J. J.
Thomson, in 1897. For twenty years the telephone had been
changing mechanical vibrations into electrical vibrations and vice
versa, but the way in which it performed this magic had been
something of a mystery.
We, too, may comprehend it better if we take a brief look at the
tiny but mighty electron.
Electrons have been defined as tiny parricles of electricity, all
absolutely alike, each about one eighteen-hundredths (1/1848) as
massive as the lightest atom. This electrical particle is a building
block which nature has used in the construction of the atom. The
tiny electron is an irreducible minimum of electricity, but of a
particular kind, called negative.
Being all negative, elecrrons strongly oppose one another. This
repelling force among electrons is relatively enormous. Also, they
exist everywhere. The air you breathe, the chair you are seated on,
your clothes, this booklet, euerything is permeated with electrons.
Quite a number of them are "free," that is, they are not attached
to any particular atom. So long as these free electrons have rela-
tively little motion they are of slight use or interest to us. But
greatly increase their motion and their potential power far exceeds
our comprehension.

BELL TEL E PHONE

The voriolions in the current through o lelephone lronsmiller look
like this when lhe words "Bell lelephone" ore spoken inlo il.

In telephony, the electrons in the windings of the magnetic coils

and in the wires connecting the instruments are energized, or
caused to move, by introducing a battery in the circuit. A chemical
action then results which compels the electrons to move out of the
battery, around the windings of the magnets in the telephones, and
so on back into the battery. We can control this flow of electrons
around the circuit, just as we can control the amount of water
flowing through a pipe, by means of some sort of valve.
The telephone transmitter is, in effect, such a "valve." Its func-
tion is to change the steady procession of electrons around the cir-
cuit into a dance or vibration. This dance of the electrbns must be
exactly the same as the dance of the molecules of air against the
diaphragm of the transmitter.
Let's see how this is accomplished.

5
 The Telephone Transmitter

Bell's first telephones \rere a far cn'frorr the sensitive,vet durable

instruments \\'e use todal'. The sante instnrment n,as used botir as
transmitter and receiver bv holcling it up to the molltil when
speaking and to the eal rvhen listening.
In the early days the speaker catrsecl rhe diaplrr-agm of the trans-
tnitter to r.,ibrate b1, sheer lunu pon'er. In orcler to get the rugged
drum head to cluiver lre liad to incr-easc the volurne of his voice
just as you have to trlrn up the Yoitrme of yorrr radio to nrake the
clishes rattlc.
'Ihor-re'h the basic principles that led to tlle fir'st telephone still
apply, the instrtrrnellt itself h:rs rrncicln<)l)e man\.clranges. Through
the years there has been a steaclr er'olution in bcitlt its appearance
and its Irtct lrattiral ronsrltrr ti,,rr.
The teleplrone translnitter ol toclav is a sensitive electric ear.
Iiastened to the ltack ol' its ear'<h'trrrr (cliaphrzrurn) is a chamber
{illed rvitlr an exactlv nreasrrrccl rlrrantity of carbon granules -
grains ol rclastecl coal. l-lrnrrreh this carbon charulter and the con,
necting u,ires a battery sencls itn electric crlrrent.
Under the steady ulgc of tlle l)attcr\', billions of electrons march
in procession frorn gt'ain to grain ol car-lton and tlrrough the rvires,
around and arouncl the circtrit.
As the diapln-agm is nrovecl ]tack ancl I'olth ever so slightly by the
dancing molecules of air, the calbon grains behind it are packed

flris chort shows o simple fe/ephone circuil with o bottery introduced

lo couse billions of e/ecirons lo morch in procession oround the circuit.

RECEIVER

ETECTRIC CIRCUIT

TRANSMITTER
BATTERY
CARBON GRANUTES
o
IU
I
U

CL

ul
u, WAVE
PRESSURE

tf)
z

d
o
IJ.J

F --:N
-L
d

o-
llJ
rREssUPt
tl,
PertlSED

.n
z

e,
o

Corbon groins in o lronsmiller mognified obout 50 limes eoch woy. When sound wove
pressure bends lhe diophrogm in (qbove) lhe groins ore closely pockedo nd mony eleclrons
con poss through. Bul when lhe pressure is releosed ond the diophrogm springs bock
(below) lhe grorns ore loosely pocked ond fewer eleclrons con poss from groin lo groin.
 more closely and then less closely. Over and over this happens, as
often as the transmitter diaphragm vibrates back and forth.
Imagine a vast army of men crossing a lake on floating blocks of
'ice while the wind freshens and dies 4lternately.
When the blocks are blown close together crossing is easier, and
more men get across than when the blocks are loosely packed.
This, on an enormously increased scale, is a picture of what hap-
pens when electrons cross from grain to grain in the carbon of the
transmitter. Men can move only slowly, but the tiny electrons
move at the terrific pace of thousands of miles a second.
If you could stand beside a road leading from the shore of this
lake and watch the men as they marched past, you would find that
there would come a group and then some stragglers; and then
another group, and so on. It is the same rvith the procession of
electrons which moves along the wire from the chamber containing
the packed carbon grains. When there are many, we say the electric
current is larger than when there are few. So the current changes,
increasing and decreasing alternately, as the diaphragm compresses
the carbon more or less.

The Telephone Receioer

These varying electrical currents go dancing along the telephone

wire until they reach the receiver at the other end of the telephone
hook-up. Now the problem is reversed. How can this electrical
energy be transformed back into speech sounds?
This is simple. We have already seen how Bell's first crude
receivers worked. In principle, the modern one attached to your
telephone works exactly the same way.
Just as the transmitter has been described as an electric ear, so
the receiver may be termed an electric mouth which can utter
human sounds. There is a magnet so arranged that it exerts a force
of attraction on a thin iron diaphragm. Around the magnet is a
winding of many turns of insulated wire through which pass the
varying currents from the telephone line. The magnet attracts the
iron diaphragm, bowing it slightly toward itself. The srronger the
magnet pulls, the more the iron bows toward it, but if the pull

9
decreases the iron flies back, like the bottom of a pan you
are bending with your fingers.
When the electrons surge through the turns of wire which form
the coils about the magnet they increase its pull upon the iron
diaphragm. When a great crowd of electrons is marching the ma8-
net pulls harder; but when only stragglers come the bent dia-
phragm springs back.

