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Strasburg Telephone Company history
Strasburg Telephone Company company history timeline
March 14, 1837 - Wheatstone & Cooke sent first British telegraph message.
June 20, 1840 - Samuel F. B. Morse, of New York, NY, received a patent for "Telegraph Signs" ("Improvement in the Mode of Communicating Information by Signals by the Application of Electro-Magnetism"); "American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph".
1843 - First public telegraph line, from Paddington to Slough.
April 18, 1846 - Royal E. House, of New York City, received a patent for a "Printing Telegraph"; telegraph ticker that would print letters of alphabet; able to print at rate of 50 words a minute in Roman letters.
June 5, 1846 - Telegraph line opened between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
June 10, 1848 - First telegraph link established between New York City and Chicago.
November 13, 1851 - Telegraph service began between London and Paris.
October 8, 1860 - Telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco opened.
From its beginning in the 1860's, Cable & Wireless has played a major part in the establishment and development of telecommunications around the world.
July 27, 1866 - After two failures, Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying first underwater telegraph cable between North America, Europe.
Actually, the first business venture had begun before the invention with an agreement between Thomas Sanders, Gardiner G. Hubbard, and Bell dated February 27, 1875.
February 18, 1876 - Direct telegraph link established between Britain and New Zealand.
April 1876 - Lars Magnus Ericsson opened electro-mechanical workshop in a rented kitchen in Stockholm to repair telegraph instruments and other electrical devices; working capital was 1,000 kronor, borrowed from a Mrs.
July 27, 1876 - After two failures, Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
October 9, 1876 - First two-way telephone conversation occurred over outdoor wires between Alexander Graham Bell and Watson over telegraph line linking Boston and East Cambridge.
Features descriptions of telecommunication, sound, and data technology developments starting with the birth of the telephone in 1876.
Vail's boundless energy and management skills carried him to the position of general superintendent of railway mails by 1876.
My vision of the future in this age of information is strong and positive, much as Alexander Graham Bell's vision for his new invention was in 1876.
February 12, 1877 - News dispatch from Salem, MA to Boston Globe in Boston, MA (distance of sixteen miles) sent using Alexander Graham Bell's new invention, the telephone, for first time in United States
April 15, 1877 - First telephone installed: Boston-Somerville, Massachusetts.
January 14, 1878 - First demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone to Queen Victoria at her Osborne House estate on the Isle of Wight; she ordered a private line to be laid between Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, and Buckingham Palace.
The switch became the switchboard, and the first telephone exchange opened on January 28, 1878, in New Haven, Connecticut.
September 1, 1878 - Emma Nutt of Boston became first female telephone operator.
In 1878, Western Union bought Elisha Gray's telephone patents, commissioned Thomas Edison to work on improvements, and organized the American Speaking Telephone Company.
Western Union agreed on November 10, 1879, to a settlement of the infringement suit and withdrew from the telephone business for the duration of the Bell patents.
June 3, 1880 - Alexander Graham Bell transmitted first wireless telephone message on his newly-invented "photophone."
August 31, 1880 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an "Electro-Chemical Receiving-Telephone" ("to transmit and reproduce over telegraph-wires speech or other sounds telephonically").
Though Vail's achievements during his second stint with the phone company are those best remembered today, his blueprint for telephone growth was actually drawn up some twenty years earlier in the 1880's.
November 29, 1881 - Francis Blake, of Weston, MA, received a patent for a "Speaking-Telephone".
Letter, Theodore N. Vail to Edward J. Hall, February 16, 1885, AT&T Archives, BOX 1010.
August 24, 1886 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an "Electrode for Telephone-Transmitters" ("to increase the effectiveness in use of such electrodes").
And so it was that they went hat in hand to the man they had spurned 20 years before 62-year-old Theodore Newton Vail to beg him to take over the company from which he had sadly resigned in 1887.
February 14, 1888 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for a "Telephone-Transmitter".
October 18, 1892 - The first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was opened; Chicago Mayor Hempstead Washburn greeted his New York counterpart, Hugh J. Grant.
3. Annual Report, American Bell Telephone Company, Boston, 1892.
December 12, 1896 - Guglielmo Marconi gave first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London.
January 11, 1898 - Alexander E. Keith, John Erickson and Charles J. Erickson, of Chicago, received a patent for a "Calling Device for Telephone-Exchanges"; dial telephone; assigned patent to the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange of Illinois.
March 17, 1899 - The first-ever radio distress call was sent, summoned assistance for a merchant ship off the coast of England.
Even though the Bell System was continuing thus to grow, its managers decided that the corporate climate of Massachusetts was too restrictive, and on December 31, 1899, they made the New York-based American Telephone and Telegraph Company the parent company of the System.
In a 1901 memorandum to United States senator W. M. Crane from Massachusetts, he pointed out the need for the Bell System to build a strong financial base to meet the demands of the battles ahead.
The company's precarious financial situation allowed the J. P. Morgan banking interests to gain a strong voice in the company's affairs, and in 1901, Morgan tried to entice Vail to return to Bell's management.
