® : we make Bell . We also make things for the network that keeps your calls from getting stuck in traffic.

The network has plenty millions of routes open throughout the Bell of traffic too. The number of phone calls increased n e t w o r k . I t ' s t h e m o s t a d v a n c e d c o m m u n i c a t i o n s last year to over 300 million a day. But, in case network in the world. And last year alone, we you haven't noticed, your call to almost any added over 2 million more dialing lines. place in the country goes through faster than That's why when you are traveling by phone, ever before. your call almost never hits a stop sign or a At Western Electric we have a hand in keeping red light. up this smooth service. We make and supply cable and call-switching equipment that keeps Western Efectric & SUPPLY UNIT OF THE BELL SYSTEM VLJI—. contents

It All Started In 2 Western Electric: a century of change

We're Still on the Late Show 8 'Don Juan' sounds a beginning

B u s t l e s t o M i n i - S k i r t s 1 2 Styles change, and so does womanpower Telegraphs and Guidance Systems 16 Since frontier days, a review of defense

1869 20 It was a year to remember

Those Were the Days! 23 With modern appliances, housework's a breeze! There Are People Inside Those Buildings 27 The Hawthorne Studies and questions they answered O N C U E C O V E E : A n 1 8 8 2 M a g n e t o Wall set, the first phone built by 2 0 0 Ye a r s o f M e m o r i e s 30 Western Electric, and the modern Trimline® telephone mark 100 years Four men recall 'way back whens' of progress as Western Electric celebrates its centennial year. B r i e f s & S i d e l i g h t s 3 2

FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC., 195 RROADWAY, , N. Y. 10007, P. A. GORMAN, PRESIDENT, H. S. CODY, JR., SECRETARY & TREASURER

Clifton C. Field—editor Rudy Marzano—managing editor Western Electric Val Flesch—associate editor MANUFACTURING AND SUPPIT UNIT Of THE BEll SYSTEM Dick O'Donnell—associate editor Bertha Shepherd—editorial assistant

Henry Hoyer—art editor Tom McQiiillen—design Bernard Aumuller—photography Ernest J. Dougherty—production In a small loft (below) in Cleveland, partners (I to r) , , and Enos Barton opened a small model shop. That shop became West ern Electric Company, celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. Western Electric: a century of change

IT ALL STARTED IN CLEVELAND

by Irv Sternberg

W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c w i l l h e o n e dozen foot lathes. During the day the was tinkering at his work bench on hundred years old on November lathes were busy fashioning fire and his inventions. After several months, burglar alarm equipment, telegraph Gray bought Shawk's interest and be 18, 1969. Looking back over a came Barton's partner. Soon the century of incredible change, the supplies and some rather odd looking devices invented by a dreamy-eyed shop's workmen were spending even company's history may be sepa professor of physics. Now it was late more time on Gray's inventions. rated into three distinct periods. evening, and the lathes were silent. As Barton scratched notes in the From its inception in 1869 until The young man at the desk, Enos ledger, he thought about the sugges it joined the Bell System in 1882, Barton, had come from upstate New tion he and Gray had made to General it was primarily a small shop York where, as a boy in Lorraine, he Anson Stager, a prominent business engaged in producing electrical had become fascinated with teleg man whose capital, reputation and devices. After joining the Bell raphy. At seventeen he had become a business acumen could be a strong asset to the infant firm of Gray and System, it took the lead in di telegraph operator in nearby Water- Barton. They had offered Stager a versifying and broadening com town and later chief telegraph opera m u n i c a t i o n s i n A m e r i c a b u t tor in Rochester. It was the post-Civil partnership in the new firm. But War period. Dozens of young inven would he accept? continued its activities in the tors were exploring new ways to put Stager, like Barton, had come from electric equipment field. After electricity to use, and seeking reliable New York. Born in Chapinsville, he 1925, it limited its role to that of machine shops where their designs had become an apprentice printer in manufacturing and supply unit could be produced in model form. Rochester and at 21 had taken charge of the Bell System, its chosen Young Barton saw the potential in of a telegraph office in Lancaster, Pa. course for the future. such shops. During the Civil War, he had served B u t o n e h u n d r e d y e a r s a g o , With the help of his widowed moth as Lincoln's chief of U.S. Military this is how it all began . . . er, who mortgaged the family farm. Telegraphs. Barton raised some $900 and pur A few days later Barton and Gray On an early fall night in 1869 in chased a haif interest in the tiny were summoned to Stager's office. Cleveland, a light shone from three model shop in Cleveland. "My counsel tells me," he said, windows on the top fioor of a four- Barton's partner at the time was "that the only protection I have on story loft at 93 St. Clair Street. George Shawk, a craftsman. Their my investment is my faith in your Beyond the windows, a boyish iook- best customer was a 34-year-old in c h a r a c t e r a n d a b i l i t i e s . " Then he smiled. "I have the faith." ing man of 27 with a thick crop of ventor, Elisha Gray, a tail, genial man hair sat on a stool in front of a slop with long hair. Gray had worked his Not long after, on November 18, ing desk. Carefully, he jotted entries way through to be 1869, the three men signed an agree in a ledger. come a non-resident physics lecturer ment whereby each contributed about The room he worked in was twenty- at his alma mater and at Ripon Col $2,500 to form an equal partnership. five feet wide and crowded with a half lege in Wisconsin. But his first love The firm continued to be known as