DIAPHRAGM

Cul-owoy view of lhe hondle of o modern

hondsel lelephone showing the principol
porls of fhe fronsmiller ond receiver. The
corbon chomber in the tronsmitter is bowl
CARBON GRANUTES shoped ond inlo il prolrudes o lhimble-like
proiection of lhe diophrogm so thot it will
operole ol ony ongle ils user fiolds it.
Specrol olloys developed by lelephone re-
seorch hove mode possible the smoll but
powefiul mognel in lhe compocl receiver.

DIAPHRAGTv{

TRANSMITTER
 The motion of the diaphragm of the receiver is just rhe same
as that of the diaphragm of the distant rransmitter. And the air
molecules near the receiver are set into the same kind of mgtion as
those which danced against the transmitrer diaphragm. That is
why the receiver speaks, undoing the magic which turned a spoken
word into an irregular procession of electrons.

When the receiver diophrogm

(vpper left) bows in, lhe mole-
cules of oir rush ofler it.

.}

When the receiver dio-

phrogm bows ouf, lhe mole-
cules ore pushed owoy. So fhe
moleculesrush bock ond forlh,
jusl like lhose on Poge 8.
Simplified lelephone circuit of lhe "common bottery" type, showing how o repeofing coil
oni induction coils ore infroduced into the circuil lo chonge lhe vorying procession of
eleclrons from lhe lronsmiller of one felephone into o lo-ond-fro donce in the receiver
of lhe other lelephone.

The Telephone Circuit

To make a receiver diaphragm vibrate, however, it is not neces-
sary to have a varying procession o[ electrons. All that is needed are
electrons dancing back and forth in the coils around the magne.t.
This is achieved by the introduction of another unit into the cir-
cuit, usually arelteating coil or other equivalent transformer device,
which changes the irregular procession of electrons through the
transmitter into a to-and-fro dance in the coils of the receiver.
These repeating coils are located in the telephone comPany cen-
tral office where they are a part of the switching equipment. They
consist of two or more separate coils wound on the same iron core.
.If through one coil marihes an irregular procession, then in the
other the electrons will dance, moving in one direction when the
procession increases and in the opposite direction when it decreases.
In the receiver the magic is undone; the dance of electrons is
changed into a dance of air molecules which can vibrate an eardrum
and produce corresponding sounds.

t2
 THE CENTRAL OFFICE
Telephone Doorways
The wires attached to your telephone lead to the telephone com-
pany central office. Here, your telephone can be connected with that
of anyone else you may wish to call. When you make a call from a
dial telephone, your line is connected with the line of the person
being called by ingeniously-designed electrical equipment. If you
are calling from a non-dial telephone, the connection is made by a
telephone operator.
At the non-dial central office, your line ends in a "jack" - one
of the many holes in the switchboard in front of the operator.
Actually, there are enough of these jacks hooked up with your
line so that each operator at the switchboard can plug into one
whenever someone asks to be connected to your telephone.
For the telephone calls which you make, there are still other
jacks connected with your telephone. One of them is in front of
each operator who handles your outgoing calls. Above each of
these jacks is a small electric lamp. This lights and attracts the
operator's attention when you take your receiver off its hook. In
front of each operator are several lengths of paired wire - cords,
as they are called. By using one of these the operator who answers
your call can connect you directly to the line of anyone else whose
telephone is served by that switchboard, or she can plug into a line
leading to another switchboard.

"Number Pleose"
The operator wears her telephone set. This leaves her hands free
to handle the cords and also the numerous little switches, which
she calls "listening keyq," on the shelf before her. Her own tele-
phone can be connected with any of the cords, but it is shut ofi
from each cord by a separate key. All these keys or switches remain
turned off unless she moves one and then holds it in the "on"
position.

I3
 Eoch of lhese "jocks"
on lfie swilchboord is
connecfed lo o sub-
scriber's felephone.
Ihe operotor's hond
holds the "plug" of
o lelephone cord
which fits inlo lhe
jocks to connect your
line wilh onofher.

When she sees the lamp above your j she picks up a

cord and plugs one end of it into the jack. Au ically the light
goes out. With her other hand she then moves th which con-
nects her telephone with the cord she is using and is able to
answer you.
If you live in a city which hasjust one telephone office a\all
the calls are handled by operators, every subscriber in that city
a jack within reach of your operator. These jacks are arranged in
numerical order on panels in front of her. If, then, your call is to
someone in that city it takes her only an instant to plug the other
end of the cord into the proper jack and send a ring down that
line to call the other person to his telephone.
A signal lamp, close to the cord the operator is using, lights when
she plugs into the jack of the telephone you are calling. It stays
lighted until your party takes his receiver off its hook; so she knows
at a glance whether or not he has answered your call.

l4
 If the telephone you are calling is busy the operaror must. knov/
it to avoid interrupting. Special devices help her. She tests the tele-
phone line of the person you want to reach before plugging in.
With the tip of the plug she touches the jack. If his line is busy,
she knows it instantly, for she hears a clicking sound in her tele-
phone. If she doesn't hear this warning, she pushes the plug all the
way into the jack and rings to call him.
The city in which you live may be served by two or more central
offices. If the person whorn you are calling is in a district served by
another telephone office your talk must follow a trunk line to that
office. So your operator tests the trunks to the particular central
office until she finds one that is not in use. Then she inserts the
plug into this jack. In a moment a sound tells her that the operator
at the other end of the trunk in the other central office is ready to
make the connection. Then your operator gives the number and
the other operator connects the trunk with the line of the person
you want.

