"To any telephone girl"

Of course you heard me well enough and knew
I asked for Gerrard 2166;
The trouble is you never seem to fix
Your mind on what you undertake to do.

I cannot tell what system you pursue,

Nor how, within the space of twenty ticks,
Those simple numbers you contrived to mix
And put me on to 6122.

I give it up; nor will I toil and fret
Such depths of human frailty to probe;
I merely state your methods would upset
The standard equilibrium of Job,
To whom such sore vexations were unknown
As you and this infernal telephone.

Hansard Watt

Published 1911, Pall Mall Magazine

One-sided conversations

This will be an ongoing list of references mentioning the one-sided conversations you hear when listening to a person talking on a phone.

Giddens, consequences of modernity, p141
You are more 'connected' with the person you are conversing with on the phone (who may be in Australia) than with the person who is sitting in the same room.
* "space of flows" - the network here is another space that you occupy that doesn't overlap with the physical place you occupy.
* reminiscent of Thrift's whales; 'being with' someone, the space where you are 'with' this other person is huge.


Huxley, brave new world (1932)
"parleying with silence"

Montgomery, per telephone (1893)
Play with opening scene - ten minutes of female gossip on phone
Wasn't this boring for the audience?  Was it such a novelty?  A new experience for both writer and listener, who had to figure out context etc. from only one speaker.  Before the phone era, where/how could you 'eavesdrop' on someone and only hear half the conversation?


Twain, telephonic conversation (1880)

Society of Arts gets connected

The Journal of the Society of Arts reports to its members in 1881 that it now has a connection with the Telephone Exchange (Chancery Lane).  If a member is also a subscriber to the same exchange, then they too can speak directly with the Society.  Note that the article talks of members "whose place of business" is connected, and not their residence.  It was rare in the early days for a telephone to be fitted in someone's house, unless it was a direct line with the householder's business premises.

Another innovation: the Society has a private line connecting it to its printers in Fleet Street.  This would work more like a speaking tube/intercom with a different handset to the one members would ring up on.

Interestingly, the private telephone to the printer's replaces an older Wheatstone ABC telegraph, which used an existing Post Office line.  They merely changed the instruments at the ends of the line.


Journal of the Society of Arts.  11 February 1881.

Telephone screens

One further aspect that I wish to address in this thesis is that of the telephone (as artefact) in its domestic setting.  In which rooms of the house was it kept, where was it stored (on a writing desk, sideboard, its own table, etc.), how did it fit in with the rest of the decor - such questions as these can reveal much about social attitudes.  As a 'piece of furniture' or as a piece of technology,

The danger of giraffes

Mr W L Preece (son of W H Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the General Post Office) reported to the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1915 on the trials and tribulations of setting up a telephone system in the tropics.  Problems with humidity, plagues of insects and quick growing vegetation troubled engineers in establishing lines of communication and keeping them clear and working.  However, the biggest hazard by far was that of wandering giraffes.

"When the giraffes roaming over the wilds of East Africa come up against a telegraph or telephone line, they have not the sense to draw back or duck their heads, but push on, carrying wires and sometimes poles with them."

Silly animals!

"Telephone Troubles in the Tropics."  Journal of the Royal Society of Arts.  28 May 1915

Kleptomaniacs and the man in the moon

The following report was given in The Orchestra (of all places!) in an article “The British Association’s Telephone” (September 1877).  Note that it was around this time that Bell’s invention was demonstrated in Britain.

"But the instrument is still in its infancy, and who can foretell future results?  Suppose, for instance, that by means of a lunar telephone conversation could be carried on between the Man in the Moon and the various lunatics at large or under restraint on this planet: what a flood of light might be thrown on the feelings and inner consciousness of klepto-, dipso, mono-, and poly-maniacs."

All this ahead of Freud and space travel.  Some journalists had a vivid imagination.

German empire orders hundreds of telephones

The Journal of the Society of Arts (7 December 1877) reports that the Postmaster-General of the German Empire proposed to install telephones in telegraph offices.  Several hundred telephones had been ordered from Siemens and Halske for this purpose.

In addition, telephones had been attached to either end of a telegraph wire spanning the English Channel (Dover to Sangatte - site of the French end to the Channel Tunnel), for the Submarine Telegraph Company.                       

“Talking could be heard, and also the playing of a musical box on the French coast.”  (How quaint.)

Again, I get the distinct impression that mere conversation or exchange of information was alone not deemed an appropriate use of the new telephone.  When fishing around for a use, the Victorians always seemed to think that the telephone would be a good medium for transmitting musical entertainment.

As said before, the invention of the telephone was built on the technology of the telegraph and it was first seen as an aid to telegraph operators, in communicating with operators in other offices.  It was thought to be quicker than communicating with each other via telegraph.