3 Gray and Barton, but from that day Called into Barton's office one day, he it was destined to become the Western perched on his boss' desk and began Electric Company. to idly swing his leg. The new partnership soon moved Barton eyed Scribner's informality. to , where the firm survived "Charles, what are you doing?" the disastrous fire of 1871 and es "Nothing," replied his aide. tablished itself as a dependable, qual Barton, looking upset, pressed on. ity supplier of electrical equipment, "And what is your assistant doing?" replacing and installing much of the "Helping me," said Scribner. equipment lost in the catastrophe. The men were good friends, how With business increasing, the firm re ever, and in the course of business o r g a n i z e d a s t h e W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c traveled together. On one trip to Eu Manufacturing Company in 1872 and rope, they had concluded their work named Stager as its first president. and were speeding to the port to Gray resigned from the company in board ship for home. But they arrived 1874 to devote all his time to elec to see the ship sail out of the harbor. trical research. Although associated Barton stood there, staring and think with the firm for only five years, his ing thoughts he would never utter invention and development of the tele aloud. But the less inhibited Scribner graph printer, the answerback call unleashed a stream of observations box of the American District Tele that suited the occasion. It seemed to graph System, and an electrically satisfy Barton, too. controlled signal board were important "Thank you, Charles," he said. in the company's history. Years later Scribner recalled his By 1876 the company name had boss as the "dynamic and guiding become well established in the elec spirit (who) steered the company so trical equipment field, and at the Cen that it took up the new and discarded tennial Exposition held that year the old at the opportune time." Western Electric won five first-class Although Stager was the first com awards for devices of its own manu pany president, he left the actual facture. m a n a g e m e n t o f t h e n e w fi r m t o B a r Another event occurred that year ton. That experience was essential; in that was to shape the future of the a few years. Stager would be dead company: a patent was issued to an and Barton the president—at a crucial inventor, , for time in the young company's history. an instrument he had conceived. It Events of 1881 and 1882 were was called the telephone. turning points for the new firm. In In August, 1877, the company March of 1881, Western Electric pur hired 19-year-old Charles Scribner chased a controlling interest in the whose invention-a telephone repeater Gilliland Electrical Manufacturing -had come to Barton's attention. Company, an firm mak Two years later Scribner filed for a ing telephones for the American Bell patent on the jackknife switch, his . A few months first important invention for Western later. Western Electric Manufacturing Electric. Before retiring in 1916 he Company was incorporated as West was to become the company's first ern Electric of and the next chief engineer and founder of the En year WE became the manufacturer and gineering Department-forerunner of supplier for American Bell Telephone. Bell Telephone Laboratories. Eventu Western Electric's association with ally he held more than 440 pa'tents, American began a new era of innova exerting tremendous influence in te tion and growth for the company. lephony. described In the late 1800's and early 1900's, him as "the most industrious inventor Western Electric developed the mag I have ever known ... his imagination neto wall set, opened its first New seemed boundless." York facilities and installed in Worces Scribner was an uninhibited man. ter, Mass., the first multiple switch- • '* > '.J: ■ w.:

Occasions of all types make up a compam/s history. Some of Western Electric's include (above left) a 1900 central office installation in Port land, Oregon, (above right) lOli's first transcontinental telephone lines, (left) construction on the in 1906, and (above) station WEAF in 1922, one of the first commercial stations.

5 other milestones in WE history a r e ( r ) t h e fi r s t t r a n s i s t o r i n 19U7, (I) wartime assembly work, a n d ( a b o v e ) t o d a y ' s P i c t u r e - phone® set. board with automatic signals, a development which revolutionized tele phone switching systems. The com pany introduced dimensional drawings for piecework, established specifica tion and quality standards, initiated personnel records, trained college graduates, opened its first distributing houses and—in 1904—occupied the plant that has become the grand- daddy of all Western Electric manu facturing locations, the Hawthorne Works. This was all a prelude to the vital role WE would play in building a voice bridge across the U.S. In the early 1900's, the develop ment of transcontinental telephone service was stymied by the lack of a repeater that could amplify the human voice in a manner superior to the mechanical repeaters then in use. The man who would find the solution to Great Depression saw Western Elec product"—submarine cable repeaters tric produce the world's first plane-to- made to perform without repair for ground telephone, develop a 20 years. sound motion picture system, loud Technical developments occurred at speaker systems, and multiplex print a hectic pace. Production of transis ing telegraph systems. It installed a tors, the first synthetic quartz crys 500-watt for radio station tals, thin film circuits, electronic WEAF in . switching systems and the first known Early in 1925, in order to concen industrial use of the laser were modern trate on its primary job for the Bell achievements in the company's pur System, Western Electric sold its Eu suit of better communications. ropean manufacturing subsidiaries to During this period, the company the International Telephone & Tele continued its role, too, as an impor graph Company and disposed of its tant contributor to the nation's de electrical supply business to the new fense. During World War 11, it produced ly established Electric Com vast quantities of communications pany, named after Elisha Gray and equipment needed by our armed E n o s B a r t o n . forces around the world. WE-built ra By now the company had passed dar and gun director equipment was its half-century mark. With 40,000 followed after the war by further ef employees and sales of $300 million forts in warning systems, missile annually, it had grown and prospered guidance systems and complex new during one of America's most exciting military communications networks. times. But it faced the challenge of Today, as it nears its centennial, maintaining its position in industry the company employs almost 170,000 during the difficult years to come- men and women who produce thou years that saw a depression, a second sands of items of communications world war and an explosion of techni equipment in 16 major manufacturing cal knowledge in the postwar period. locations. It annually purchases over By the late 1920's, the telephone $1.6 billion in goods and services for had become part of the American itself and other companies in the scene. In 1927, Western Electric in Bell System from 45,000 suppliers troduced the first desk set, combin throughout the nation. Its sales ex ing receiver and transmitter and es ceed $3.7 billion. this problem was Dr. Harold Arnold, tablishing a basic design that evolved Last year the company opened the a 27-year-old scientist when he was years later into the Princess®, Touch- world's largest communications cable hired by WE in January, 1911. Tone®, and Trimline® telephone sets. plant in Phoenix, began large-scale The following year Arnold wit But with the nation on its knees dur production of aluminum cable in Bal nessed a demonstration of the , ing the depression, progress in com timore, and was named prime con a device invented in 1906 by Lee De mercial was virtually halted. tractor for the Government's Sentinel Forest, a former WE employe. Arnold, It was not until after World War II anti-ballistic missile defense system. who had been working on the problem that the demand for new services un It also broke ground for two unique of long distance telephony, realized leashed a boom in the telephone in building complexes. the audion could be used as a com dustry and challenged Western Elec In Hopewell Township, New Jersey, the company will open its Corporate mercially successful telephone re tric to meet the demand. Education Center which will consoli peater. Within six months, Arnold had To satisfy the public's needs and made the first high vacuum tube, desires, the telephone became a dec date all its training programs. And which not only revolutionized the com orative as well as functional instru near Greensboro, North Carolina, the munication art but led to the develop ment. It blossomed forth in colors, company will share a research and en ment of entirely new industries—radio changed its shape and promised a gineering center with Bell Telephone Laboratories which will serve as head broadcasting, phonographs, sound host of new services. To improve long motion pictures, and . On distance service Western Electric built quarters for the Sentinel project. Last year was an important one for January 25, 1915, the first transcon and installed radio relay systems (the tinental telephone line-New York to first coast-to-coast television was car Western Electric. But this year will be San Francisco-was formally opened. ried over a WE-installed system in more so. It will always be thus, at least The period from World War I to the 1951) and produced the "perfect for the next hundred years. ITO Western Electric and the movies