Operolors like these complele lhe conneclion for you fo lhe number thol you ore colling
if your coll slorls frorn o monuol lelephone.

t5
 "Hum-m-m-m-m-m-m-m" Goes the Dial Tone
What the operator does by hand must be done by machinery if
your call starts from a dial telephone. This electrical equipment is
very complex; that is, it has a great many parts. The parts them-
selves really are simple mechanisms, but they are so precisely de-
signed and so ingeniously arranged to work together that they
quickly and accurately follow the instructions which you send to
them when you dial your telephone.
In the machine-switching equipment of a dial telephone central
office there are several kinds of parts, but the most important is the
electromagnet. This gives a pull when a current passes through its
winding. That pull can be used for almost any purpose. It can close
a switch so as to send current into other electromagnets and so
make them work. Or; the pull can be used to close contacts between
circuits, or to move some other piece of equipment, sliding it along
a little way, or giving it part of a turn if it is something which ro-
tates. An electromagnet, for example, can be set to push some piece
of apparatus along, moving it a certain distance each time a current
is sent through the magnet winding. For each pulse of current which
reaches the electromagnet, the apparatus can be made to move
another step along whatever path its designers wish it to take.
Dial switching equipment must be able to handle a large number
of telephone lines and do a lot of different things. In the first place,
for example, the equipment must find your telephone line when
you lift your receiver ofi its hook, picking out your line from the
thousands which end in the same office.
You remember how the operator does this when the switchboard
is manual instead of mechanical in its operation. She is guided to
your line by a lamp which lights as your receiver is raised. The
electrical mechanism, having no eyes, would not be aided by a
lamp; it must hunt in the dark and it does so by feeling electrically.
When your receiver is raised the switch in your telephone set is
closed, and current flows along your line from a large battery at
the central office. At that office a switching mechanism is put into
operation by this sudden flow of clrrrent. The apparatus starts hunt-
ing over the terminals of a relatively small group of lines, among
which is yours. It stops when it feels a line with current in it, and is
then ready to do what you want.

t6
 lf your coll slorls from o diol tele-
phone inlricole srvilches ocluoted
by eleclromognels complele fhe
conneclion for you. Shown here is
o porlion of a lrome of "crossbor"
swilches in o diol office.

The girl operator would ask you "Number please?" The mechan-
ism can not talk, so it sends you a tone to say it is ready for your
instructions. And since it can not hear, you dial the number.
It is extremely importdnt that you listen for this "Hum-m-m"
before you start to dial. If you dial before you hear the "dial tone"
you'll get a wrong nurnber or no number at all.
As the dial rotates back to its original position there is a click
for each unit of the digit you dialed - three clicks for 3, four
for 4, and so on. With each click a pulse of current passes through
some electromagnet in the mechanism at the central office. That
mechanism then proceeds to put the call through for you. Each of
its actions is simple, but taken all together they are very compli-
cated, and a vast amount of equipment is needed.

Dioling Long Distonce Calls

Bell System long distance operators in hundreds of cities and
towns can now dial calls straight through to distant telephones with-
out the assistance of other operators along the route or at the distant

17
places. Even calls across the continent are dialed in this manner
betrveen many cities on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The nerv equipment and methods that make operator toll dial-
ing possible are rapidly being placed in service throughout the
country. Eventually it rvill be possible for long distance operators
everywhere to dial calls directly to any telephone connected to
the toll network. Two out of every five of the Bell System's long
distance calls now are handled this way.

Coller diols long Distonce

CoIl is swifched to toll office by locol diol equipmenl'

long Dislonce operotor lokes coll ond

diols fhe colled telephone in distont cily.

Toll diol equipmenl swilches coll to distont

In addition, equipment in several areas now enables telephone

customers to dial their own calls directly to nearby cities or com-
munities beyond their local calling areas in the same way that
they dial local calls. An installation now in use at Englewood,
New Jersey, makes it possible for some 10,000 telephone users
there to dial their own long distance calls to any of 11,000,000
telephones in and around a dozen cities from coast to coast.
This new equipment, developed by Bell Telephone Labora-
tories, employs an electrical "brain" to receive the dialed number
and complete the call, while an automatic message accounting
system gathers the information necessary for billing. This "brain"

r8
will even make a second attempt if trouble is encountered on the
call and at the same time punch on a card the details of the rrouble
so that the proper adjustments can be made promptly.
Additional facilities are being installed that will further exrend
the dialing of out-of-town calls both by operators and telephone
users.

FINGER WHEET

FINGER STOP

PULSE
GOVERNOR
CONTACTS

FRONT OF DIAT

Eoch click of lhe'lelepfione

diol, os it spins bock lo its
sforfing posilion, sends o
pulse of current through
some'elecfromognef rn fhe
cenlrol office eguipmenl. REAR OT

t9
 HIGHWAYS OF SPEECH
Speech Aoenues ln Cities
The vast telephone network in the United States is woven out of
millions and millions of miles of wire. Some of this wire you have
seen many times but most of it is underground.
Probably most familiar to you is the wire that runs from your
house to a nearby pole. This is called a drop [Link] it is con-
nected through a terminal on the pole to a pair of wires which
branch out from a small distribution cable, which runs from pole to
pole back to a point where it branched off from a much larger
feeder cable. This feeder cable may be strung on poles from your
neighborhood back to the central office. Usually, however, espe-
cially in large cities, it is placed underground in conduit.
Trunk cables, which link together the various central offices in a
large city, also are generally placed underground in conduit.
At present, over 95 per cent of all telephone wire in the Bell
System is in cable and more than 60 per cent of it is underground.

Tolking Poths ln The Country

In rural areas open wire telephone lines usually run from farm
to farm along country roads. These wires are many times thicker
than the very thin individual wires in cables and are strung on
glass insulators affixed to poles or on cross arms bolted to poles.
Nowadays, thanks to the development of a high-strength steel wire
that will permit longer spans, it is possible to space the poles twice
as far apart as we have been used to seeing them. A light-weight
cable carrying up to 26 telephone lines also has been perfected
which permits spacing poles 500 to 600 feet apart.
Other important new techniques and fast, economical construc-
tion methods are helping to speed the extension and improvement

20
 (l) You, lelephone; (2) protector, wfiich guords ogoinsl lightnin g ond olher high voltoge
chorges; (3) drop wire; (1) distribution coble; (5) feeder coble; (6) distributing fromei
(7) diol *titching equipment; (8) Long Dislonce, lnformolion, ond Diol Assisfonce operotors.

of telephone in rural areas. Power-driven augers quickly

service
drill pole holes. An ingenious type of plow, drawn through the
earth by a truck, deposits rubber-insulated telephone wire directly
in the ground and covers it, in a single operation. The same poles
are being used to carry both electric power and telephone wires
in thinly settled rural areas.
Ways have been found, too, to make telephone voice currents
"hitch a ride" on rural electric power lines. This development is
known as "power line carrier," and it means that many electric
power wires can be used simultaneously for power service and for
telephone service. (More about "carrier" is on succeeding pages.)

