438 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



service. Prior to the exhibition of the telephone at the Centennial 

 Graham Bell had frequently discussed with his partners, Mr. Hubbard 

 and Mr. Sanders, the great value of a telephone exchange system cover- 

 ing an entire city, while in the lectures delivered in various cities 

 during the winter of 1876-7 Graham Bell outlined many of the prin- 

 cipal features that later were embodied in the early telephone ex- 

 changes. 



However, it should be borne in mind that by reason of the exist- 

 ence in the larger cities of local telegraph central offices or exchanges, 

 operating on lines somewhat similar to the early telephone exchange, 

 the probable usefulness of a telephone system should have appealed to 

 many whose experience with an intercommunicating system might have 

 enabled them to forecast the development of the telephone exchange 

 system. But the contrary appears true. 



The central district-telegraph offices were in existence ten years 

 before the invention of Bell's electric-speaking telephone. Through 

 one ' central ' the banks and the clearing-house were connected. Stock 

 quotations and the premiums on gold were sent to brokers through 

 another. Many lawyers maintained a l central ' in one city. In a 

 second city the steel mills and factories were thus connected; while in 

 a third city the newspapers maintained a telegraph exchange. 



But none of these systems afforded communication other than by 

 electrical apparatus mechanically operated, as, for instance, a dial tele- 

 graph, or a printing telegraph system, or an ordinary Morse key and 

 sounder; apparatus and methods in no wise requiring the aid of the 

 complex exchange mechanism known as the modern telephone switch- 

 board. Nor were there any known means prior to 1876, of distant 

 oral communication, aside from the speaking-tube. Yet, in many cities, 

 the telegraph ' central ' was the nucleus from which the respective local 

 telephone exchange was evolved. 



For after the newspapers and the magazines had made known the 

 high esteem in which Sir William Thomson and other scientists held 

 Graham Bell's telephone, a number of these ' central district ' com- 

 panies, operating electrical communicating circuits investigated the ad- 

 visability of adding this new device as a side issue, or were invited to 

 make a trial of the telephone in the belief that it would prove a good 

 revenue producer. After investigating the merits of ' Bell's scientific 

 toy' as many called it, some of these electric-service companies could 

 perceive no profit in introducing this ' toy,' placed no commercial value 

 on its serviceability in affording communication over distance, or com- 

 prehended its usefulness. And it may be safely stated that, in 1877, 

 less than a score of men foresaw the marvelous future of the telephone 

 or could grasp the meaning of its revolutionizing possibilities, or ever 

 dreamed of such a phenomenal growth in so short a period as a quarter 

 of a century. Even so experienced a man in the world's work as a 

 former president of the Western Union Telegraph Company declared, 



