W I '11' •iI III~ ~I 'i 11ill' I11iI hill k.l bit-. 5 The Telephone System: '1'111' com p u tc-r I~~.I prpsl·tll-day example of this process; it was Creator of Mobility ~a'('ll .11 first ,IS .1 "robot," an "electronic brain," which could and Social Change 1'1.1Y dwss and challenge human expertise (or could it?). The workaday uses for accountancy, industrial process control, air- Colin Cherry ways bookings, and innumerable functions within business, in- dustry and commerce, so familiar in today's world, came later. The computer, like the telephone, and other radical inventions are seen, at the very first, as "adult toys." (See Chapter 2.) It would be hazardous today for anyone reared in an industri- alized country to imagine what personal life was like before the telephone, or what feelings people had then. I do not refer INVENTION AND "REVOLUTION" merely to the domestic telephones (for many people in Britain and other industrial countries have no home telephones); rather, There are certain rare moments in history when, through some I mean life before the creation of hosts of social organizations in remarkable human insight, discovery, creative work, or inven- the economic and public spheres, which today utterly depend tion, human life and social institutions take a great leap. The upon the telephone: business, industry, government, news ser- invention of the wheel or the discovery of fire are sometimes vices, transport systems, police. The list is endless, and today it quoted as such moments, but of their introduction and of life embraces increasing numbers of international organizations. before them we know little. But the invention we are now These form our modern world; the telephone was invented celebrating-the telephone-is fully documented, as is the so- within a very different world. We can try to imagine ourselves cial history of the industrialized world before and after its living in that world, but we shall be deceived. We may find introduction. amusing the uses to which the people of 1876 first applied their Inventions themselves are not revolutions; neither are they new toy, "the Speaking Telephone," but we cannot be one of the cause of revolutions. Their powers for change lie in the those people. hands of those who have the imagination and insight to see that the new invention has offered them new liberties of action, that ORGANIZATION: THE HALLMARK OF old constraints have been removed, that their political will, or INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY their sheer greed, are no longer frustrated, and that they can act in new ways. New social behavior patterns and new social in- The telephone (or, rather, telephone system or network) is no or- stitutions are created which in turn become the commonplace dinary invention, not just another desirable consumer product. experience of future generations. It handles "message traffic" and indeed, creates this traffic (the Such realization does not come easily, quickly, or even "natu- very stuff of which social intercourse is made) by its very exis- rally," for the new invention can first be seen by society only in tence. For this reason, its importance to industrial life is not just terms of the liberties of action it currently possesses. We say so- that it is another machine of production, like a spinning jenny ciety is "not 'ready," meaning that it is bound by its present or a steel rolling mill. Its importance is as a contribution to the customs and habits to think only in terms of its existing institu- organized bureaucracy that is the hallmark of modern industrial tions. Realization of new liberties, and creation of new institu- society. It was Max Weber, years ago, who argued that orga- tions means social change, new thought, and new feelings. The nized bureaucracy forms the essential characteristic of an indus- invention alters the society, and eventually is used in ways that trial society; rather than capital or machinery, it is organization- 11', III

