Category Archives: Telephone history

1976 Light Communications

We’ve previously reported on projects involving light-beam communication. It’s relatively simple to modulate an electric light, and receive it at a distance.

Fifty years ago, the February 1976 issue of Popular Electronics carried an interesting article by Forest Mims on the same general subject. But this project recreates the work of Alexander Graham Bell in 1880, the photophone. Bell was the first to communicate a voice wirelessly, but his transmitter (and the one shown in this article) is powered only be the sun. It consists of a mirror, to which is glued a short tube into which one can speak. The mirror is mechanically vibrated by the sound.

The receiver is essentially identical to the ones we’ve shown in the past. It consists of a photocell fed into an audio amplifier. With the use of a parabolic mirror at the receiver, or a Fresnel lens, ranges of hundreds or even thousands of feet can be achieved.

Students looking for an interesting science fair project couldn’t go wrong duplicating Bell’s early accomplishment.



1955 Fire Box Telephone

Before the widespread availability of cellular phones, or even landline phones, the problem of alerting the fire department to an emergency was solved in many localities by the fire alarm call box, which dates back to the 1850’s. The device was essentially a telegraph sender. When it was pulled, it would encode a message via a rotary sender to headquarters. The message would indicate only that the alarm had been pulled, and the location. Apparently, the call box also had a telegraph key, which would allow responding firefighters or police to call back to the station to request a backup.

It wasn’t until 70 years ago that the system was updated by the addition of a telephone. This photo, from the November 1955 issue of Popular Electronics, shows this young woman calling in an emergency somewhere in Omaha, where the new boxes were being field tested by Bell Labs. They would soon be available in Indianapolis, Miami, Syracuse, and Sioux Falls.

As with the old call boxes, merely lifting the receiver from the hook would flash an alarm signal with location to headquarters. This young woman seems to have her wits about her, but the magazine noted that if the person was too excited to speak, the message would still get through. The operator at headquarters had the ability to transfer the call, such as to police headquarters. The phone would also allow responding police officers or firefighters to call directly to headquarters. Before the days of handheld radios, it wasn’t unusual for cops walking a beat to periodically phone in to the station with one of these.

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, there was such a call box located on a utility pole across the street from our house. (We were also across the street from a school, which might have been the reason it was located there, to prevent another tragedy such as the 1958 Our Lady of the Angels fire in which help was delayed due to the lack of a call box. (A passing motorist saw the fire and went to a store to call the fire department, but was initially refused because the phone wasn’t for public use.)

I don’t remember whether the alarm near our house had a phone, or just an alarm to be pulled. I never got a close look at it, because I knew it wasn’t the kind of thing that I should mess with in the absence of a real emergency. False alarms were surprisingly rare. On a handful of occasions, I recall a fire truck showing up, looking around to confirm that there wasn’t any fire, and then resetting the alarm. But that didn’t happen very often.



Laying Telephone Wire by Air, 1945

1945AprilPMIn 1945, the U.S. Army had ben using as much as 235,000 miles of wire per month for communications. Despite the role of radio, it was often advisable to use telephone communications. Among other things, radio might disclose positions to the enemy.

There was the matter of laying all that wire, and one method is shown here, on the cover of Popular Mechanics, April 1945. A “grasshopper” plane was fitted so that it could skim the ground and 200-250 feet. At one end, probably closest to the front, it would drop a parachute bearing a telephone unit, attached to the wire. The wire was wound binder twine fashion, to play out without tangling, and with minimal resistance. Rolls were 1-1/2 miles long, and three to five miles of wire could be layed in a flight at 65-70 miles per hour.

By this method, patrols cut off from communications could be swiftly reached.



Wartime Telephone Shortages

1944Nov20LifeEighty years ago, there was a war going on, and there were shortages of many things. And that included a new home telephone. You couldn’t get one right away–you had to wait weeks or months.

