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Show HOW PHONE SYSTEM BEGAN Thers Were Only Eight Subscriber and the Switchboard Was by Way of a Joks. One switchboard, with a rapacity ot eight subscribers' stations that wa the beginning of telephone service, the ' first step toward the commercial ds velopment of the late Alexander Gra ham Bell's now famous Invention. A ' crude switchboard hud been used la j Boston In 1877, hut only for expert j mentul and demonstration purposes, , Its chief function was to convince the lieople of Boston and casuul visitor of the utility of the telephone and of Its future possibilities, says Telephone . I 'res Service. m ' The uncestor of the modern commercial commer-cial telephone switchboard was h stalled In New Haven, Conn., In 1878. ' From its eight lines has been evolved the network of wires and cables which ' covers the country from coast to coast ' From a single switchboard the num , her of central ufllees within a city ha Increased to over 100. From less than a dozen subscribers' stations, the total within the limits of a single city ha mounted In several cases to over 100 000 and In one case to over 1,000.000. 1 Under one roof as many as 20,000 line ' are switched and centrul ; office ar 4 now planned with a capacity of mor than double that number. |