above <111S, ystl'llldli(' 1'1'('(11".1111.111,', '(,','''It( ,""'llllllldIH'V 111.11 ru.it tr-r.) W!t(1I(' 11l'W ((Inns o l socidl inst itution and organization makes industrialization pl'ssibll'. (1\(11'1 .rl l, l h« p.Hly ('IIill("'" ('v'·11Ill.dly IW("lllll' f'()ssibll', new forms that no longer required had both science and technology, l't'llllll"ips before 1':lIrop(', hu t !,('('pl(' to be I(H'TELEPHONE EXCHANGE telegraph exchanges or the setting up of a public network. On the contrary, telephone exchanges rapidly came into public use. Having so far engaged in what may seem to be hyperbole, I The early telegraphs operating point-to-point enabled rail- shall now do the opposite and indulge in apparent denigration, ways to run on planned schedules; they also connected stock ex- by arguing that the telephone itself, the talking instrument that changes (e.g., the London and Paris exchanges were connected stands upon your desk, would not have been very important by in 1851). Telegraphs found institutional use rapidly, but even itself. It might have lived in posterity's mind alongside electric today they are not found in homes; for a very long time they doorbells, ships' telegraphs, and Gramophones. Perhaps we were used without exchanges to serve .pre-assigned functions ought not to celebrate the telephone at all, in 1976, but should (such as connecting railway signal boxes). wait a couple of years more and celebrate instead the telephone Telegraph exchanges eventually came into use, but for the exchange. It was the exchange principle that led to the growth reasons mentioned they served economic (institutional) usages, of endless new social organizations, because it offered choice of with trained operators, rather than private (domestic) needs. social contacts, on demand, even between strangers, without Nevertheless, these telegraph exchanges provided a conceptu- ceremony, introduction, or credentials, in ways totally new in al model when telephones sprang to public attention. They were history. rapidly introduced for use within the domestic and economic The exchange principle led rapidly to the creation of networks, spheres; the telephone network, from its early days, served covering whole countries and, since World War le interconnect- both. ing the continents. Anybody, without special training, can The first public telephone exchange appeared at New Haven, move about the geographic areas covered by the network and Connecticut, in 1878, followed by another of eight lines, in Lon- yet appear to another person on the network to be stationary. don in 1879. From that time, the telephone network grew rapid- (In Britain, we often say, when opening telephone conversation: ly and spread throughout Europe and across America, taking' "Hello, are you there?" Where is "there," pray? It really doesn't migrants and pioneers with it. 1111' It·II')IIIIIIII· I'V,.lt'lll I I': Ill,

\( ) .."--"--'--"- TELEPHONES: THE ECONOMIC ANI) Till': DOMI':STI(, SPHERES OF USAGE

CANADA In the domestic sphere (homes) the telephone is ,1 "[,(1I1SlIJlll'r U.S.A . product"; the home has only a finite disposable income, and if 2.5 • • o, SWEDEN money is spent on a telephone that same money cannot be o,o • spent on anything else. Certain home telephones serve eco- o nomically productive functions; e.g., doctors or businessmen Q 0:: working from home. On the other hand, telephones in the eco- n,W nomic sphere (e.g., business, industry) eventually come to serve w(f) economically productive functions, as organization is increas- z 2.0 ~ ingly based upon telephone usage. This distinction between o, ....Iw NEW ZEALAND the domestic and economic spheres is frequently recognized by W I- the application of different tariff systems by the telephone u • ~ authorities. o z When the telephone first appeared 100 years ago, its produc- o ~ 1.5 tive function was not understood. As Chapters 1 and 2 have ex- (f) plained, the telephone was first seen as a one-way "broadcast" w"- z • ITALY service, anticipating radio broadcasting by some forty years. o o,I Once the two-way conversational function became clear, ex- w NORWAY ....I • changes were introduced. This set the future of the telephone W I- system as an organizing instrument, and it began to be adopted U i= 1.0 (f) within the economic sphere. Then, as wealth steadily increased, w • ~ SWITZERLAND it became increasingly used in homes. o Cl • This principle may be demonstrated today by statistical U.K. oLL comparison of countries having different economic conditions. o Figure 1 shows the high correlation between (a) the ratio of tele- ~ Cl:: SPAIN phones per 100 population in the domestic and economic 0.5 spheres and (b) the Gross National Products of various countries • JAPAN in 1968. POLAND It was the introduction of the telephone exchange principle • and the growth of the network that finally converted Graham CZECHOSLOVAT Bell's invention from a toy into a social instrument of immense organizational and economic power. The network served both 4000 the domestic and economic spheres of usage, in changing ratio, o 1000 2000 3000 G.N.P PER CAPITA (inrnid 1968) IN U.S. $ as time passed. (The same thing has been said of roads-that they serve the needs of both sport and transport.) Figure 1 The telephone network called for something else that was As a country becomes richer, the more the telephone becomes a new-some form of subscriber organization involving rights of domestic ("consumer") product. usage and identification (i.e., a numbering plan). Telephone di- Ill! 1111' Id"IIIIIIIII' "\".11'111 11" rectories appeared, and ill !,l'ill"I!,I,· .'IIY "I Ih"s,' 1'('''1'1,·11:."'" 1\I(T1<:IJ LA TI N(; TELEPHONES, could reach any of the others as .I fiX/If 01 "1I1l'llll>('I'~;(\il"""1'l'i vacy" was apparently threatened and new law W

