File:The history of the telephone (1910) (14776271063).jpg

Identifier: cu31924007427424 (find matches)
Title: The history of the telephone
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-
Subjects: Telephone
Publisher: Chicago, A.C. McClurg & Co.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ral meddlesomeness of elec-tricity. Whatever else the mysterious noises were, theywere a nuisance. The poor little telephone busi-ness was plagued almost out of its senses. Itwas like a dog with a tin can tied to its tail.No matter where it went, it was pursued by thisunearthly clatter. We were ashamed topresent our bills, said A. A. Adee, one of thefirst agents; for no matter how plainly a mantalked into his telephone, his language was apt tosound like Choctaw at the other end of the line. All manner of devices were solemnly tried tohush the wires, and each one usually proved tobe as futile as an incantation. What was to bedone? Step by step the telephone men weredriven back. They were beaten. There was noway to silence these noises. Reluctantly, theyagreed that the only way was to pull up the endsof each wire from the tainted earth, and jointhem by a second wire. This was the metal-lic circuit idea. It meant an appalling increasein the use of wire. It would compel the rebuild- (122)
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J. ,1. CARTY THE HISTORY OF THE TELEPHONE ing of the switchboards and the invention of newsignal systems. But it was inevitable; and in1883, while the dispute about it was in full blast,one of the young men quietly slipped it into useon a new line between Boston and Providence.The effect was magical. At last, said the de-lighted manager, we have a perfectly quietline. This youg man, a small, slim youth who wastwenty-two years old and looked younger, wasno other than J. J. Carty, now the first of tele-phone engineers and almost the creator of hisprofession. Three years earlier he had timidlyasked for a job as operator in the Boston ex-change, at five dollars a week, and had shownsuch an aptitude for the work that he was soonmade one of the captains. At thirty years of agehe became a central figure in the development ofthe art of telephony. What Carty has done is known by telephonemen in all countries; but the story of Carty him-self — who he is, and why — is new. First of all,he is

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