In this ad from Life Magazine, November 20, 1944, The Phone Company assures you that they feel your pain. But because of wartime shortages, there weren’t enough telephones or switchboards to go around, and everyone would just have to wait patiently.



1944 Instructional Model Telephone

1944NovPracMechEighty years ago, Britain was at war, but that didn’t stop students from building instructional instruments, as shown by these plans for a telephone appearing in the November 1944 issue of Practical Mechanics.

The set was based upon the original telephone of Alexander Graham Bell, and could be built by senior schoolboys in the science room using readily available material. The magazine provided all of the construction details. Two instruments could be used to communicate from one room to another, strictly with sound power. For longer distances, the magazine recommended a carbon microphone with a battery running to the phone.

It could also be used as an extension for a Morse buzzer. All construction could be done with a few simple hand tools. The most delicate part of the operation was spacing the diaphragm just the right distance from the permanent magnet.



Most Telephoned Girl in the World, 1924

1924Jul22A hundred years ago today, this unnamed woman was named the “most telephoned girl in the world.” The title didn’t come from her receiving the most calls, but by her image being transported over phone lines. The July 22, 1924, issue of the New Britain (CT) Herald noted that it was “this beauty that the research laboratories of the American Telephone and Telegraph company selected for experiments on ways of retaining clarity and loveliness in reprodcution and transmission of telephoned pictures.” He picture was on the cover of the instruction booklet for the AT&T Telephotography service.



1944 Home Telephone System

Screenshot 2024-04-19 12.52.42 PMScreenshot 2024-04-19 12.55.32 PMEighty years ago, the May 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics showed how to put together this two-tube home telephone system. Both the master and remote units were built breadboard-style. It might have looked austere, but there was a war going on, and a metal cabinet would have been an unnecessary luxury. It ran off the AC line, and the filament voltage was obtained by dropping it through a 40 watt light bulb. Calling was accomplished by an independent bell or buzzer. Therefore, it could be switched off until needed.

This couple were using it to communicate from house to barn. But the magazine noted that it could be used to communicate with the photographic dark room, since the remote emitted no light.

All parts could be found in the proverbial junk box, or from the dime store. For example, the talk-listen switch is fashioned from the handle of a toothbrush.



1924 Transcontinental Broadcast

1924AprSciInvA hundred years ago this month, the April 1924 issue of Science and Invention reported on a transcontinental radio broadcast which took place on February 8. At the Congress Hotel in Chicago,  General John J. Carty, the Vice President of Bell Telephone Company delivered an address at a banquet. It was transmitted by land and submarine telephone wire to points as far east as New York, as far south as Havana, and as far west as San Francisco. The magazine noted that the submarine cable to Cuba was a mile below sea level, and the telephone lines in Denver were a mile above sea level.

The voices of telephone managers in each city were carried as well, each hearing the other, and with millions of radio listeners hearing as well from the seven stations carrying the broadcast.

A thousand telephone employees were standing by along the line, including scores of men at work near Winnemucca, Nevada, keeping the lines in repair while a severe blizzard was raging.



1924 Telephone Workers: Risking Life and Limb

1924FebBLA hundred years ago, the telephone had become an essential part of American life, and the public had come to take it for granted as part of their normal business and social lives, as well as relying upon it in emergencies.

But The Telephone Company and its workers didn’t take it for granted. Despite fire or storm or flood, the telephone operator stuck to her switchboard. And the lineman and a quarter million employees risked life, limb, and even health to make sure that messages continued to go through.

All the public had to do for all of this was to pay the moderate cost.

This ad appeared in the February 1924 issue of Boys’ Life.



1924 Phone Hands Free Device

Screenshot 2023-12-30 6.57.18 PMShown here in the January 1924 issue of Popular Mechanics is an early telephone hands-free device. The unit clamped on to the side of the telephone, with a counterweight under the base of the phone, to hold the receiver in any position. It included a clips that held the hook down or released it. It allowed both hands to be used while talking on the phone.