THE TELEPHONE IN THE SOCIETY OF 1876 7fJf 11 III ELROTRIO INDIOATOR. What did people think about the telephone whenit was first ex- hibited and became known through popular articles and adver- J. E. EDWARDS, PATENTEE, tisements? We can gain some idea of their attitudes to the new MANUFACTURER OF wonder and of their imaginings with regard to its uses by read- ARTICULATING TELEPHONES, ing some early accounts. An article> reprinted from the iet~Dmph Jll~lrttment5, CThleo,tric~elI!I, JJndiqllto~15 1877-1878 edition of the Journal of the Telegraph Electrical Society, of Melbourne, describes some Australian telephones Galvanic Batteries. Galvanometers, &c. and experiments of the day. The same issue contained two 35 & 37 ERSKINE STREET, advertisements. Figure 2 shows the "articulating telephone" HOTH.U[ HILL, ::-'1ELBOURNE. alongside an electric bell and a hotel room indicator; the adver- J. E, EDWARDS' NEW PATENT IKDICATOR ie very simple and tisement reads: "Estimates for fitting Telephones or a series of reliable, which enables him to supply a first. class Indicator at a lo',"cr price 'tban any other of e'en inferior workmanship. Estimates for fittmg bells in hotels, mansions, etc. furnished on application." It then Telepbones or a series of bells in hotels, mansions, etc., will be furnished on application. . .. . explains that "the ringing of house bells, by means of Cranks, All orders: accompanied with cash remittance, will receive immediate and careful at tention. movable Wires and Oscillating Pendulums, which are uncertain It is now conceded that the rinqinJ;!' of house bells by means of Cranks. may-ea.ble of action, confusing to persons attending them [i.e., servants] Wires. nnd O~cillatiDg Pendulums. which are uncertain of action. confu~tng to the persons uttendiue them. and, in sbort., clumsy corurtvnnces, are altogether _lhlng~ of and, in short, clumsy contrivances, are altogether things of the the past. On the Electric Bell System.:lll pulling, tu[Zg,ing-. and the grattug n<:>ls~ occaeloned by the cranks, and consequent breaking of the wtres , arc oone. away with .. for however distant. The Electric Bell may be, or however tortuous Its course, It past ... all pulling, tugging, and the grating noises occasioned ca~ bc rung by the slightest pressure of tnc finger on n lttr!e ivory bn.u.on; an,d. as the electric wires do not move, the wear and tear, as on the oh] system, I!; entlrely nvoided .. In by the cranks, and consequent breaking of the wires, are done Older to secure an entirely satisfactory result three thingj are nt"cessllr~. VIZ.. the exclusive use ot ftrst-clase and highly ttrusbed mntenals-. the employment et skilled workmen-and away with." The electronic era had arrived! tb~~L~eri~!:e:;c~o~~~::Je~Jn, O~,JO;~\t:~e~~(;~\\~h~c~~~~~e~~nner.tedwith the ~fclbourne Post and Telegraph Departmen:. for upwards of Ten years) is able to execute 10 n first- It 'may be surprising to learn that the house where I was born class manner an. orders entrusted to him, He has had the honcr to execute c-ork on 1\ larze scale, and attained results highly sat lsfactory at the following public and prtvate in 1914 was fitted with such mechanical bell-pulls. Pulling a buflding'a :- The Treasury I Genrrnl Po~t Office I The London CharI'Pr(ld Dank Parltament HOllSe8 Crown Law omces nt'~l"trar General's Buildings handle in the drawing room would move iron wires through the R h J A 1 I Melbourne Town Ha.ll New Government Otflcea A~~&~\'~r~ty11U~Y urn I ('rO\\11 Lfl.w Offices W .T. Clnrke's, F<:q rooms and stairway and operate an indicator and swinging bell RO)'A.l Mint Mcssrs Sands & Me Deugul! I And many other buildings. in the kitchen. Not surprisingly, the telephone was first seen as The Bell! and Indicators may be seen in operation in Melbourne. a better bell-pull, whereby master could summon a servant, or Figure 2 as an improved speaking tube, through which orders could be An early advertisement, dated 1878, for "Articulating Teiephones"-as sent." The conversational power of the telephone was revealed means for summoning the servants. (From the Telegraph Electrical Soci- ety Journal, Melbourne, 1877-78. Figures 2 and 3 are reproduced here only later," when it became clear that the servant now had en- with the permission of the General Secretary, the Telecommunication hanced power for answering back or even for summoning the Society of Australia.) 1 '11 1 'I

