DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SERVICE 493 



Naturally this good demand for so serviceable an instrument en- 

 couraged ' the proprietors ' of the Bell patents to branch out on a little 

 broader basis. As Graham Bell had transferred all right, title and 

 interest to Mr. Hubbard on July 9, 1877, thus placing the control in 

 the batter's hands, on August 1, 1877, Mr. Hubbard organized the 

 Bell Telephone Association, of Boston, without capital stock and served 

 ar> trustee, while Mr. Sanders acted as treasurer. 



Then the development of the exchange business and the assignment 

 of territorial rights began in earnest, and Mr. Hubbard visited all the 

 larger cities seeking to interest men of prominence. But though he 

 journeyed hither and thither, striving to influence capital to favorably 

 consider the telephone as a desirable investment, yet the task of inter- 

 esting investors in the development of local exchanges proved difficult, 

 and progress was made slowly in the United States. 



In Europe some progress was made through elaborate experiments 

 carried on by foreign governments to practically demonstrate the utility 

 of the telephone. On November 28, 1877, it was officially promulgated 

 that ' the introduction of the telephone in the practical telegraph serv- 

 ice of the German Empire has been formally accomplished; and the 

 passing of the telephone into practical use may be regarded as satis- 

 factorily completed.' This conclusion was based largely on the excel- 

 lent results secured on a toll circuit two hundred and thirty miles long, 

 established between Berlin and Prince Bismarck's country residence 

 at Varzin, in Pomerania, early in October, 1877. Probably that was 

 the first official recognition of the practical value of the telephone on 

 the part of a foreign nation. Yet, early in 1877, Mr. Preece, the head 

 of England's telegraph department, had notified his government that 

 Alexander Graham Bell " has rendered it possible to reproduce the 

 human voice with all its modulations at distant points. I have spoken 

 with a person at various distances up to thirty-two miles." In No- 

 vember, 1877, conversation was excellently maintained for two hours 

 between Dover and Calais, a distance of twenty-two miles, by using a 

 telegraph circuit in a submarine cable. Then, in December, 1877, 

 Mr. Preece officially reported having successfully carried on a long 

 conversation through a submarine telegraph cable sixty-seven miles 

 in length, extending from Dublin to Holyhead, by means of hand 

 telephones. 



In the United States the first lease for territorial rights was executed 

 on October 2-1, 1877, with the Telephone and Telegraph Construction 

 Company, of Detroit, Michigan; yet eleven months passed before a 

 telephone exchange was opened in that city. 



The second lease was assigned to the District Telephone Company 

 of New Haven, Connecticut, and included the counties of New Haven 

 and Middlesex. The former county was rapidly developed and has the 

 honor of having established within its limits the first two commercial 

 telephone exchanges (at New Haven and at Meriden), the first mutual 