We're still on the LATE SHOW by Dick O'Donnell Remember those great old movies? Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee in "Petrified Forest"—re m e m b e r t h a t ? Or Gary Cooper as Captain Mc Gregor in "Lives of a Bengal Lancer"-remember that one? And then there was W. C. Fields as Mr. Micawber in "David Cop- perfield"-remember that? You don't remember! Well, West ern Electric does. When you're coming up to your hundredth birth day, you remember a lot of things y o u w e r e c o n n e c t e d w i t h o v e r t h e years. One of the most memorable w a s o u r a s s o c i a t i o n w i t h t h e m o tion picture industry. You see, it w a s W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c a n d B e l l Telephone Laboratories that finally brought sound to the silver screen and changed the character of mo tion pictures for all time. On the evening of August 6, 1926, Warner Brothers presented its Vita- phone production, "Don Juan," star ring John Barrymore and Mary Cameras roll for "Romeo and Juliet" with (I to r) Reginald Denny, Leslie Howard as Romeo, Basil Rathbone, and John Barrymore.

9 Astor (with Myma Loy and the developed into the amplifier, or re In 1922, Western Electric's E. B. ever-popular Montagu Love in sup peater, that the Bell System needed Craft produced the first electrically porting roles). "Don Juan," using to conquer the problem of long dis recorded talking picture, which was equipment designed and built by t a n c e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s . F r o m t h a t e x h i b i t e d t h a t O c t o b e r a t Ya l e U n i B e l l L a b o r a t o r i e s a n d W e s t e r n E l e c tube, WE's H. D. Arnold produced versity. The success of this venture tric, marked the advent of sound in the first high vacuum tube, key to led to the production of "Haw motion pictures. It wasn't really a the age of electronics. The Engi thorne," the first industrial sound "talkie," since it had no spoken dia neering Department at 463 West picture. That film featured the use logue, but it did have synchronized Street in New York City then began of a perfected synchronizing sys sound effects and music. work on the repeater project, which tem. The first talkie appeared exactly included the development of a wide By 1924, all of the elements were 14 months later, on October 6, 1927, range of associated apparatus. To there. The problem was to sell Holly starring A1 Jolson as "The Jazz test the quality of this apparatus. wood on the idea of talking pictures, Singer." Apart from the songs, the Western Electric needed recording and Hollywood was not buying. The movie had only a few lines of spoken and reproducing equipment of high idea was rejected by practically dialogue, but it was enough to con er quality than was available. This every major producer, and for com vince the world that talking motion led to fruitful experiments in re pelling reasons. Talking pictures pictures were at last a reality. cording sound on film and disc. were considered passing fads, like Ironically, Western Electric didn't At the same time that work was the 8-D movies of a later era, and start out by trying to break into going forward on the long distance simply not worth the investment. show biz. It just happened that repeater system, another Western Furthermore, movie producers had equipipent we had developed for long Electric engineer, E. C. Wente, was large inventories of silent films that distance telephone communications busy working on a ca had cost millions to produce, and was equally and ideally suited for pable of transmitting a wide range great stables of actors and actresses producing talking movies. For years, of sound frequencies. The result of w h o k n e w n o o t h e r d r a m a t i c t e c h people had been fascinated by the his work was the condenser micro nique than pantomime. Also, if talk prospect of making pictures talk. As phone, the familiar "mike" of the ies did catch on, the cost of convert early as 1894 Thomas Edison had early days of radio and recording. ing studios and theaters would be tried it with his Kinetoscope. The By 1916, after less than four years staggering. Talking pictures could device worked, but the public wasn't of cooperative research. Bell System be a costly failure or an expensive interested in it. A former employe scientists had produced an impres success, and either way the pro of Edison's, Eugene Lauste, demon sive array of engineering achieve d u c e r s w a n t e d n o n e o f i t . strated a sound process in 1907, but ments. They had perfected the high In 1925, however, the Warner again there was no market for it. vacuum tube, which was success Brothers studio became interested And there were other attempts- fully used in transcontinental serv in the new process. At that time, the Synchroscope, Cameraphone, Photo- ice in 1915; they had advanced the studio was in desperate shape and kinema, Phonofilm-but the results art of recording sound on film and needed something new to pick up re were the same. They were never disc; they had constructed improved c e i p t s a t t h e b o x o f fi c e . Wa r n e r m o r e t h a n p a s s i n g n o v e l t i e s i n electrical reproducers for the wax- Brothers threw all of its resources which the public soon lost interest. disc phonograph; and they had de into the development and production The reason early efforts failed veloped the condenser microphone. of a talking picture. The first was was that they lacked the equipment All of these elements were essential "Don Juan," followed by "The Jazz needed to produce talking pictures to the production of quality talking Singer." After that, Hollywood had of acceptable quality. They lacked a pictures, a fact not overlooked. no choice. The public clamored for high-quality microphone capable of On June 24, 1916, WE's I. B. talkies and producers scrambled to transmitting a wide rang6 of sound Crandall reported: "I see no reason acquire the necessary equipment to frequencies and of being used at a why a method for producing talking satisfy them. The talkies were in, distance from the performer; they pictures of fair quality cannot be this time to stay. lacked a good amplifier and electrical developed." It was a tempting pros Part of the reason for their suc recorders and reproducers; they pect. Unfortunately, it had to be put cess was that the time was ripe. Box lacked a quality system; off as the Bell System was called up office receipts had been sagging and and they lacked a proper system for on to arrange a vast mobilization of profits were down as audiences lost synchronizing sound with picture. the nation's communications facil interest in the silents. But a major Then, in 1912, a former Western ities in preparation for the coun reason for the success was the qual Electric engineer named Lee DeFor- try's entry into World War I. ity of the sound. For the first time, est visited the Western Electric Following the war. Western Elec audiences were offered, not a prom Engineering Department with an tric developed the public address ising laboratory experiment, but a audion tube he had invented. De- system, another element essential to fully-engineered, working system. Forest believed the tube could be the production of talking pictures. In the ensuing years. Western

10 \ ^ I 4 - 7 ■■

Many early films used Western Electric-Bell Labo ratories-designed sound equipment. Among them were (clockwise from top): "Ceiling Zero" with James Cagney and June Travis, "Captain Blood" with Errol Flynn, "Don Juan," the first production, and "All Quiet on the Western Front" starring Lew Ayres and Raymond Griffith.