master; it became iI m.ijo r for •.•· for :.",'1.11 1"v"IIII)',1 A second advertisement (I'"igUfl' :1) reV(',t/s this .r+t it uc!« .!11l1 shows the telephone in use. It used neither a bdtt('ry IlOI .u i v amplification, so the resulting signals were said to be v('ry /(.(. ble. There was no form of exchange, and it is shown here Lwill)" used "person-to-person." The small print says, These instruments are of great practical value. They can be used ~ for any purpose, and in any position, without technical train- ing, wherever communication or conversation is required from a distance, as between the principals and employees in commer , C!J cial houses-between central and branch banks-in mining op- z: erations, between the manager's office and the employees in the -:::..:::: .••. I mine-in large hotels or mansions-in factories of every de- cC scription between the manufacturer and his factory, and be- ) u.J 4+l tween the superintendent and his leading men; and, in fact, it c- ;£ C/:) may be considered as an ordinary speaking tube, with all the <:) I; advantages of telegraphic communication. c:: I ~ 0 I Note the social implications of these words. Every use sug- ~ ~ I I I gested serves for master/servant relations. The telephone was := C!J A- I ~ z: ~ seen as an improvement over the speaking tube-for sending I - ~ I I- I orders or for extending powers of authority. As the chapter by cC .....J -l ~ Attali also notes for France, the bilateral use for conversation ~ :::::> .w.l I I came later, as did the exchange principle that offered choice of c.;:) i f- ~ one's partner to converse with-even strangers. I- I j c:: I The article describes the telephone as being "like a pocket I switch. The first automatic exchange was golden voice tells us-we trust it more than we trust our own opened in LaPorte, Indiana, in 1892; the Strowger selector was watches! adopted subsequently throughout the world, until 1926 when I should like to end by saying a little more about the social the crossbar switch was first introduced in Sweden. values of the telephone. With it, I shall link radio (for that, too, Few members of the public have the slightest idea of the com- uses Graham Bell's inventions, the microphone and earpiece as plexity and scale of modern national telephone networks when they were in his day, or derivatives of these). 1 'I

