Telephones have their own story

The other day I left home without my telephone – and I felt absolutely disconnected from the world. How dependent we have become on the telephone became very clear to me when I found myself without one.B

ut for the major portion of mankind’s history we had no means to communicate with one another over distances much more than a few hundred yards and most of us thought little of it. It is the cell phone that has convinced us that if we don’t have a telephone within reach every minute of every day something terrible will happen to us.

Recently, I needed a new one of these technical marvels as my old cell phone was malfunctioning. I went to a local cell phone supplier and there I found phones displayed in 52 designer colors and with complex features on them that would have confused an astronaut.

I explained to the sales representative that I really did not want a cell phone on which I could play games, watch TV, check the stock market and see what the weather was in Southern California. I explained to him that all I wanted to do was to make telephone calls – not take pictures, for which I have a really excellent digital camera.

I could see a look of bewilderment on the salesman’s face. I’m sure I reminded him of one of the cavemen that you frequently see on TV commercials. He rummaged around under the counter and came up with a cell phone that, he said, even a person of my age should be able to understand. Yes, it did make phone calls but, he apologized, it also had a built-in camera. After due consideration, I decided I could tolerate that.

Shaking his head and mumbling to himself, the young salesman rang up my purchase and I was on my way home with my new electronic miracle. When I got home I eagerly opened the package containing my new cell phone, which I had been assured was as simple a model as they had in stock. Much to my surprise, an instruction manual – 192 pages long and in 3 different languages – fell out of the box of my “simple” cell phone.

I’m so old I can remember when telephones came in just one designer color – black – and it only made phone calls! And when you spoke of the telephone company everybody knew whom you meant because there was only one. But then the federal government, in its usual wisdom, decided it was going to fix this system. The problem was, the system wasn’t broken; at least, that is, until the government was done fixing it!

Do you remember a time when your phone bill was one sheet of paper? Compare that to today’s phone bill that looks like a small telephone book and in order to decipher it you need a CPA.

Telephones have been around for a while. In fact, it was in the year 1876 (that’s 134 years ago) that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Mr. Bell spent several years improving his invention and then tried to sell it to the business world. Most people thought it was an “interesting gadget” but as one businessman put it “What the heck would I use the darn thing for?”

Little by little the telephone came into use and in 1881 – just five years after its invention – the first telephone appeared in Sheboygan. According to an old newspaper article, the first telephone in the city was located in the Zchetzche Tannery and was connected by direct wire to another phone in the office of Milwaukee Lakeshore and Western Railway.

Within a few months of this first installation the total number of phones in the city had grown to six, enough to warrant the construction of a switchboard. The first switchboard or “central” as it came to be called was built here in Sheboygan by local workmen and was placed in a building located at 812 Pennsylvania Ave.

Also in 1881, this pioneer telephone company offered the public the first long distance service from their office on Penn Ave. A phone located at the telephone company’s office could be connected to another telephone in Milwaukee. This is believed to be the first long distance service in the state.

In 1882, the organization operating the telephone exchange incorporated into the Wisconsin Telephone Company.

In 1904 the Citizens Telephone Company purchased the exchange and moved the offices to the second floor of 701 N. 8th Street. The local exchange was to remain at this location for 43 years. At that time subscribers numbered 155. By 1924 the number of subscribers was in excess of 7,000 and had once again merged with the Wisconsin Telephone Company.

Over the years, telephones have greatly improved. In the beginning we had the magneto wooden wall telephones or as they were commonly called “the cuss and crank phones.” Then came the “candlestick phones” which stood upright with a hook on the side on which the receiver hung. Then came the more familiar desk or cradle type phone with the receiver and transmitter all in the handset.

One of the more significant days in our telephone history took place on Dec. 13, 1947. That was the day we first heard the dial tone. Gone forever was the pleasant voice of the operator asking “number please” as we picked up the receiver. Can you imagine what it was like for a young woman operator – and they were all women – saying “number please” thousands and thousands of times in an eight-hour shift? Conversion to the dial system cost the telephone company over a million dollars and resulted in the construction of a new building at 631 New York Ave. Finally, in 1958, we were offered direct distance dialing. For the first time we could dial a long distance number from our home phone.

It’s been a long trip from the first telephones and multiple party lines of years ago to the marvel of today’s cell phones. Who knows what the future will bring?

It’s time to get back to my cell phone manual, I still have 99 pages to read. I wonder if cell phones come in all black?

Today’s Snippet: The wooden wall phones with the crank on the side were used by a small privately owned telephone company in Manitowoc County up until the mid 1950s. The telephone exchange switchboard was located in the living room of the owner; his wife was the operator. People complained that it was difficult to place a phone call on Monday morning as the operator was out hanging up the wash. This was believed to be the last privately owned telephone company in the state.