Electric continued producing sound equipment for the motion picture i n d u s t r y t h r o u g h i t s s u b s i d i a r y, E l e c t r i c a l R e s e a r c h P r o d u c t s I n c o r porated. Then, in 1937, ERPI with d r e w f r o m t h e fi e l d a n d l i c e n s e d other manufacturers to produce the equipment. Today, Western Electric is retired from show biz, but if you watch the Late Show regularly, every so often you'll see the Western Electric trademark. It appeared on the list of credits of a lot of memorable mo tion pictures. Hey, how about Clark Gable and C h a r l e s L a u g h t o n i n " M u t i n y o n the Bounty"-maybe you remember that one ? ITO3

11

m

ligtltitfiii , . ::f:m■■-Hp I' M wiBifnn■ ' J ..•., S'M \ -fiii

WOMEN AT WESTERN Fi^om su§TLe§ TO minPSHiRTS

,ci.-r

15

TELEGRAPHS and GUIDANCE SYSTEMS Otir service to the U.S. dates from frontier days

Then during the Spanish-American There was a rustling among the large and flying fairiy low, was on a birds in Franz Josef iand, that series course that would take it across Green War, WE-built telephones were starting of isiands ciustered within the Arctic iand, down past Hudson's Bay to the to become standard equipment with Circie. They were yeiiow-billed loons, heartiand of the . many of our military units. usually found singly or in pairs. But At Coiorado Springs men watched During World War I an entirely new on this day they were huddled in a iarge map in a room two stories high military problem arose: how to com municate with the fragile little air flocks, disturbed by a sharp change and 30 by 60 feet in size. A yeilow in the weather. "alert" showed on the map lights, planes that were flying daily sorties over the Western Front. Western Elec- It was a typical low pressure wave signifying that an unknown was ap tric's answer was a radio developed which started as a smaii disturbance proaching our warning system. Within for ground-to-air communications. south of the Franz Josef isiands when minutes, however, they went back to a wayward westeriy, pushed north out normal routine. The unknown proved "For the first time," says a 1917 account, "airplanes in flight were di of European Russia by the jet stream, to be a large flock of birds, apparently rected from the ground or by the com coiiided with the coid damp air rising driven from their regular nesting from the icy waters of the Kara Sea. grounds by an Arctic storm. mander in the leading airplane, and A major storm was brewing, but no But it couid have been something reports and directions were given and received in clear speech." one knew it. In a few days it wouid eise. It could have been a hostile show up in weather forecasts through bomber group probing our defenses. Further work along this line resulted in voice radio between warships, ship- out North America, but on the day of Either way, the DEW-Line had again to-shore radio telephone that linked its birth oniy the birds were aware, done its job, quickly, smoothly, uner the Navy's fleets to headquarters, and afraid. ringly. Not even a flock of birds can radio for the Army's tanks, and elec Later that day, a U.S. Air Force approach our air space without being tronic detection devices for locating sergeant tensed as he sat staring at tracked and identified. a radar screen in his DEW-Line sta This 6,000-miie line of radar sta big guns and enemy planes. tion on the Greeniand Ice Cap. He tions was buiit through a joint effort During World War il, the Company was just one of the hundreds stationed of the Army Corps of Engineers and produced more than half the radar on the Distant Eariy Warning Line civilian construction teams under the equipment used by Allied forces. Be sides new radio, telephone and tele stretching 6,000 miies from the Aleu direction of Western Electric engineers tians to Iceland and Europe but at that in one of the largest and most intricate typewriter systems. Western furnished the Army and Navy with a gun aiming moment he was the northernmost eye defense jobs ever undertaken by the of our Air Defense Command.' An "un company. And this covers a lot of system developed by Bell Labora tories. This electronic robot tracked known" had appeared on his screen. ground, for WE has been doing such The sergeant's reaction was smooth jobs, at the government's request, oncoming planes by radar, aimed anti-aircraft guns after computing dis and automatic. He flashed word to the since the days of the frontier wars in tances and trajectories, and then fired North American Air Defense Command the 1870's. Through the years the gov the guns. At sea they dealt with at in Coiorado Springs that an unknown. ernment has selected us for these projects because of our competence, tacking aircraft, and helped aim the experience, and our ability to bring to Navy's guns at surface craft. In undersea warfare. Western Elec Within the Arctic Circle, a DEW gether the vast resources of the Bell Line station, part of a 6,000-')nile System. On the frontier it was WE tele tric equipment picked up the sounds of the Nazi "Wolfpacks" dur- chain, maintains its constant vigil. graph instruments used by the Army.

17 . ■

They are listening to outer space in the above Jet Propulsion Labora tory station in the Mojave Desert, while a Titan rocket leaves Cape Kennedy. Right, pilot wears 1930 helmet for air-to-ground radio.

18 ing the Battle of the North Atlantic and around many U.S. cities for anti-air President Wilson tests a WE-de- of Japanese submarines in the Pacific. craft defense. Zeus, intended to de signed ground-to-air radio telephone In addition, large quantities of our stroy attacking intercontinental ballis on the White House Lawn in 1918. mines and torpedoes were equipped tic missiles, has evolved into the with WE electronic guidance systems. Spartan missile, one of the essential In the closing days of the war, WE elements of the new Sentinel Anti- Force and National Aeronautics and radar bombsights were aboard the Ballistic Missile System which West Space Administration launch space B - 2 9 ' s i n t h e i r a l l - o u t a i r o f f e n s i v e ern Electric is now producing as leader craft and has manned tracking sta against the Japanese home islands. for an industry team. tions in Florida and California. A The war's end proved to be just a In the cold weather regions, WE globe-circling chain of Project Mer brief pause in the Company's defense followed up its DEW-Line construction cury communications stations, also work. Since the start of the Cold War with "White Alice," a network which built by an industry team headed by there hasn't been a time when West brought modern long distance tele Western Electric, is now in use for the ern hasn't been involved in a major phone and telegraph communications Apollo moon missions. Even at the dawn of the Space Age, WE transis project at the government's request. to Northern Alaska, and linked the Perhaps the most significant work Ballistic Missile Early Warning System tors were aboard America's first sat has been the production of systems stations in Greenland and Alaska, plus ellite, Pioneer I. for guiding rocket-powered missiles England, to the Colorado Springs com Thus, from the days of the frontier, from the ground. A series of Nike mis mand center. through two global wars, to today's sile systems, called successively Ajax, In today's race for outer space. policy of deterrence. Western Electric Hercules and Zeus, were developed by Western Electric is playing a central has been a vital part of our country's Bell Laboratories for the Army. The role. With know-how gathered from defense. Yesterday it was the Arctic Ajax and Hercules systems, both pro years of guidance system research and and the fringes of outer space. To duced by Western, were deployed production, WE has helped the Air morrow, the moon, and beyond. PnS A year that marked the beginning of college football, professional baseball and Western Electric

