Part 2 - The Golden Age of Telephones – “Growing Pains” and “Too many Wires

From Telegraph to Telephone 

Fortunately, the telegraph system already possessed a complex network of wires and exchanges, allowing the telephone to rapidly find its niche. Telegraphy was well established as a formal, usually city-to-city, mode of communication that required skilled operators using Morse code to send and receive pre-composed messages. People went to the telegraph office, hand-printed their message on the appropriate form and paid a fee according to the number of words (imagine needing to have someone else send and receive our text messages for us and how that might affect our usage!). At the other end, it would be re-written, placed in an envelope and delivered, usually by bicycle, to its destination. The telephone added a new dimension and allowed spontaneous, informal and direct communication between individuals with no intermediary needed (except, of course, the switchboard operator who knew who you were calling and might “accidentally” listen–in on an interesting conversation here and there!). How much more information was carried in the voice inflections of a loved one compared with the same words on a telegram? How much better was it to get an immediate response to a question and to hear the “tone” of the answer? These differences were enough to make the idea of having a telephone in your own home a part of the American Dream!

TO BE CONTINUED…            (Part 1 –The Beginnings)

                                           (Part 2 - The Golden Age of Telephones)

                                           (Part 3 – Bridging the Oceans)

                                           (Part 4 - The Road to Cellular Technology)

                                           (Part 5 – From Cell Phones to Smartphones: The Internet!)