1902 - all-British telegraph line from Canada to Australia and New Zealand first line to cross Pacific Ocean.
May 23, 1903 - Telephone linked Paris and Rome for first time.
July 3, 1903 - First cable across Pacific Ocean between Hawaii, Midway, Guam and Manila completed, spliced at Manila, Philippines; July 4, 1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt sent first official message over new cable; ended Hawaii’s isolation, connected it to mainland United States, rest of world.
February 1, 1904 - CQD established as international distress signal; sometimes thought to mean, "Come Quick Danger"; "CQ" originated in England as general call on landline wire, preceded time signals and special notices as sign for "all stations"; Marconi company suggested "CQD" for distress signal.
April 26, 1904 - Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium formed.
November 16, 1904 - John Ambrose Fleming invented first electron tube, diode thermionic valve capable of actuating telephone receiver.
In 1907, he became president of AT&T. Although 62 years old, Vail dug into the System's problems with unusual vigor.
In 1907, he launched a major reorganization of operations, changing a territorial organization into a functional one with three major operating departments-plant, commercial, and traffic.
February 18, 1908 - Lee De Forest, of New York, NY, received a patent for "Space Telegraphy"; grid electrode tube.
The new president of AT&T was determined that the public should not only get quality service, but the public should be made fully aware of what it was getting. It was Vail who was responsible for the motto "One policy, one system, and universal service." In 1908, he started what is now called institutional advertising to tell the story of the Bell System as an institution of American life.
In 1910, Vail negotiated a stock takeover of the demoralized telegraph company and was elected its president.
By 1911, the Bell System was gaining the upper hand in the national marketplace for telephone service.
While the complexity of the telephone industry makes it a difficult subject of regulation (Vail wrote in 1914), yet it has advocated and seeks full public control.
The line formally opened on January 25, 1915, with a ceremonial call between Alexander Graham Bell in New York, Thomas Watson in San Francisco, and Theodore Vail in Jekyll Island, Georgia.
February 7, 1915 - The first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station was received.
1915 - First automatic telephone exchange in Britain.
Why not the telephone and telegraph companies? In July, 1918, Congress passed a joint resolution giving postmaster general Burleson the right to take over the wire communications.
In June of 1919--shortly before the return of the Bell System to private hands--he retired as president and became chairman of the board.
June 11, 1922 - A photograph sent by radio across the Atlantic from Rome to Bar Harbor, ME reproduced a 7 x 9.5 in. halftone picture, used light falling on selenium cell to form dots.
August 4, 1922 - AT&T and Bell System shut down all its switchboards and switching stations for one minute in memory of Alexander Graham Bell (died two days earlier); none of the 13 million telephones in operation could be used.
October 3, 1922 - Charles F. Jenkins used city telephone lines for first time in United States for transmission of facsimile photo in Washington, DC from 1519 Connecticut Ave. to United States Navy Radio Station NOF at Anacostia, DC.
October 14, 1922 -Pennsylvania exchange in New York City became operational; first automated telephones.
The Town of Strasburg was charted in 1761 and incorporated in 1922.
The new, more important, position of research and development in the Bell System was institutionalized in 1925 with the founding of Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Western Electric sold its extensive and well-established international equipment business, International Western Electric Co., to International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) in 1925; 3 years later Western sold the Graybar Electric Co., an electrical supply subsidiary, to its employees.
March 7, 1926 - First successful transatlantic radio-telephone conversation took place, between New York and London.
Adventures in the world of Hollywood with sound motion pictures began with Don Juan in 1926.
He sold radio broadcasting to the National Broadcasting Company in 1926.
February 25, 1927 - Conversation between parties in San Francisco, CA and London established new telephone long distance record of 7,287 miles.
March 27, 1930 - First United States radio broadcast from ship at sea.
December 8, 1931 - Lloyd Espenschied, of Kew Gardens, NY, and Herman A. Affel, of Ridgewood, NJ, received a patent for "Concentric Conducting System"; coaxial cable; application was television, requires wide range of transmission frequencies; assigned to AT & T.
Paine, A. B., Theodore N. Vail, A Biography, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1931.
February 10, 1933 - Postal Telegram Co. in New York introduced first singing telegram.
May 8, 1933 - Radio Engineering Laboratories of Long Island City, New York installed first police radio system in Eastchester Township, New York; connected headquarters to patrol cars, patrol cars to one another.
In 1934, the legislature passed the Communications Act, which created a new independent regulatory agency, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC quickly initiated the first comprehensive government investigation of the telephone industry.
AT&T had cause to be concerned: Commissioner Paul Walker's report (1938) was a full-swinging attack on the Bell System, with particular emphasis on the ties to and the operation of Western Electric.
AT&T replied in detail, and in 1939, the FCC approved a substitute for the Walker Report, retaining the data but toning down the criticisms of the Bell System.
In 1949, the United States Department of Justice had filed an antitrust suit asking for the divestiture of Western Electric Co.