by Barry Beckham We have no record of what Messrs. ing was made easier when James cleaner, which he described as a Gray, Barton and Stager did or said Oliver came up with his chilled steel sweeping machine. At Promontory Point, Utah, the right after they signed papers and plow. Jim Westinghouse, four years shook hands to form Western Elec younger than 27-year-old Enos Bar Central Pacific's Jupiter, whose tracks had been laid by Chinese tric four years after the Civil War ton, was granted a patent for his air had ended. But, because of the age brake. His research was sparked by workers, met the Union Pacific's in which they lived, it's a good guess a t r a i n w r e c k h e h a d s e e n n e a r "119," whose tracks had been placed that one of them said something Schenectady. William Davis, a fish- by Irish immigrants. Governor like "Let's get back to work." market owner in Detroit, received Leland Stanford of California drove Termed the era of reconstruction a patent for the first railroad re a golden spike into the last tie. The by historians and "The Gilded Age" frigerated car, built in 1869. Thomas engineers of the two trains ex by Mark Twain, this period was one Edison was also at work. His elec changed bottles of champagne and of new enterprises, of expansion. tric voting machine, not to be used a one-word telegraphic message, R a i l r o a d s w e r e b e g u n , i n d u s t r i a l in a major election until 1892, and "Done," was fiashed all over the growth was tremendous; immigra designed originally to record the country which now could be crossed tion was heavy and ever more peo vote of legislative bodies, was in in one week. ple were moving to large cities. vented in 1869. The housewife Immigrants were pouring into the country and the big cities were Prosperity was obvious in almost wasn't forgotten either. James Mc- all sectors of a growing economy. Gaffey of Chicago was awarded a swelling. During the year of WE's I t w a s a t i m e o f i n v e n t i o n . F a r m patent that year for the vacuum birth, more than a quarter-million immigrants arrived. Chicago had a $200,000 profit. Beer gardens and and catcher, was used. It comes population of 299,000. New York rathskellers abounded as stage girls from , where the trans City had nearly reached the million wearing satin slippers and roses in mitter and receiver form a battery. mark. About 25 out of every 100 their hair kept male spectators Congress, near the end of Feb people in America lived in big cities. cheering (and beering). A big at ruary, adopted the 15th amendment, For their reading, many Amer traction of New York City was the giving the "right to vote regardless icans turned to Europe. It was not Atlantic Garden, holding 2,500 peo of race, color or previous condition an auspicious period in American ple and offering shooting galleries, of servitude." As late as 1868, only letters, for no novel of importance billiard tables, and something called four states outside of New England had been written since the end of an orchestrion band. Most places of and New York had granted suffrage the Civil War. For those interested amusement were closed on Sunday. to Negroes. At this time, women only in plot, dime novels and yellow In the homes, elaborate decora were allowed to vote only in Wyo backs about Indian fighters were tions and ornaments were in vogue. ming Territory. standard fare. Harriet Beecher O n e f o u n d o r n a m e n t a l b o w l s o f Although no American presi Stowe's series of sketches. Old Town alabaster called "tazza," as well as dent had yet travelled overseas, Folks, was popular, and so was Mark portieres, lambrequins and what there were a few events outside the Twain's Innocents Abroad, a collec nots. Base-burners with red coals U n i t e d S t a t e s t h a t a t t r a c t e d t h e a t tion of satirical travel articles pub and a ground glass globe with kero tention of the American press and lished in 1869. Other popular au s e n e w e r e s t a n d a r d i t e m s i n t h e public in 1869. On November 16, thors were Bret Harte, Joaquin b e t t e r h o m e s . 6,000 foreign guests gathered to Miller, George Washington Cable, M o s t f a m i l i e s m a d e t h e i r o w n watch fireworks, a squadron of James Russell Lowell and Oliver bread. At a typical breakfast, Gray, yachts and the official opening of the Wendell Holmes. Barton and Stager might have eaten Suez Canal. Under construction for For art, Americans of the late 12 vegetables. Pie was often served ten years, this link between the '60's liked Winslow Homer, painter for breakfast and a typical Sunday Orient and Europe was to revolu of seascapes and forests; Philadel morning meal in New England con tionize communications and travel. phia-born Thomas Eakins, who spe sisted of buckwheat cakes, baked Earlier in the year, Henry M. Stan cialized in boating and prizefighting beans and pork. ley, directed by publisher James scenes; and the romantic and mys On November 6, 1869, just a Bennett of the New York Herald to tical Albert Ryder. The new Corco c o u p l e o f w e e k s b e f o r e We s t e r n find the Scottish missionary Liv ran Art Gallery in Washington, Electric's founding, captain William ingstone, in the African interior D.C., was the start of the great Leggett led his 25-man Rutgers greeted the explorer with the words, p u b l i c a r t c o l l e c t i o n s t h a t w e r e team against captain William "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" forming during the period. Stryker's Princeton tigers in the On Black Friday, September 24, For the price of a pair of shoes first intercollegiate football game. panic gripped Wall Street when Jay today, one could buy a stylish over They used a round, rubber ball that G o u l d a n d J a m e s F i s k t r i e d t o coat in 1869. A pearjacket, popular might be batted with the player's corner the gold market by bidding at the time, sold for $10.00. Little hands or kicked. No running with up the price from the usual $183 in boys wore kilts and boots with tas the sphere was allowed and a goal greenbacks for $100 of gold to $162 sels ; girls wore Garibaldi suits. was scored when the ball was kicked i n g r e e n b a c k s . T h e i r c o r n e r c o l Women went for the crinoline skirt, under the crossbars. Princeton won lapsed because the treasury released and they usually wore horizontally the hour-long fray, 6-4. unexpectedly four million dollars striped stockings. Empire bonnets The first professional baseball worth of gold. Hundreds of men, and shawls. Men sported tailor- team, the Red Stockings, looking for a price rise to possibly made suits of sooty broadcloth. was established. The team embarked $200, were ruined. The amusement fads of the day on an eight-month tour to pay for So 1869 was typical of the fast- were croquet and the velocipede or the players' salaries. George Wright, changing years after the Civil War. bicycle. The circus, usually a one- shortstop, received $1,400; Asa To survive them, one had to be ring affair, was experimenting with Brainard, the pitcher, $1,100. aware of the complexity and enor two rings. For 17 months, Niblo's There is no information on who mity of the changes. Certainly, Bar Theater in New York City showed first said it, but sometime during t o n , G r a y a n d S t a g e r h a d t h i s the Black Crook—otherwise known the year, the term "battery," de awareness. They realized and met as the Parisian ballet—reaping a scribing the combination of pitcher the challenge of change. Rra