Equipmenl rnstolled to provide service for o rurol subscriber by meons of power line
corrier: (l) lelephone; (2) t*minol; (3) protector; (1) telephone drop wire; (5) unit con-
toining solef switch ond protector; (6) condenser which lets fhe lelephone currenl lhiough
from power line fo felephone ond blocks lhe power currenl; (7) power lronsformer.

2t
 Radio telephony has been used for a number of years to bring
service to remote rural areas.
Aided by these means, telephone service in rural areas has been
growing and improving at a record-breaking rate. A larger propor-
tion of the farmers in the United States have telephones than in
any other country. New telephones are being added in rural areas
at the rate of 1,000 each working day.

Trunk Highwoys Between Cities

Intercity speech highways take several forms. Among these are
the familiar open wire and aerial cable lines suspended on telephone
poles, but more and more of the lines are going underground.
Already there are thousands of miles of buried cable, much of it
plowed into the ground in the same manner as buried rural lines
but with huge specially-designed plows pulled by powerful tractors.
Toll cables also cross rivers and bays, and even go from the
mainland to islands which are not too far away. Several such cables
have been placed on the ocean's floor from Key West, Florida to
Havana, Cuba, a distance of I l5 miles. These are called submarine
cables. Sometimes such water barriers are bridged by radio circuits,
but more about that later.

Long Distonce Telephong

On telephone lines the spoken word travels so fast that only by
comparison can we realize its enormous speed. From New York to
San Francisco, for example, a word can fly by telephone in a

Voice currenfs weoken os lhey lrovel olong,

lhey ore reslored by vocuum lube repeolers
housed in repeofer sfolions olong lhe line.

Vohr c,*,*,
hhr,,u,* hletc,,**,
fraction of a second - almost as fast as light travels. Compare that
speed with the speed of sound traveling in air. If you ever happened
to watch a baseball game from some distance away, or perhaps even
from the center field bleachers of a large baseball field, you know
the relative speeds of light (which is an elecrromagneric phenome-
non) and of sound in air (which is mechanical). You have seen
the batter hit, drop his bat, and start for "first" before the crack
of the bat reached your ears. A telephone line can carry a spoken
sound from Minneapolis to New Orleans in far less time than it
would take for a word to pass from catcher to second baseman across
a diamond.
Between cities teleph one repeaters are installed, the devices which
make it practicable to telephone over long distances.
At each repeater station along the route a new group of electrons
is set in motion. Just why we shall now see.

More Energy For Doncing Electrons

Along the wires which form a speech highway, the electrons pick
up the dance one from another, first those in the coil of the trans-
former and then those farther and farther away. Just an instant and
all along the line the dance is on. Back and forth they go, once for
every vibration of the transmitter diaphragm.
It is work to get electrons dancing even though they are so very
tiny. And those nearer the beginning of the line must do the work
of starting others farther ar,vay. The ability to do this work is used
up along the line and there are fewer and fewer electrons engaged
in the dance. If the line is very long there may be so few dancing
at the distant end that the receiver diaphragm either will not
respond or will reproduce the speech too feebly to be understood.
Somewhere along the line, therefore, the electrons must be given
more ability to do their work, more energy, as it is said. And that
must be done without changing the step of the dance, because the
speech is hidden in it and would lose naturalness or even sense.
The device which can supply this energy is a repeater, for it srarrs
a new group of electrons dancing but repeating old figures. It is
connected at a repeater station to the end of one section of the
speech highway and to the beginning of the next.

23
 Between the transmitter and the receiver in a long distance tele-
phone circuit there may be one to several hundred repeaters which
make more electrons join the dance. These three instruments-
transmitter, repeater, and receiver-are the most interesting de-
vices in the story of electrical communication. But they are only a
part of the very complicated arrangement of apparatus and lines
which the telephone engineers have learned how to design and to
operate. Several different kinds of telephone repeaters have been
developed in the laboratories of the telephone company. The one
now used is called a vacuum tube amplifier.

Modern Aloddin's Lamp

The vacuum tube is a wonderful device in which a few dancing
electrons can control a great procession of other electrons. There is
a glass tube, like a lamp bulb, from which the air has been pumped
as thoroughly as possible. Within it is a filament which is heated dull
red by current from a battery. The heat drives some electrons out
of the filament into the vacuum. Then there is a metal plate which
is connected to another battery; and this battery forms the electrons
into a procession which shoots through the vacuum between the
[Link] and plate and then marches around one coil of a trans-
former. The other coil is connected to the beginning of the outward
bound line. If the procession can be made to vary, a dance will be
started along that highway. The energy for the procession, and
hence for the dance, comes from the two batteries.
Between the plate and the filament is a wire grid which is con-
nected to the incoming section of line. The electrons of this line
dance in and out of the grid. They have an enormous effect on the
procession, making it much smaller when they dance in and larger
when they dance out. So the procession is caused to increase and
decrease in number just as does the original procession through
the transmitter, where the talking is being done. On the other side
of the transformer, therefore on the outward bound line, a new
dance starts, just like the old but greatly amplified, that is, increased
in numbers.
A repeater of this kind, using two amplifiers, one of which
repeats in one direction and the others in the opposite direction, is
used at each repeater station. But just how they are connected to
the line would take too long to explain here.

24
 [Link]

FITAMENI

i:5ff '[r1'::li^:',:,^!:lf:,::Ji$,"T:

The Mirocle of "Carrier"

These wonderful vacuum tubes make many of the marvels of
modern communication possible. For example, vacuum tubes are
often arranged in long distance telephone circuits in such a way
that a single pair of wires can be made to carry several different
messages at the same time.
For the sake of understanding more easily how this is dorte, let's
consider these arrangements of vacuum tubes as a number of dif-
ferent radio transmitting stations. Each of these "stations" trans-
mits a distinctive high-frequency "carrier" current on the same pair
of wires. Thus the wire is made to serve just like the free space
through which radio makes its way, but in this case directs transmis-
sion very definitely from the transmitter to a particular receiver.

25
 CARRIER REPEATER
STAIION

Yisuolizotion of o mvlti-chonnel corrier felephone syslem.

