48 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE 



SERVICE. III. 



By FRED De LAND 



PITTSBURG, PA. 



VI. First Commercial Telephone Exchange 

 n^HE first commercial telephone exchange system in the world was 

 -■- opened in New Haven, in January, 1878, and has been in con- 

 tinuous operation ever since. This pioneer exchange was organized by 

 Mr. George W. Coy, who now resides in Milford, New Haven County, 

 and who, during the twelve years ending with the year 1877, was 

 managing the local offices of the Atlantic and Pacific and the Franklin 

 Telegraph companies. 



In July, 1877, the local papers in New Haven contained an adver- 

 tisement of ' Bell's telephone ' reading in part : 



The proprietors keep the instrument in repair, without charge, and the user 

 has no expense except the maintenance of the line. It needs only a wire between 

 the two stations, though ten or twenty miles apart, with a telephone at each 

 end. . . . The outside of the telephone is of mahogany finely polished and an 

 ornament to any room or office. Telephones leased and lines constructed. 



In September, 1877, Mr. Coy secured several Bell telephones and 

 installed a few private lines in New Haven, and also displaced some 

 district call-boxes with telephones in his local messenger service. Per- 

 ceiving how useful the telephone was proving to business houses de- 

 siring his messenger service, Mr. Coy concluded that a central telephone 

 exchange system would be a desirable thing for the community, pro- 

 vided a sufficient number of subscribers could be secured. 



Now in the beginning of the evolution of telephone exchanges, 

 there was neither experience nor knowledge to guide the investor or 

 the manager. There were no known methods of operation or of main- 

 tenance to render uniform and no equipment to standardize, because 

 the to-be equipment had yet to be evolved from needs then unknown. 

 The Bell company had no factory and supplied only the hand tele- 

 phones, which were made to order under contract. Thus each licensee 

 was largely thrown on his own resources and compelled to devise much 

 of his exchange equipment and to secure from several different sources 

 such associated apparatus as was available. Then the installation was 

 necessarily made and the lines run with the aid of the telegraphers of 

 that day. For in 1877-8, the only ' electricians ' were the men asso- 

 ciated with the telegraph companies. The electric light and the trolley 

 then had no commercial existence. Thus, through the needs of the 

 telephone exchange, was evolved that now very essential person the 