22 THOSE WERE

DAYS!

by Val Flesch

Time was a lady could turn dreary housekeeping tasks into pure sim plicity with these ultra-modern Western Electric appliances. The vacuum, promises a 1915 ad, is "the new model, small and light, just $32.50 including a nozzle extension."

The lady's sewing machine is the l a s t w o r d i n e l e c t r i c h o u s e h o l d c o n veniences; her washer is perfection in construction and simplicity.

The housewife has a choice of other labor-saving devices, too: an iron at $5, a fan, a dishwasher-table- top priced at $55, a percolator at just $12.50, a hair dryer, home inter phones at $15 a pair, a toaster, and a warming pad at just $6.50.

All the appliances, as demonstrated by Josette Antoniato, Aida Man- gual, and Mary Ann Thiem, were sold until 1925 and guaranteed by Western Electric. Picturing Miss Liberty in 1915, a Western Electric ad assures: "Electricity has brought to women a new freedom, a release from the drudgery of housework. It's the New Enlightenment."

"This new model vacuum," Josette knows for sure, "is so designed that the full power of air is used."

23

To many in industry and the ac ademic world, the achievement for w h i c h W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c i s b e s t known had nothing to do with com m u n i c a t i o n s t e c h n o l o g y. I t d e a l t with the intangible and once myste rious study of what motivates people to work. The classic findings, many of which now seem self-evident, stem from the widely known Haw thorne Studies. THE They began in 1924 when the Research Council of the National HAWTHORNE A c a d e m y o f S c i e n c e s s p o n s o r e d e x p e r i m e n t s a t W E ' s H a w t h o r n e W o r k s t o l e a r n m o r e a b o u t t h e e f STUDIES fects of lighting on workers' output. PROVED During three years of experimen tation, the intensity of illumination was increased and decreased and the effect on output was observed. The results were puzzling because in no case did the increase or decrease in production relate to the increase or decrease in illumination. At one point, lighting was reduced until it there are was about equal to moonlight, but the girls maintained their efficiency throughout. In fact, they said they b e c a m e l e s s t i r e d t h a n w h e n w o r k ing under bright lights. Obviously, the study was getting nowhere as far as learning about proper lighting was concerned, so the Research Council gave it up. But meanwhile, intriguing ques peopet i o n s h a d b e e n r a i s e d . I t h a d b e come apparent that human factors had been more important than how bright the lights were. inside The next step involved putting a smaller group of workers under closer control and observation in the hope that some of the factors re those buildinas sponsible for the changes in output would be revealed. The idea of the second study was to discover the optimum working conditions. Thus, by William L. Brown six female telephone relay assem blers became immortalized in print. The special six started working together in April, 1927. They were put in a separate room, free of the pressures and disruptions of a large work group. An observer was with them to record their reactions, and a counter was placed at each work