ON THE POLITICAL SICNIHC'ANl'I': 01; TIII~ 1l('lwl'l'll :;trl'::<'I'ill('i':;ove-r Idl}'.l-!'geogr'lphic .rrc as, these contacts TELEPHONE SERVICE .1ITlikely inl'IT'lsinr,ly to be between strangers. In tribal society the S!lCi:llinstitutions are local and formed of kinsmen or close Emile Durkheim, the great sociologist, once asked the qUL'stioll: personal associates, but those of industrial societies force us to How can it be that we feel more free, as the powers of the Stak associate with abstracts whom we call "managers" "representa- have grown? He answered that it is only when the numerous tives," or "officers," people not necessarily known to us as per- state institutions are efficient and clearly defined that we know sons. This means that new forms of trust have to be developed; what is expected of us and what constraints bear upon us. Law not trust in kinsmen but trust in abstract "representatives" may constrain us; yet only if it is dearly defined do we know whom we have never met. It is a major psychological change." where we stand and how we may act, Anarchy is not liberty, A highly developed, two-way communication service is an es- but slavery, It is very much through the extensive network of sential pre-requisite to any form of "democratic" state (if that communication in industrial countries, reaching from the me- means one rendering social change possible in ·acceptable and tropolis into every town, village, home, and back again, that we stable ways). It is discourse, the conversational mode, which is can operate in ways that enable us to feel "free" as individuals, needed; the telephone has made an immense contribution, not though knowing that we are socially constrained. Liberty rests merely in the home but also in the functioning of our great not only on a foundation of defined authority but also upon the institutions, operation of a two-way communication service. The introduction of the telephone and the growth of the na- If a country or a scattered empire does not possess an ade- tionwide network and service that evolved over the last century quate communication service, how can it be held together? How have contributed greatly to our changing concept of both central can its various scattered institutions of local government operate and local government. Subsequent developments like radio and in concert? How can a centralized authority know what is hap- television, which also operate with speech, are available to the pening in outlying regions? It can only be done by the creation whole public, and require no special skills, have given mO,~en- of a strong ideological system, some rigid system of education turn to the process (although they are "one-way"), AuthontIes, through which local governors are trained into intense loyalty ministers, trade union leaders, experts, the great and the fam- to principles, so that when they are sent out to govern, their ous are no longer remote, awful, or charismatic figures. They behavior will be predictable. have been cut down to size as human beings, feeble or sinful at The public schools of nineteenth-century Britain ideologically times, like any of us. The popular watchword now is particip.a- trained those going out to govern scattered regions, The tele- tion , a word which suggests that the public wants more say m graph eventually made a difference! The Roman Empire covered affairs. Whether such a watchword has any substance may per- a vast area in its day, yet it had only the slenderest lines of haps be questioned; but as an idea there is no doubt that it , communication, Caesar could send orders or receive advice from owes a very great deal to the technology of speech commumca- the Governor of Londinium only through a postal service, using tion through the invention of the telephone. horses and caravans. There were relay stations every forty miles where horses could be changed, but the trip took about a month and a lot could happen in that time to render those messages NOTES obsolete." Caesar needed a telephone service! Long delay of 1. The telegraph has, of course, evolved into the Telex se~ice today, messages is likely to make social organization more unstable be- whose rapidly expanding,traffic is essential to the economic sphere, cause counteraction may become outdated by the turn of events. especially to the airways. . .. A further social consequence follows from the introduction of 2. The Talking Drum actually mimics the human VOice ~nd IS hstened a telephone service, Because a network offers choice of contact to as though it speaks. It does not merely send coded Signals. 1.'/1

3. "The Telephone - Auslrdii,lll i':xl',.,.illll'lIl" III II)'n,,' "\/1',/1/1/11111 1/'''' communication Research, 8, No, 2, Il)74; rl'prillkd 1•.•1111l l u- /""/":-:'11/'/' 6 Foresigh t and Hindsight: Electrical Society Journal, Nov.s-jan. 1877 IH7H, Ml'Il>IlIIIII", wi Ih 1111' The Case of the permission of the Telecommunication Society of Aust r.rli.r. Telephone 4. It is noteworthy that the very first words ever spoken ove-r iI 1,+ phone, by Bell himself, were an order: "Mr. Watson, come hen'. I w

FORECASTERS: GOOD AND BAD

Some sensationally good forecasts were made. In 1878, a letter from Alexander Graham Bell in London to the organizers of the new Electronic Telephone Company outlined his thoughts on the orientation of the company; it is such a remarkable letter that we quote it in full in an appendix to this chapter. The letter describes a universal point-to-point service connecting everyone through a central office in each community, to in turn be con- nected by long-distance lines. Aronson noted in Chapter 1 that when the telephone was first invented, it was not obvious that it would be used in that way. Bell briefly considered a path that others were to pursue after he had given it up-using the de- vice for broadcasting in a mode like that of modern radio. The reader can refer to Aronsorr's interesting analysis of why Bell originally pondered that alternative and why he instead came to a clear perception of the telephone as a conversational rather than broadcasting device, The result was a prevision of the phone system as it exists today, a century later. The technology

This is the first report of a "retrospective technology assessment of the telephone" being done at MIT, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.