To do this it is necessary to have exactly the same number of

"receiving sets" at one end of the pair of wires as there are "trans-
mitting stations" at the other end. Along the route, of course, there
must be amplifiers just as on any other long line. Because of these
amplifiers the transmitters themselves can be much less powerful
than radio transmitters and much smaller so that many may be
grouped together in a space of a few cubic feet.
The "carrier" frequency sent along the wire by each "transmit-
ting station" car, .arry a message at the same time that others are
doing so, and at the carrier-terminals the difierent messages are
sorted out by the "receiving sets" (other vacuum tubes) and each
is sent to its proper destination. In actual practice the equipment
is quite difierent from that of a radio station and its development
was practically independent of radio but
- principal
in
- and for the
purposes of easy explanation the operations are as just described.
On the open wire lines of the BeIl System there are many
stretches where a single pair of conductors is carrying simultane-
ously as many as 16 different conversations. In cables two pairs of
wires often are arranged to carry l2 conversations at the same time.
Although the special equipment that makes rhese arrangements
possible is complicated and cosrly, ir saves a grear deal of wire line
construction and thereby helps to make lqng distance service more
economical. Since the war "carrier" has also been employed to
derive additional telephone circuits on regular telephoni lines in
rural areas and on rural electric power lines over which telephone
messages "hitch a ride" (as described on Page 2l).

26
 This same method of using currents of difierent frequencies to
carry several telephone messages is also applied to telegraph mes-
sages, whether sent by key and received on a sounder or printed
by teletypewriters. As many as 18 teletype messages can be sent at
the same time over a single telephone circuit. Since this is so, some-
times a single line in the telephone plant will be carrying not only
several telephone conversations, but as many or more teletype mes-
sages. Sometimes the line may also be carrying current from a
picture-transmitting apparatus.

Coaxial Coble Systems

A further and extremely important advance in multi-channel,
or "carrier," systems of even greater capacity was the development
of coaxial cable.
A "coaxial" unit is a copper tube slightly larger in diameter than
a pencil, with a single wire a little larger rhan a pencil lead held in
its center by small discs of insulating material spaced about one
inch apart along the wire. It forms a two-conductor transmission
system like an ordinary circuit except that one conductor is cylin-
drical and encloses the other. Because of its size and shape, the
copper tube is able to transmit a very wide band of frequencies.
Two such coaxial units with associated amplifiers make up the
coaxial line. One coaxial unit transmits in one direction and the
other transmits in the opposite direction. By means of the coaxial
lines and terminal equipment rve can transmit several hundred

Cross-seclion drow-
ing of o cooxiol co-
ble contoining eight
unils, showing how
eocfi lube holds o
wire in ils cenfer.
telephone messages simultaneously, and can also provide television
channels. Cables now being placed in the ground generally contain
eight coaxial units. Along the line about every eight miles is a
repeater station where the television or telephone currents-are
amplified.
Coaxial cable is now used in a nationwide network of four inter-
connected backbone routes: an Atlantic seaboard route from New
York to Miami; a southern transcontinental route from Jackson-
ville to Los Angeles via Atlanta and Dallas; a mid-western route
from Philadelphia to Chicago, via Pittsburgh and Cleveland; and
a north-south route from Chicago to Jackson, Miss., via St. Louis.
A miniature coaxial cable model has been made, with a tiny
repeater built right into the tube. This gives a glimpse of impor-
tant progress ahead, for it is small enough to use in telephone lines
in congested city areas where space for more cable is at a premium
and where the load of conversations keeps constantly growing.

Rodiotelephone T rcnsmission
Telephone coRversations usually are transmitted by wires at
least over part of the distance, but not all telephone circuits are
wire circuits. Radio links are common today in telephony, and
are being used more widely all the time. Let's take a look at what
happens at a radio broadcasting station.
In every radio transmitter, electrons are dancing all the time.
Hundreds of thousands of times a second they rush up and down
the antenna wires. Usually a vacuum tube is used to make them
do so, but just how is another story. When the electrons from a
speech highway come into the tube which is causing the dance in
the antenna, they change the number of dancers or the tempo of
their dance.
Wherever there is a receiving station electrons are set rushing
back and forth in its antenna, keeping step with those in the trans-
mitting antenna. In radio communication there are no highways
with guiding wires to carry the message directly from sender to
receiver. If the march in the transmitting antenna varies, then in
all the receiving antennas the tiny electrons will also change their
march. A radio-receiving set detects these changes. When the most

28
 electrons are busy rushing up and down your antenna, on the
broadcast channel to which your set is tuned, there will be the
most electrons moving through the coils of the loud speaker of your
radio set. When there are fewer marching and countermarching in
the antenna there will be fewer in the speaker. That is why the
speaker diaphragm will be moved back and forth just as is the
diaphragm of the distanr microphone. And that, of course, is why
the loud speaker in your radio reproduces the speech or music
which is being transmitted from some distant source.
Radio transmission is very convenient when a large number of
widely scattered receivers are to be reached simultaneously as in
broadcasting. Radio transmission is more than convenient; it is
necessary when the route over which communication is to take
place is such that wires or cables can not be used to connect the
transmitting and receiving stations. That is the case in communica-
tion to ships at sea, to airplanes in flight, or to motor vehicles en
route; and likewise it is the case for most trans-oceanic telephone
communication.
In radio broadcasting speech srarrs from the microphone in the
studio of a broadcasting station. The current goes by telephone line
to the radio transmitter, which sends it out to radio sets in thou-
sands of homes. Even though a radio set is all contained in a single
cabinet it really consists of two parts. One parr handles the radia-
tion which is received and obtains from it a currenr just like that
which flowed from the microphone ro the broadcasting trans-
mitter. This current has to travel only a few inches to reach the
second part of the set, which consists of the necessary vacuum
tube amplifiers and the loudspeaker.
The telephone company does not use radio for broadcasting but
does use it many times every day to interconnect people who want
to talk with each other.

Ooerseas Seroice
Of course, whenever there is to be conversation by radiotelephone
there must be, on each side of the gap across which radio trans-
mission takes place, both a radio transmitting station and a radio
receiving station.
The Bell Telephone System has several radio stations for over-
seas service. When one telephones from America to a point in

29
 TRANSMIITTING

RECEIVING STATION

RADIO
TRANSMITTING
STATION

Europe or South America, his speech goes by wire, generally via

New York City, to a transmitting station on the Atlantic coasq then
by radio to the distant receiving station nearest to the place called,
then on by wire to the called telephone. In the same manner, calls
are routed through Oakland to trans-Pacific points and generally
through Miami to Central American and Caribbean points.

