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Show Telephone Booths Progress Over the Years, Says Ryan About eighty years ago a young man was threatened with eviction from a Boston rooming house because be-cause he was using the telephone. It seems his landlady was sensitive to noise, and his shouting into the "talking machine" was too much for her jangled nerves. With the ingenuity that comes with desperation, desper-ation, the young man pulled the blankets off his bed. One end he draped over the telephone and the othur over a barrel hoop. Then he crawled under the tent-like structure struc-ture and continued his conversation. conversa-tion. From then on, his landlady waa happy. The young man was Thomas Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell. The soundproofing device marked the birth of the first telephone booth. The idea has snowballed until today there are seven telephone booths located In Pleasant Grove exchange according accord-ing to Ralph K. Ryan, manager for the Mountain States Telephona Co. There has been a change in booths over the years. The early ones were Victorian models, a plush wooden structure, elegantly equipped equip-ped with a writing desk, rug, cur- tains, and a carved chair. Today's phone booths are a far cry from those earlier versions of telephone privacy. They are made of glass and are light, airy, weather proof and accessable to the motoring and walking public, by being located lo-cated on busy highways, streets and in stores. The American public is depending depend-ing more and more on the telephone tele-phone as a tool in conducting business busi-ness and social affairs. Public telephones tele-phones are filling a need in making telephone service available to everyone. ev-eryone. Ryan says the telephone booth is the- world's smallest room in which a lot of business deals are clcsed, and many parties planned. |