A Story Outline of Evolution 



friend or relative, but Its usefulness was at once so clearly 

 recognized that the next year G. G. Hubbard conceived and 

 devised the switchboard, making It possible for the owner of 

 a telephone to connect with all other telephones In the neigh- 

 borhood. This Idea has been extended until it is now pos- 

 sible to reach many millions of telephones from a single 

 point. The Idea of a long distance telephone was an after- 

 thought and It was several years before this Idea took on 

 form and came Into being. 



Newspapers are the most potent factors In spreading 

 written thought that civilization has known. They vie with 

 each other for every morsel of news that may be of Interest 

 to their readers. They furnish a record of the passing 

 events of the entire world with a swiftness undreamed of a 

 few generations ago, and yet the first newspaper report ever 

 received by wire was within the memory of those still liv- 

 ing. They were the first agencies to seize the opportunity 

 afforded by the telegraph and telephone and to make use 

 of them as aids In conducting their business. It Is difficult 

 for those now living In this age of electricity to understand 

 the sluggish methods employed by the newspapers and the 

 patience of their readers before its use as an agency of dis- 

 patch began, but we are three generations advanced and 

 each generation leaves a heritage which the preceding gen- 

 eration did not have and, doubtless, three generations hence 

 our descendants will look upon our sluggish ways with the 

 same lack of understanding as we do theirs. 



All the systems thus far advanced in the electro tele- 

 graph and telephone required the aid of metallic conductors 

 over which the messages could be carried. These necessl- 



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