Ship T elephtone Seroice

In the same way, when a person makes a call from a telephone
on land to a ship at sea, the current goes first from the telephone
transmitter to the radio station. This station transmits by radio
and on the ship is a radio receiving station which detects the tele-
phone current.
That current, with the speech it carries, is then sent along a
short telephone line to the particular cabin or room where the
other party to the conversation has his telephone. The return
speech is sent by radio transmitter on the ship to a receiving
station on land, thence by land lines to the calling telephone.
The development of ship telephone service has paralleled that of
overseas service. Shore station equipment for service to ocean liners
is located in the same buildings as that for overseas service.
For years, the Bell companies also have furnished two-way radio-
telephone service for coastal and harbor boats as well as for ship-
ping on certain parts of the Great Lakes and some inland waterways.

30
 Mobile Seroice
Bell System mobile telephone service now provides two-way
voice communication for motor vehicles and other mobile units in
most of the major cities and on many highways throughout the
United States. At present there are more than 12,000 "traveling
telephones" in service and they place and receive over 4,000,000
calls a year.
Mobile service is another means of furnishing telephone service
to watercraft. Vessels in harbors and those plying inland waterways
adjacent to highrvays where mobile service is available, may use the
same or similar facilities as automobiles and trucks. Regular tele-
phone service also is being provided on an increasing number of
passenger trains.
A subscriber to the general t\,vo-\,vay mobile service is able to talk
from his truck or car to any one of the millions of telephones con-
nected to the regular telephone network. Likewise, his vehicle can
be called from any one of the millions of telephones.
The general mobile radiotelephone service operates like this:
Calls to and from vehicles are handled by mobile service opera-
tors. The conversations travel part way by telephone wire and
part way by radio. For example, a man at his office desk who wants
to talk to someone in a certain car or truck lifts his telephone

How mobile rodiolelephone service operoles in cities.

3l
receiver and dials or asks for long distance. He then asks for the
mobile service operator, to whom he gives the telephone number
of the vehicle. Numbers such as WJ 6-6632, which do not conflict
with any other numbers, are used.
The operator sends over the radio channel a signal which selects
the particular mobile telephone desired and causes a bell to ring
and a light to go on in the car or truck. When the driver sees or
hears his signal he answers his telephone. His voice travels by
radio to the nearest receiving station and thence by telephone
wire back to the caller.
The person in the vehicle is able to make a call merely by lifting
his telephone and pressing a "talk" button to signal the operator.
In large cities a number of receiving stations are located through-
out the area so that the relatively low-powered radio transmitters
in the vehicles are within range of a land receiver at all times. One
of the receivers near the mobile unit picks uP the voice signals and
sends them on their way by telephone wire. Outside cities, trans-
mitting and receiving stations are located along the highways being
served.
Private mobile telephone systems also are leased and serviced by
Bell companies to industrial concerns, utilities and police depart-
ments.

Radio Reloy Sgstems

To the vast network of voice highways covering the nation, broad

super highways are being added capable of carrying large "bundles"
of telephone conversations and, in addition, television Programs.
One of these highways coaxial cable has already been discussed
- -
on Page 27. The other is radio-relay, which is also a "carrier"
system. It is becoming increasingly important in communication.
Radio-relay systems employ radio waves, but they are'quite dif-
ferent from the ones you are familiar with in your own radio. They
are of super'high frequencies called microwaves. Like light waves,
microwaves do not follow the earth's curvature, but travel in fairly
straight lines. They can be focused like a searchlight and aimed
from point to point over a clear, line-of-sight path. The micro-
waves now used are about as long as a cigarette, and four billion of
them pass a given point every second.

32
 Relay stations ranging up to 400 feet in height and spaced an
average of about 30 miles aparr, catch the radio beams, amplify
them, and send them on to the next station. On top of the stations
are special antennas, consisting of electromagnetic horns and lenses
developed by the Bell System, which concentrate the microwaves
sharply into beams. Because of this only a small amount of power
is needed. Less than one watt-approximately the amount required
to light a pocket flashlight bulb-is used in these sysrems.
A radio-relay system that spans the continent, linking the east
coast with the west, was opened in August, 195 l. Other links stretch
from the northern to the southern border of the country.

Special Neftuorks
With the installation of coaxial cable and radio-relay sysrems
on many long distance telephone routes, a network suitable also
for the transmission of television is rapidly covering the
nation. In midsummer, 1953, TV network programs were
available to 142 telecast stations in 94 cities in the United
States, and it was possible for more than 100 million
people to view the programs. Television networks also
linked audiences in theaters and at other locations.
Earlier, a vast transmission network grew up over the
years to serve "video's older brother," radio broadcast-
ing. At present the Bell System operares abour 210,000
miles of program transmission circuits that link broad-
casting stations in all parts of the country. This figure
includes the circuits that furnish sound for the younger
television network.
One of the first radio network programs to be broad-
cast was an address by President Harding, who spoke
from St. Louis over a hookup of radio stations on June
21, 1923. After that, increasing use was made of long
distance telephone lines to link radio starions for the
simultaneous broadcasting of the same program.

