THE TELEPHONE AGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE TELEPHONE AGE.

EARLY DEVELOPMENTS. FIRST EXCHANGE IN BARN. Fifty years ago tiers wars m London seven cr eight rather bewildered- but very proud men. Hey were ths first people to be connected -with a telephone exchange in the days when the telephone was a very new invention. The exchange was at 36, Coleman Street, E.C.. the headquarters of tha then newly-formed Telephone Company, Ltd. {Bell's Patents), and it was London's first exchange. To-day Linden has no fewer than 642,400 telephones. Tie first telephone exchange was a simple affair in a little bare room. Eat Liverpool had an exchange earlier in a barn-liksi building, in which sat the first " Hello " girl. By the end of the year two mare exchanges had been cpened in Lcndcu, one at 101, Leadenhall Street imd the other at 3. Palace Chambers, Westminster. Its number of subscribers was 330. By April, ISBO, when the rival Edison Company was in the field with 170 subscribers, there were 400 subscribers and seven exchanges. Few people realise that Queen Victoria gave the telephone a good send-oft In January, 1373, she summoned Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor, and he established commixniaition between Osborn, Isle of Wight, Southhampton. and London, and concerts were given. Tha Queen was presented with a special set of instruments. In 185", the United Telephone Company, with its six subsidiary companies, had 219 exchanges and 18.912 subscribers in various pails of England. Later the National Telephone Company gradually merced the smaller company trith itself, and'in 1312 the Post Office took over the system. "Nov; it is possible in England to sit at home and communicate not only with the United States, but with almost, every country m Europe. The General Post Office will arrange for a subscriber to be called at any hour by their alarm,, service, and will take messages while a subscriber leaves his telephone unattended. Tests are in progress at sea* for telephoning from ships, and recently theTe was started a "personal trunk rail " service, under which the Post Office will inform a subscriber. wN> n a person in, any part of the country 'is available for <i telephone conversation. This service is to be extended t-o the Continent. England has now the third largest number of telephones with 1.739.686. The United States with 19.341,000 and Germany with 2,950.430. are tha leading countries.