| Show i iwi "m1— i Page Ifc— inenerata JoumaiUacne Miday May 19 1995 When Thad Carlson gets a telephone call he hears much more than aring lb him it is the sound of success The sound of hope The sound of American dreams coming true Carlson is a phone fan A employee of the telephone company hie worked as a groundman lineman repairman and marketer before becoming manager of the offices in Brigham City and Logan And when he retired in 1986 he took with him much more than a gold watch The basement of his Logan home is filled with telephone memorabilia The bookshelf holds giant glossy books that tell the stories of teleself-proclaim- ed 36-ye- ar phones throughout the years Dozens of personal histories with details about early phone lines sod telephone books from as early as 1908 fill a thick file that he still adds to today A rare poster displaying telephone styles throughout the years is a prized possession Carlson recently donated much of his old phone book collection to The Herald JoumalCachp Pnriw m IQ "WJ- age - - V£ he said holding the solid receiver of a J937 model to his ear “They’d throw diem off the table a hunched times Now we live in a throwaway world” Carlson gets plenty of calls from high school and university drama departments asking what model is appropriate for a certain time period and seeking to borrow a phone or two He said he’s happy he held on to them "When you have something you don’t see any historic value to it” he said "It’s only later that you see” The collectables are priceless he said — not only because of their rarity but also because they represent a lifetime in the telephone trade Even more important he said the story of the telephone in America teaches lessons that apply to all aspects of life "We’ve learned how to listen” he said "America became great because of communication” The early years of telephones Utah State University taught the nation about trust he "Those were treasures but I said holding up a turn of the centuthought it needed to get into a dace ry operator headset Operators in where it can be used and referred to Cache Vhlley were the connection when I’m dead and gone” he wid-“I- f to the community until direct-diI gave than to my children I’m arrived in 1939 afraid they’d just sit in a closet and "They held the world together” he said "When we lost them as we collect duk” The best part of Carlson’s collecwent to the dial it was like a funeral A friend was gone” tion are the phones themselves His 1908 phone book — covering "I can’t remember where I got them all” he said "I just sort of Wyoming Utah Montana and Idaho — has instructions for an kept my eyes open” The oldest he owns a 1907 Mag- emergency: In case of trouble ring neto wall set sports a big wooden up No 9 Don’t argue with the box with a side crank and built-i- n operator "I love that” he said "It says so generator to signal the operator His favorite is a 1919 "Daffodil” — a mudi” Another of the telephone’s big black version of the flower whose name it bears — that looks lessons Carlson said is taught in like it wandered straight off the set the life of Alexander Graham Bell movie Carlson greatly admires the father of an old The 1928 desk set model has no of the telephone and has studied dial Everyone made their calls his life extensively “I’ve tried to reconstruct m my “You arid Imre any color you mind what might have happened as wanted long aeilwaa Mack he I’ve read thehutories” he said He found that the driving force joked behind BelTk creation wan ms conHe’s cern fbr the deal His mother and the early a time when one telephone cornea-- his wife Mabel had lost their hearal tf- - black-and-wh- ite ing W :i tlac'iq iovquility’ fip stpfwkwgs way to assist them: qf Logan resident Thad Carlson has "He wanted to invent an artificial ear” Carlson said “That was what staked it all” Bell’s good intentions were not coupled with good business sense Carlson said and he had several dose calls thk could have brought his project to a screeching halt "ft almost makes you wonder if there wasn’t some help from the other side” he said Oa Feb 14 1876 when Bell filed for the patent he had yet to apeak over die telephone Later that same day a businessman named Elisha Gray also filed for the patent A lengthy court battle ensued and for Carlson it was a miracle that BeUmcvaaedL “The other folks had mom ness backing and education a number of old telephones in his difficulty When he gives presents tions on telephone history Carisa always reads a memo from Wcsten Union’s JP Morgan who told Bel that "after careful consideration wi find it is an interesting novelty (but we have come to the conclusioj that it has no commercial possibili r busi- but Alexander Bell had the human desire to help people” he said "lb me the mesuge is that if a person has a hunger to be of service in some way that alone is an important ingredient to success” Even after the invention Bell met ties” The plume did have commercik possibilities And Carlson ha watched it develop from an obscun luxury to a modern convenienci with innumerable possibilities |
