Today's picture comes from the 1910's and shows a man talking on an early candlestick phone. Interesting that a human operator had to connect each and every call. For calls over greater distances, some number of humans would have to patch the connection together. Later, phones got dials, and people were able to make some connections simply by dialing. When I was growing up, we had a "Party" line, which meant that a number of families along our road shared one line. Sometimes you would pick the phone up, and there would already be someone using the line. At other times, you would be talking on the phone, and then here a click . . . meaning someone on your line was listening in to the conversation. I think we were able to get a private line when I was in Jr. High school.Monday, March 1, 2010
Candlestick Phone
Today's picture comes from the 1910's and shows a man talking on an early candlestick phone. Interesting that a human operator had to connect each and every call. For calls over greater distances, some number of humans would have to patch the connection together. Later, phones got dials, and people were able to make some connections simply by dialing. When I was growing up, we had a "Party" line, which meant that a number of families along our road shared one line. Sometimes you would pick the phone up, and there would already be someone using the line. At other times, you would be talking on the phone, and then here a click . . . meaning someone on your line was listening in to the conversation. I think we were able to get a private line when I was in Jr. High school.