27 position to keep track of the output. showed that there was no decrease in The experiment continued for five production. years. Every few weeks some kind Further "test room" experiments of change was made. Rest periods were undertaken and a new ap and hot lunches were scheduled, and proach tried. It was reasoned that then taken away. The length of the if a positive change in employee at working day was altered from time titude could prove so valuable, it t o t i m e . S a t u r d a y m o r n i n g w o r k would be worthwhile to find out what was eliminated, then put back. u n f a v o r a b l e a t t i t u d e s e x i s t e d t o Meanwhile, every kind of record ward the company and see what was meticulously kept—each girl's could be done to change them. A output moment by moment, the qual large-scale program of confidential ity of their work, the room's temp interviews was held starting with erature and humidity by the hour. 1600 people in the Inspection The hours each girl slept at night Branch. By July, 1929, the interview were recorded voluntarily by them, technique had itself become a new and they agreed to periodic health exploration. Hawthorne's research e x a m i n a t i o n s . B u t n o o n e f a c t o r c o r ers developed what is now known as related with any other; in fact, over the non-directive technique. Em all output consistently rose, even in ployees, given the chance to talk the face of changes in working con freely and in complete confidence, d i t i o n s t h a t r e s e a r c h e r s f e l t s h o u l d simply opened up. It was noted im h a v e h a d a d v e r s e e f f e c t s o n b o t h mediately that almost all of these After analyzing data, William J. Dick morale and output. employees.said they felt better for son emphasizes the importance of T h e r e s e a r c h e r s t h e n r e a l i z e d t h a t having gone through the experience. mental attitude on work output. they were dealing with a team that By the end of 1930, more than had developed its own leadership and 21,000 employees had been inter group spirit. They learned early that v i e w e d . N o r w a s t h i s t h e e n d o f t h e factory was largely the province of the social or human relationships experiments. In November, 1931, the efficiency expert with his stop a m o n g th e o p e r a to r s th e m s e l v e s s t i l l a n o t h e r w a s d e s i g n e d . R e watch, and the engineer with his w e r e a p p a r e n t l y m o r e i m p o r t a n t searchers began studying a group slide rule; science could provide the than anything else. Even a simple of workers to learn more exactly worker with the tools, and pay was change—such as who sat next to h o w t h e w o r k e r s ' o w n s o c i a l o r i n the incentive. Yet the Hawthorne whom—affected output. formal organization operated to es studies showed that, given the same T h e o b s e r v e r s a l s o s a w t h a t m o t a b l i s h n o r m s a n d t o c o n t r o l t h e o u t tools and pay, a different mental at rale was an important factor. These put of every member. Observations titude could mean an increase in girls had been singled out for a continued for half a year, and the output of 20 or 30 percent. That was purpose the company considered im data collected, added to that previous more than enough to make industry portant; the "brass" was interested ly amassed, provided the raw mate take notice. in their daily production, interested r i a l f o r t h a t c l a s s i c t e x t o n h u m a n T h e H a w t h o r n e s t u d i e s m a d e in whether they felt tired at the end relations: "Management and the great contributions in specifics like of the day. Thus, the attitude of Worker." rest periods, length of work hours, m a n a g e m e n t , a s r e fl e c t e d i n t h e William J. Dickson, now Assist supervisory and management train changes introduced, had changed ant Manager, Personnel Research, ing programs, counseling, vocation the attitude—and the output—of the at headquarters, with the collabora al guidance, personnel administra girls more than had the changes in tion of Professor F. J. Roethlisberg- tion and the like. w o r k c o n d i t i o n s . er of Harvard, re-analyzed the data But it is in the intangible realm of As the study progressed, the man r e s u l t i n g f r o m t h e H a w t h o r n e e x attitudes and approach to problems agement was ready to use any find periments. After three years' work, that the •studies have been most sig ings that seemed to have been suf they condensed the results of these nificant. Today, industry starts with ficiently tested. studies to 600 pages—the definitive the assumption that industrial man The most important of these was study on the human world inside a does not live by stop watches and that rest periods were beneficial. Be modern industrial plant. comparative pay scales alone. What ginning in 1928, therefore, rest More important even than any of the Hawthorne studies brought home periods were gradually introduced the specific findings, Dickson feels, t o t h e b u s i n e s s w o r l d w a s a n e w e m throughout the plant in those areas w a s t h e n e w a p p r o a c h t o t h e i n d u s phasis on the employees' needs, a w h e r e r e p e t i t i v e w o r k w a s p e r t r i a l w o i - k e r t h a t t h e H a w t h o r n e deeper understanding of the human f o r m e d . A n a l y s i s o f t h e r e s u l t s studies suggested. In the '20's, the f a c t o r s i n v o l v e d . E r a 29 by Lea Wait

our men with 200 Y E A R S O F M E M O R I E S

Four employees, Wiiiiam JankowskI (upper left), Andrew Kelly (above), Charles Darcey (upper right) and John Pawiek (right) have much in common. As a 50-year man, who is still on the job, each has been an eyewit ness to many changes within WE. In 1918 World War I ended, Mary e x a m i n e e v e r y t h i n g f r o m p h o n o calls. "Mr. Vail was a very jolly man Pickford signed a million-dollar film graph needles to automotive equip -full of fun. And I got to read all contract, and four fourteen-year-old ment. Now of course, purchasing t h e c o m i c s h e e t s i n c a s e t h e r e w a s boys went to work for the 50-year- deals with far more complex sup a cartoon about a telephone." old Western Electric Company. plies, including computers." A n o t h e r h i g h l i g h t o f D a r c e y ' s Today, those four—Andrew Kelly, "There's been another big change, c a r e e r w a s t h e fi r s t b r o a d c a s t o f Charles Darcey, William Jankowski, too," requirement analyst Bill Jan radio station WEAF, whose studios and John Pawlak—are still on the kowski points out. "As the company were first located at 463 West Street job. As Western Electric celebrates has expanded and become more com in New York. Since he had drawn i t s h u n d r e d t h a n n i v e r s a r y, t h e y plex its personnel have changed too. up the electrical circuit layout for c e l e b r a t e t h e i r fi f t i e t h . We have a lot more minority group the station, Charlie was invited to Thirty-five Western Electric men employees today, and a lot of man h e a r a n n o u n c e r G r a h a m M c N a m m e and women have been able to boast agement positions are being filled by put the station on the air in 1922. similar records, but, today, only younger men." W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c ' s fi r s t s t a n d a r d these four are active employees. "It gives the company a newer t r a n s m i t t e r w a s fi r s t u s e d a t Kelly and Darcey work at Head image," adds Pawlak, a section chief WEAF, where WE helped to refine q u a r t e r s ; P a w l a k a n d J a n k o w s k i i n t h e P o w e r P a n e l a n d C o m m o n the techniques of the infant broad are at Hawthorne. S y s t e m S h o p s . " A c o m p a n y t h i s casting industry. The year they joined the com size has to stay with the times, All four men finished high school pany the first automatic switching and that doesn't just mean using by studying at night and taking office was being installed and com m o r e e l e c t r o n i c e q u i p m e n t a n d special examinations, and all four pany engineers were working on building more plants. It means in also went through some form of radio , phonographs, tegrating all types of people with higher education. On an average, and other general electrical equip all types of ideas and skills. That's each spent ten years in night school. ment. Hawthorne, where John Paw- how we got where we are today." "And that was in the days before lak's first job was testing switch Andy Kelly remembers with nos tuition refund," Jankowski recalls. board cords, was the only manufac talgia the many hectic days he spent "I spent fifteen years going to high turing location. as an installer, restoring service to school, and then taking courses at "I guess the most radical changes disaster areas like Dubois, Pennsyl Northwestern University, at night." we've seen have been in equipment," vania, whose central office building F o r a l l f o u r, w o r k a t We s t e r n reminisces Andy Kelly, now a wage w a s r a z e d b y fi r e i n 1 9 2 1 , a n d has been something of a family practices specialist. "It's a long way Sharpsburg, , where a f f a i r. J a n k o w s k i ' s w i f e w a s o n c e a f r o m t h e o l d r u r a l m a i l b o x N o . 1 service had to be maintained during secretary in engineering at Haw step-by-step to today's complex elec the floods of 1937. thorne, and his daughter is now a tronic switching." "But through every crisis West secretary with the methods depart Department chief Charlie Darcey ern Electric people seemed to stick ment. John Pawlak and his wife met agrees. "In my job as a supply in together and work it through. Dur while both worked in the old cost spector from 1929 to 1945, I had to ing the Sharpsburg floods, I remem department, and one of his daugh ber, we were in round-the-clock con ters worked as a secretary at West tact with people in Kearny who sup e r n E l e c t r i c u n t i l s h e m a r r i e d a n plied us with whatever equipment we engineer with . Charlie needed almost immediately. That's Darcey has a son-in-law who is with one of the most important things the transportation department at about working with Bell System . people; there's a group identifica But Andy Kelly has the record tion, and the entire community for family Bell System service. His works together." brother retired three years ago after Of the four men, two started as a l i f e t i m e o f i n s t a l l a t i o n w o r k i n messengers, earning $8 a week. But Pittsburgh. His sister was an as Charlie Darcey started near the top. s i s t a n t c h i e f o p e r a t o r a t B e l l o f H i s fi r s t b o s s w a s AT & T P r e s i d e n t Pennsylvania, where his wife also T h e o d o r e Va i l . A s o n e o f Va i l ' s o f worked as a secretary. And both of fice boys, Darcey had his own ma h i s s o n s h a v e w o r k e d f o r W e s t e r n hogany desk on the 26th floor at Electric, one of them a fellow Pio , where his job in n e e r a t B e l l L a b s i n H o l m d e l . cluded running errands and making Fifty years with Western Elec a scrapbook of newspaper clippings tric ? "Oh, it hasn't been that long," about telephones. s m i l e s J o h n P a w l a k . " J u s t t h i n k o f "It was a good job," Darcey re t h e n e x t f i f t y ! " £ 2 0