Rodio-reloy slolions, spoced oboul 30 miles oporl, provide o line-of-sighf

roule over which telephone colls ond fe/evision progroms con be reloyed
greol disfonces. Ihe rodio woves lhof do lhe work ore of super-high
freguencies ond trovel in foirly stroight lines, like o beom of light.
 To tratrsrnit the rvide range of frequency in music, special pairs
of rvires u,ere built into many of the older types of cables. Tirese
pairs are eqtripped about every half mile rvith special devices knolvn
as loadittg <oils. derel,rpt'tl prirrrarily lirr use ()rr progl'arr) circuits.
About evcry 50 miles special arnpliliers are connected u,ith the
circuits. These loading coils and anrplilicrs keep tlie dance of the
electrons, rvirich transrnit the mrrsic along the rvires, lrom rveaken-
ing too nrucir. In thc ne\vel' cables, programs are transmitted over
multi-channel carrier systems, utilizing special terminai equipment.
In parts c-rf the country u,here there are no cables, radio programs
are transmitted o\,er open lr,ire circuits. No loading coils are neces-
sary, but amplifiers are required about [Link] 200 miles or less.
There are also many special teletypeu,riter netu,orks to flash the
rvritten rvord from place to place for neu,s sen ices, police forces,
government bureaus, and private industries. These net\rorks are
in addition to the regular teletyperr,riter exchange service (TWX)
rvhich permits tire interconnection of reletl,pelr-iters through spe-
cial telephone company srvitchboarcls. Spccial conference net\vorks,
sometilnes on a nation-rvide sr:ale, frcqtrently, are arranged so that
a nunrber of persons in u,icleIy s(]attered lor:atic,rns nray confer by
telephone on (luestiorrs ol irnp<lrtancc to tlrern. Nefir,clrks also are
provided fol the transmission (){ pllotoglaphs b1' n,ire fronr a central
point tcl a number of neu,spapers tlrroughout tlre countrv.
Sucir special hook-ups have to lncet very exacting requirements.
Each section of a radio or television neturork must be so designed
that it 'lvill l,ork dependably and satisfactorilr, rvitl-r many other
sections. Srvitching points must be provided u,here branch channels
can be brought into the net\vork at rvill, presen'ing proper trans-

- -

.+_
TV progrom posses from stoge through o studio control room
to telephone cenirol oftice. From here it is corried by cooxiol
coble (right) or by microwove reloy system (lefi) to TV brood-
cosiing slotions. Repeoler stolions on coble re-energize
signol (see Poge 25). Swilching offices control "legs" of the
network.
 mission on each. Arrangements must be provided to permit very
rapid changes in the netwolk to care for successive programs.
Standby equiprnent and alternate routes must be avaiiable to
bypass afiected areas should service be interrupted by an emer-
gency. A large, carefully trained force <-rf technical people must
be on duty to maintain the complex equipment day and night and
to insure a higli quality of transmission from minute to minute.
"Carrier" systems, descri[.red cln previous pages, are the backbone
of the Bell System's intercity net$rorks. "Carrier" provides over
70 per cent of the intercity telephone circuit mileage, 85 per cent
of the telegraph mileage, 40 per cent of the radio nerlvork mileage,
and all of the intercity television program milease.

TELEPHONE SERVICE TOMORROW

Research ond Deoelopment
A thorough knowledge of human speech and hearing, plus Iong
efiort to {ind a way to send several telegraph messages over the
same wire at the same time, Ied Alexander Graham llell to the
conception of h<-rrv speech could be transmitted over a wire. Step
by inventivc step, he reasoned his rvay to success little more than
75 years ago.
Ever since then, telephone research has been pursued con-
tinuously and vigorously by the organization now known as Bell
Telephone Laboratories. There are experts in those Laboratories
in every science that can contribute to the further advancement of
the electrical arts of communication. Brilliant work by these scien-

TETEPHONE REPEATER STATIONS

-J---t COAXIAT CABIE TETEPHONE

SWITCHING OFFICE
 \

BelI felephone loborofories buildrngs ot Murroy H,i4 N, J,

tists and engineers has constantly improved and extended tele-

phone seruice.
For instance, a new and important electronic device called the
transistor was invented recently at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Transistors can do many of the things that vicuum tubes do and
more besides. They are very small, require only tiny amounts of
power, but can amplifv electric signals many thousands of times.
Invention of the transistor may weII prove to be one of the
great landmarks of telephone research.
Another important new development from Bell Laboratories
is a thin crystal of barium titanate, only about quarter of an
inch square, that can store up electrical information .and release
it when ordered to do so - within one five-millionth of a second !
In future, it is expected that one such crystal will do the work
now done by a hundred electromagnetic relays or switches like
those in dial telephone equipment.
Bell Laboratories people are
aided in their search by engi-
neers of the telephone com-
panies who watch and measure
the performance of the equip-
ment in service. From their re-
ports and suggestions as well as

Ihree of mony typesof fronsislors.

from fundamental research the Laboratories scientists explore and
invent, develop and perfect to bring about economy and improve-
ments so that telephone service in this country, always the best
in the world, will be steadily better tomorrow than it is today.

Telephone Reseorch Aids Nationol Defense

Some very important weapons needed for our nation's defense
depend largely on telephone research. This is because these
weapon systems are, in many important respects, like telephone
systems. A weapon system is what you have, for example, when
you detect an invisible target by radar and then by electronic
means automatically aim and fire guns to hit it. Similar systems
control the dropping of bombs and the flight of guided missiles.
Today Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric Com-
pany, the Bell manufacturing and supply organization, are devot-
ing a good part of their effort to devising and producing such
weapon systems for our armed forces.
The people of Bell Laboratories did not create systems of this
kind pirrposely to aim weapons or guide the flight of missiles of
war. Their purpose was to provide better telephone service.
Nevertheless, the ability to defend ourselves against aggression
has come to depend more and more on communications techniques.

Waoes That Echo

The development of radar in World War II is a good example
of the way telephone research has strengthened the country's
fighting power. Radar stands for " RAdio Detection lnd Ranging."
Radar makes it possible to "see" in the dark, to seek out and

A scienlisl checks lhe performonce of

communicolions eguipmenf under
developmenl ol Bell loborolories,
destroy enemy airplanes, ships, submarines and land targets.
Like your voice over the telephone, the radar signal is carried
by electric waves. The men who learned to put these waves to
work in the telephone system also learned how to Put them to
work for radar.
When you shout toward a cliff, sound waves echo back. Radio
waves echo, too. Like a revolving searchlight, radar sprays the
terrain or the sky with sharp bursts of radio energy, hundreds of
them each second. As these echo, radar "Iistens" for each one.
Then, electronically, the echoes emerge as a glowing Pattern on a
screen-similar to a television screen - revealing distant ships,
planes, shores, factory areas.
The intensity of each radar flash is many times that of the
brightest sunlight, while its echo is as faint as the light of the
North Star on your outstretched hands.

Ancestry of Radar
Radars are made in many different shapes and sizes for difierent
purposes but they all have basic elements in common. Years of
Bell System experience with telephone, radio and television
transmission have developed means for providing those basic
elements.
There must be electron tubes to generate the outgoing electric
waves and to amplify the energy that bounces from the target. For
many years, telephone scientists have been developing tubes for
communications purposes. Many of the tubes used in radar were
invented or improved by them.

