OCR Text |
Show HuW PHONE SYSTEM BEGAN There Were Only Eight Subscribers and the Switchboard Was by Way of a Joke, One switchboard, with a capacity of eight subscribers' stations that was the beginning of telephone service, the first step toward the commercial development de-velopment of the late Alexander Graham Gra-ham Bell's now famous invention. A crude switchboard had been used In Boston In 1S77, but only for experimental experi-mental and demonstration purposes. Its chief function was to convince the people of Boston and casual visitors of the utility of the telephone and of its future possibilities, says Telephone I'l ess Service. The ancestor of the modern commercial commer-cial telephone switchboard was Installed In-stalled in New Haven, Conn., in 1878. From its eight lines has been evolved the network of wires and cables whicn covers the country from coast to coast. From a single switchboard the nun her of central offices within a city hag Increased to over 100. From less than a dozen subscribers' stations, the total within the limits of a single city has mounted in several cases to over 100,-000 100,-000 and In one case to over 1,000.000. Cnder one roof as many as 20,000 lines are switched nnd central offices are now planned with a capacity of more than double that number. |