31 BRIEFS

WE's Montgomery Plant in Illinois recently com Western Electric is supplying a new model Call-a- pleted manufacture of 100 data couplers that will Matic® telephone for the Bell System that can store allow the direct electrical connection of customer up to 250 or 500 individual telephone numbers, data equipment to the . The depending on the model. Any number can be called couplers were made on a pre-production basis so automatically simply by pressing a call button. The that equipment manufacturers would have an early numbers can either be typed or written on an easy- opportunity to determine how they would design to-see directory. Parts for the phone are made at their own modulating and demodulating apparatus Western Electric's Indianapolis, and to connect to the coupler. Kearny Works. The sets will be available to all Bell telephone companies early this year.

Deaf people may one day be able to communicate by using the buttons of the Touch-Tone telephone. Bell Laboratories is experimenting with a technique Sandia Laboratories has found another application that employs the tones generated by the buttons to for the laser. The Laboratories is using the con activate a visual display of letters and numbers on centrated light beam to detect the existence of for a small screen. Even though two phones are con eign particles in the air of clean room environ nected, the buttons will still generate tones without ments. Air samples are drawn into the beam at the interfering with normal switching operations. rate of ten cubic feet a minute. Any particles in the airflow will scatter the light and cause it to strike the face of a photosensitive tube. The moni tor can detect particles as small as 1/75,000 of an inch long.

Bell Telephone Laboratories is developing a new solid state light source no bigger than a shirt but ton. The miniature lamp requires no more electric ity than it takes to operate a telephone circuit. In stead of giving off heat as excess energy, the lamp gives off a bright ruby light. In its first application, it will illuminate the plastic buttons of Touch- 1100 Tone® dials. % & WE's Merrimack Valley Works in Massachusetts is OF planning to manufacture equipment for the pro posed L-5 cable carrier system between St. Louis and Los Angeles. L-5, which is now under develop The above centennial logo will be used throughout ment by Bell Laboratories, will have the capacity the year as a distinctive symbol to visually tie for carrying about 90,000 simultaneous telephone together our varied 100th anniversary projects. conversations on a 22-tube . C o n s i d e r t h e A l t e r n a t i v e s ment considered all the protests Way Back When T h e r e ' s a n e w ' B a t t l e o f B r i t and also considered a conces . . . the Ma Bell image began, ain' shaping up—over London's sion—giving all 36 books to she wasn't a Bell at all. She was those who requested them. That phone books. The government Mother Barton, the mother of wanted to eliminate the present meant a 3-phone family would Enos M. Barton, who mortgaged four A-D, E-K, L-R, and S-Z need 108 phone books. The her farm in upstate New York so books and provide a customer government is now said to be her son and a partner could go one of 36 neighborhood direc reconsidering its entire plan. into business. That business tories. Then began the protests. eventually became Western What if a person moved to an Somebody Goofed Electric. other neighborhood? "Call Di W h e n l a w m a k e r s i n o n e m i d - . . . in 1921, the Company made rectory Inquiries," said the Brit western state needed a com the first commercial purchase ish Post Office. But that can plete list of services to be cov of an item not even remotely often take a 30-second to 10- ered under a new tax bill, what connected with telephone pro minute wait. There also may did they do? Just what most duction—the first band-aid. The soon be a 12-cent charge for shoppers do. They turned to the inventor demonstrated his gauze getting a 'difficult' number. Yellow Pages, where they found and tape samples to WE offi More protests. Then the govern- all their listings—with one ex cials, who liked the idea. The in ception. The Yellow Pages. ventor's 'unit first aid dressing,' Somebody forgot the obvious today's band-aid, went into listing, an oversight that was mass production a short while promptly corrected. later. . . . the first records were avail a b l e i n 1 9 1 4 , W E s h i p p e d 542,000 telephones. By 1968, t h a t n u m b e r w a s o v e r 8 m i l l i o n .

Can't Beat It The Bell System's tic-tac-toe machine, located in Chicago's M u s e u m o f S c i e n c e a n d I n d u s try, does not cheat. But some v i s i t o r s i n s i s t e d t h a t t h e m a chine wasn't playing fair. A check proved that the machine did, indeed, suffer a human trait — a m e m o r y l a p s e . E v e r y s o often, it seems, the device was simply erasing an 'X.' The cul prit was a speck of dust in the For years the telephone has can forget "Hello Central, Give machine's memory system, been a favorite vehicle of song M e H e a v e n . " A l a t e r e r a ' s s a l u t e which made it forget that the w r i t e r s . T h e r e a r e c l a s s i c s l i k e was titled "Help Me Telstar." As space, already used by an oppo the two above, along with such f o r t h e f u t u r e , w e m i g h t l o o k nent, was filled. A good cleaning o t h e r o l d - t i m e h i t s a s " T h e Te l e forward to something like an up cleared up the problem. Now phone March," the rousing dated version of an oldie—per no one can beat the device, even "Telephone Gallop," and, who haps it will be "Hello ESS." when it plays on the level.