THIS IS WHAT
 There must be special [Link] to carry the elusive waves
from one part of the radar to another. Telephone designers have
devised the special wires, cables and wave guides needed to do this.
There must be antennas to pick up the impulses and direct the
waves. Years of study of directional antennas by telephone scien-
tists helped in the design of radar antennas.
There must be devices for shaping the waues and for timing
the pulses and echoes. Bell scientists invented the wave filter
which, like your radio dial, picks out a desired band of frequencies
from all the others. And Bell experience in wave manipulation
produced a method for timing radar that became the nation's
standard.
There must be a picture of the echoes from the target. Bell
in 1922 made the first low-voltage cathode ray tube, in
engineers
which a picture was projected on a fluorescent screen. In 1927, they
staged the first public demonstration of long distance television
by wire and radio.
This, in brief, is the story of how telephone research aided in
the development of a great electronic weapon. Since the war, as
Bell men of science have continued their work of improving
the communications art, their efforts have led to new develop-
ments and techniques that are useful to national defense. Today,
much of the Bell System's research and manufacturing potential
is being devoted directly to vital projects that will bulwark the
nation's military might.

IHE BATTLESHIP'S RADAR .,SEES''

 At Your Seroice
The finest telephone system in the world is always at your service
in America. The number of telephones is nearly 50,000,000, with
four-fifths of them operated by BelI telephone companies and
the other fifth by over 5,000 independently owned telephone
companies and about 60,000 rural or farmer lines outside of the
System but connecting with it.
Although resources national in extent are necessary to provide
the amount and kind of service required in America, telephone
service is basically home-town service. Nine out of ten telephone
calls are local calls. The tenth may go across the country or across
the ocean. This service is provided by your home-town friends and
neighbors. The company which operates in your locality is, first of
all, a good citizen of your community
Telephone people in all branches of the business and in all parts
of the country are striving constantly to find new ways of applying
the magic of communication to provide more and better service
than ever before.
A marvelous device indeed, the telephone !

40
 TELEPHONE CHRONOLOGY

1847, Mar.3 Birth of Alexonder Grohom Jon. I7-Opening of Third Trons-

-
Bell, Edinburgh, Scotlond. conlinenlol lelephone line, norlhern roule.
1871, April I orrived in Boston to April 7-First public demonstrotion
-Bell
storl his work in lhe teoching of the deof. of television by Bell Syslem engineers.
I875, June 2-Bell's theory of the telephone 1929, Dec. 8-Commerciol ship-to-shore tele-
confirmed by experimenl. phone service opened.
1876, Mol,. 7-The first telephone polenl, 193O, April 3-Opening of tronsoceonic
No. 174,465 wos issued fo Alexonder lelephone service lo Argentino, Chile
Grohom Bell. ond Uruguoy ond subsequenlly to oll
[Link]-First complele senlence of other South Americon counlries.
speech tro nsm illed by lel ephone i n Boston.
1935, Apri! 25-First oround-the-world tele-
June 25-Bell exhibited the telephone phone conversotion by wire ond rodio.
to lhe iudges ol the Cenlenniol Exposi-
1937, Dec. 8-Opening of Fourth Tronscon-
lion, Philodelphio,
tinenlol telephone line.
Otl. 9-Bell conducted lhe first suc-
cessful experimentol lwo-woy lolk oyer 194O, June 24-Television tronsmiiled over
the telephone belween Boston ond Com- cooxiol coble lrom Convention Holl in
bridgeporl, Moss., dislonce of 2 miles. Philodelphio to television studio in Rodio
Cily, New York.
1878, Jon. 28-First commerciol telephone
exchonge in lhe world opened ol New 1942, Dec. 2l-Opening of first oll-coble
Hoven, Conn. lronsconlinenlol lelephone line with com-
1884, Sepl. 4 plelion ol buried coble, connecling exisl-
Opening of lelephone serv-
-
ice, Boston-New York, 235 miles. ing coble syslems of Eosl ond Wesl,
I885, Mor. 3 In6srporolion of Americon 1943, Aug. 22-New, improved equipment
Telephone -ond Telegroph Compony, New for lhe dioling of colled telephone num-
York City. bers in distont cities directly by oper-
1892, Ott. l8-Opening of ,elephone olors, ploced in service in Philodelphio.
service, New York-Chicogo, 950 miles. 1946, Feb. l2-New York-Woshington co-
I914, Feb. 26-Boslon-Woshinglon under- oxiol coble circuils opened lor lelevision
ground telephone coble ploced in com- lronsmission on on experimentol bosis.
merciol service. June I7-Opening of experimenlol
1915, Jon. 25-Opening of First Trons- mobile rodiotelephone service in St. Louis.
conlinenlol telephone line, New York lo 1947, Aug. I5-Opening of commerciol tele-
Son Froncisco, 3600 miles. phone seryice for possengers on €erloin
Ocl. 2l-First tronsmission of speech lroins running belween New York ond
ocross lhe Atlonlic by rodiotelephone. Woshington, D. C.
Arlington, Vo., to Poris. Nov. I3-Opening of New York-
1920, luly l6-World's first rodiolelephone Boslon rodio reloy syslem for experi-
service, belween Los Angeles ond Sonto meniol service.
Cotolino lslond, opened lo the public. 1948, June 3O Firsi public demonslrotion
1921, April I l-Opening of deep seo coble. - by Bell Telephone Lobo-
of the lronsislor
Key Wesl lo Hovono, Cubo, I l5 miles. rolories.
1923, June 7-Rodio broodcosting neiworks 1949, Oct. l7-Dioling of tronscontinentol
begon with o hook-up of four rodio slo- lelephone colls by operolors slorted with
lions by long dislonce lelephone lines. lhe joining of ioll dioling networks on
Dec. 22-Opening of Second Trons- Eost ond Wesl coosls.
continenlql ielephone line, soulhern roule. 195t, Sept. 4-Coosl-lo-coosl lelevision
1925, Oct. f Opening of long distonce begon over lronsconlinenlol rodio reloy
lelephone -coble, New York to Chicogo. rysle m.
1927, ton.7-Opening of tronsoilontic lele- Nov. I0-Long distonce dioling by
phone service belween New York ond telephone user: begon on lriol bosis ot
london, 3500 miles. Englewood, N. J.

Prinred in U.S.A. 1.0-53

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