On Main Street, U. S. A., the telephonecompany is a home town institution, run bylocal people. Linking together home towncommunities all over America, the telephonemakes a neighborhood of the nation.
The Telephone in America
Bell Telephone System
This radio-relay station on Buckhorn Mountain in Colorado is one of 107 in theBell System’s transcontinental microwave system. Flashed from station to station,telephone calls and television programs first spanned the continent by air in 1951.
The Telephone in America
The telephone was born in America and has reached its highest developmentin this country. Since 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell firsttalked successfully over his primitive telephone, a network of voice highwayshas grown up throughout the nation, linking more than fifty-four milliontelephones. About four-fifths of these are owned by the Bell System, which isa group of closely associated telephone companies, a research and developmentorganization and a manufacturing and supply company, all headedby the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The other telephonesare owned and operated by some 5,000 independent telephone companiesand about 20,000 rural or farmer lines outside the Bell System but connectingwith it.
Bell telephone service is home town service. Linked with thousands ofother home town services, it makes a neighborhood of the nation. The companythat furnishes your service is part of your community. Its operators,installers and other representatives are your neighbors. Some may be yourfriends or relatives. Its departments are managed by your fellow citizens—menand women who have come up through the ranks.
Nine out of every ten telephone calls handled by these home townpeople are local calls. The tenth call may go across the continent or acrossthe ocean. But wherever the calls go, they travel by means of a marvelouslyordered world of wires, cables, switchboards, dial equipment, radio andabove all, with the help of people working together to serve the public.
This booklet gives you a personal glimpse of that world. It tells thestory of the Bell System, but it should be remembered that much that is saidhere applies also to the other telephone companies that share with the BellSystem the privilege and the responsibility of providing telephone servicefor the people of America.
Behind Your Telephone
When you pick up your telephone, you have at your fingertips acommunication system that is mainly local in its operations. Probably youwill use it most of the time to talk to people in or near your own community,but wherever you wish, it can carry your voice across the continent or evenacross the seas to other countries. The telephone industry i