Interesting Facts Concerning

Invention And Rapid Development.

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FIRST TELEPHONE IN

NEW ULM IN 1890

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Present Exchange Has 1662 City Phones And 711 On Rural Lines.

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Seventeen employees of the telephone company in New Ulm will join with hundred of thousands of other telephone workers in the country in a dignified and concerted observance of the fiftieth birthday anniversary of the telephone March 10, according to L. A. Mills, manager of the New Ulm Rural Telephone Company here.

On March 10, 1876, the first message was transmitted over the telephone. On that day, Alexander Graham Bell telephoned from his laboratory on the top floor of an old house at 5 Exeter Place, Boston, to Thomas A. Watson, his assistant, in another room on the same floor, saying, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.” “And so,” said Manager Mills,” on the Fiftieth anniversary of that day workers everywhere in this great industry which has grown to such proportions as to make us a true nation of neighbors are going to wear an emblem in the form of a lapel button which bears a picture of a telephone with the figure 50 superimposed and thus personally join in a nationwide commemoration of the occasion.”

Local History

In 1890 the first telephone line was built in New Ulm and connected the p John Hauenstein Brewing Company, a residence of Fred Behnke, Kretscht & Berg’s Livery Barn and Chas Stengel’s saloon. Otto Seiter and Gus Wagner built the first exchange cabinet for the exchange located in the Wagner and Saverin Furniture store. The first switchboard was a fifty drop signal switch board and was ready for service January 11, 1897. At that time between 24 and 25 subscribers were on one line. This was very unpleasant especially at night when everyone wanted to talk and the phone kept ringing until all hours. Two people were employed to tend the switchboard and take care of the business in a general way

New Home for Exchange

It was in 1917 that the local company erected the new building which graces the corner of Second North and German streets, the cost being $14,366.21. At that time a new exchange equipped with the latest automatic features was installed and ready for use November 1, 1917. At the present time there are 45 rural lines having 711 telephones and there are 1662 city telephones. Numbers on the board start with zero and run to 1399, making a total of 1400 numbers. Ten local operators are employed and give excellent service to patrons of the exchange. The long distance office is maintained separately by the Tri-State Company and their offices are located over the Farmers & Merchants State Bank of New Ulm. Six operators are employed there. At the present time, L. A. Mills is manager of the local exchange and Miss Louise Kalkman is the chief operator.

The following tacts concerning the progress of the telephone will prove interesting reading.

Fact Of Invention

Fifty years ago, Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was busy with his experiments. For a year or more he had been working ceaselessly, confident that electrical impulses transmitted thru or along a wire could be made to reproduce the human voice.

Just prior to the opening of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 the first sound and even disconnected words had been sent electrically over a wire by means of his first crude instruments. But it was not until March of that year that the first connected sentence was heard by telephone. It was not until the same month that his patent was granted-a patent often referred to as the most valuable that has ever been known.

It was 100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the United States had become sufficiently united so that they were preparing to join in the celebration with other friendly nations. Great strides had been made in that period of 100 years. The territory of the Union had been vastly increased. The Empire of the great West had been acquired and was being rapidly settled.

The country had its railroads, its steamboats, its telegraph and its mails, its Colisn engine and so many other wonderful things that it was quite complacent in showing them to the visitors from abroad.

The nation was not aware that it had the telephone. It did not know that, tucked away in an obscure corner of an Exposition building there was the germ of an art which would develop into the nerve system of their own and many other nations. During that whole year the illustrated weeklies like Harpers’ and Frank Leslie’s, tho they were constantly making mention of the Exposition, said not a word about the telephone. Not only was the tele-phone unknown but there was no electric light, no automobile, no moving picture, no typewriter, no electric car, no aeroplane, submarine or wireless.

Started In Small Way

Looking backward from today, it was the day of small things and the telephone started in a small way. As a matter of fact Professor Bell rather doubtfully exhibited his “speaking telephone” at the Centennial Exposition where it attracted no attention until a group of distinguished visitors led by Don Pedro of Brazil, who had known Bell as an instructor of the deaf, tried the new invention. “My God, its speaks!” exclaimed Dom Pedro; and Lord Kelvin, an English scientist and a member of the same party, declared it was the greatest thing he had seen in America.

Today, the telephone has reached its highest point of efficiency and utility in the United States, the land of its birth. With only one-sixteenth of the population of the world it has almost two-thirds of the world’s telephones.

On March 10th, 1876, over a wire not more than thirty feet in length strung between two rooms in a building in Boston, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his associate, Thomas A. Watson At that time the entire telephone development consisted of two crudely constructed instruments, and that memorable and historical message to Thomas Watson came over the wire to him in a tone barely intelligible.

Serve All Of America

Today, 50 years later, there are nearly 17,000,000 telephones, linked by more than 40,000,000 miles of wires, spanning the American continent from end to end and the industry represents an investment of nearly three billion dollars. In Europe and all other countries combined there are less than 10,000,000 telephones. In the land of its birth the telephone has arisen to a great estate. It serves a population of 112,000,000 who use it approximately 67,000,000 times every twenty-four hours. It has done its part in making the United States the greatest and most prosperous of all nations. It has not only grown with the nation but it has helped to make it grow. It has helped to raise the standard of living and make a neighborhood out of a continent.

Wins Merit Award

Altho the telephone received an award of merit at the Centennial Exposition, it produced little immediate effect upon the public mind. It was regarded merely as an instrumentality of scientific interest and value. Among scientists it was received with deep appreciation, but even they failed to perceive its wonderful economic destiny. Soon after the discovery of the telephone came the phonograph by Edison; and then began the marvelous developments in electric lighting, in the transmission of electric power and in the electrical operation of railroads.

Makes Prophecy

In 1876 the telephone was a thing of no practical use. Altho Bell had contributed a wonderful discovery, there was no way to use it. In order to fit the telephone for practical use, a new art, hitherto unknown-the art of telephony-remained to be created. The story of its development is a story of our own country, of American enterprise and American progress. In 1878, when a few miles measured the farthest flight of man’s voice by wire,Alexander Graham Bell made this inspired prophecy:

It is conceivable that cables of telephone wires could be laid under-ground, or suspended overhead, communicating by branch wires with private dwellings, country houses, shops, manufactories, etc, uniting them thru cable with a central office where the wire could be connected as desired, establishing direct communication between any two places in the city. Such a plan as this, tho impractical at the present moment, will, I firmly believe, be the outcome of the introduction of the telephone to the public. Not only so, but I believe in the future wires will unite the head offices of telephones companies in different cities, and a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place. Scientist tho he was, Professor Bell did not think of the future of the telephone in terms of scientific development alone. His interest in the electrical transmission of speech had been born of a greater and deeper interest in his fellow men. It was but natural that in making this clear visioned prediction, he spoke in terms of what the telephone was to do for mankind.

Today, in America, we find it no longer considered merely a convenience, nor spoken of as a luxury. It is a necessity in business, in the home, on the farm. For a few pennies a day equipment costing millions upon millions of dollars is placed at the disposal of those who care to use it. Communication by means of the spoken word is possible from coast to coast. In proportion to the value we derive from it nothing that we buy today is as cheap as telephone service.

What the next half century of telephone growth and development will bring forth no man can foretell. The progress which has been made during the last 50 years justifies the belief that in due course science will find the way to construct a telephone system connecting the entire world. When that time comes the millions upon millions of telephone users in the United States can readily talk, not only as they do now among themselves but also with any one else who has a telephone, wherever he may be located on the face of the earth.

New Ulm Review,

March 10, 1926

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