DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SERVICE 



411 



bell to a partition in his store, attached the Blake transmitter below 

 the magneto, and screwed an empty soap-box underneath the trans- 

 mitter. He placed the batteries in the box and made the top of the 

 box serve as a desk on which to record orders received over the tele- 

 phone. It is said that the partition suggested to an observant tele- 

 phone man the back-board of the present telephone set, while the soap 

 box suggested the usual battery-box. At any rate, about that time 

 began the movement towards uniformity in equipment, economy in 

 maintenance and artistic serviceability in installation. ISTo matter how 

 expert the installer, it was a difficult task to quickly and neatly install 

 several parts of a telephone set, where each part had to be firmly 

 attached to the wall, especially in handsome residences. Thus the 

 more compact forms were welcomed innovations. But they had one 



^um^La 



Fig. 35. 



Fig. 36. 



exasperating defect. The Blake transmitter, instead of being placed 

 flush with the front of the bell box was set in so far as to lead to 

 much vexation of spirit, through the subscriber's forehead coming in 

 contact with the bell box. 



In referring to the early telephone equipment, Mr. B. E. Sunny 

 stated, in 1887, that 



the field for improvement in the construction of subscribers' apparatus is a par- 

 ticularly broad one. The entire outfit is crude and defective, and it represents 

 a smaller growth towards perfection than anything else that we have in the 

 service. The magneto as constructed to-day (1887) is a cheap looking affair, 

 except the new Gilliland, and they are all more or less unreliable, while after 

 ten years' experience we ought to have an instrument that would look in keep- 

 ing with the furnishings of the finest residence or office, and that would be free 

 from electrical defects. 