April 25, 1954 - Bell labs announced first solar battery.
March 4, 1955 - First radio facsimile transmission sent across continent.
October 4, 1955 - Bell Telephone made world's first solar-powered telephone call.
September 25, 1956 - World's first transatlantic telephone cable system began operating (Clarenville, Newfoundland to Oban, Scotland); previous cables had been limited to telegraph transmissions.
September 22, 1959 - First telephone cable linking Europe and United States opened.
September 5, 1959 - First trunk dialing system from public call-box inaugurated in Bristol, UK; countrywide service intended to replace Button A and Button B pre-payment system.
March 22, 1960 - Arthur L. Schawlow, of Madison, NJ, and Charles H. Townes, of New York, NY, received a patent for "Masers and Maser Communications Systems"; first laser patent; assigned to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.
August 12, 1960 - Echo I, first successful communications satellite, put into Earth's orbit to relay voice, TV signals; August 13, 1960 - first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place.
In 1962, Congress established Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat) by statute to develop an international communications system.
November 18, 1963 - First telephone in United States with push buttons, instead of rotary dial, placed in commercial service in Carnegie, Greensburg, PA; Touch-Tone telephone had 10 push buttons, manufactured by Western Electric Manufacturing.
The FCC, which in 1965 had inaugurated a major formal investigation into the Bell System's long-distance rates, opened the door a crack by approving MCI's application.
(Southern New England Telephone Company), E. Wight Bakke (1966). Bonds of Organization: An Appraisal of Corporate Human Relations. (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 239 p. [2nd ed.]). Southern New England Telephone Company; Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers; Industrial relations.
H. I. Romnes, who had replaced Kappel as AT&T chairman in 1967, struggled to get the System back on course.
In 1968, another traditional Bell System and regulatory policy was changed by the FCC in its Carterfone decision, which struck down the "foreign attachment" tariffs; now the FCC would allow private equipment to be interconnected with the Bell network, modifying Bell's end-to-end responsibility.
March 1, 1970 - Combined efforts of AT&T, British Post Office (also handled British telephone system) made direct-dialed transatlantic phone calls possible between US and Britain.
In 1913, the Southern Railroad Company purchased the building and it served as a freight and passenger depot until the 1960s. It later became a museum and opened to the public as a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
In 1971, it opened up the entire private-line market to all comers with its Specialized Common Carrier decision.
April 3, 1973 - Inventor Martin Cooper placed first portable phone call; ''shoebox'' phone replaced car phone that weighed more than 30 pounds, cost thousands of dollars.
13. deButts, J. D.. An Unusual Obligation, speech presented at the meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Seattle, WA, September 20, 1973.
In November 1974, the US. Department of Justice filed against the Bell System, charging monopolization and conspiracy to monopolize the supply of both telecommunications service and equipment.
Series: Telecommunications (New York, N.Y. : 1974).
Holding hearings over 5 years on several bills (introduced beginning in 1976) to modify the Communications Act, Congress generated reams of paper and seemingly endless testimony.
The First Hundred Years, Harper & Row, New York, 1976.
When John deButts retired as chairman of AT&T in 1979, he left behind a paradox.
K. P., Jr. (compiler), A Capsule History of the Bell System, AT&T, New York, 1979.
October 1, 1981 - British government created British Telecom as public corporation; followed study's recommendation to split Post Office into separate postal, telecommunications units.
October 11, 1983 - Last hand-cranked (magneto) telephones in United States went out of service; 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, ME, switched to direct-dial service.
(AT&T), Alvin von Auw (1983). Heritage & Destiny: Reflections on the Bell System in Transition. (New York, NY: Praeger, 480 p.). American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
The Bell System, known for providing high quality equipment and top-notch service to the customer, came to an end in 1984.
Gamet, R. W., The Telephone Enterprise: The Evolution of the Bell System's Horizontal Structure, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1985.
Smith, G. D., The Anatomy of a Business Decision: Bell, Western Electric and the Origins of Vertical Integration, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1985.
Temin, P., with Galambos, L., The Fall of the Bell System, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1987.
August 7, 1994 - First telephone link made between Israel and Jordan.
September 20, 1995 - AT&T announced it would split into three smaller companies: 1) ailing computer division, 2) more lucrative Network equipment arm, 3) core communications services (telephones and related business amounted to 60 percent of AT&T's sales, bulk of its profits).
September 25, 1996 - Loral Space Communications announced it had acquired Skynet, AT&T's broadcast satellite division for $712.5 million in cash; AT&T would use that cash to try to compete against "Baby Bells" in long-distance and local markets.
The PK Trust was created in 1997 by Cable & Wireless to hold the Company's historic premises and collections at Porthcurno.
November 14, 1999 - Vodafone AirTouch acquired Mannesmann AG in a $183billion all-share deal, largest corporate merger in history; created 4th largest company in world ($365 billion in sales) behind Microsoft, GE, Cisco Systems.
(Western Electric), Stephen B. Adams and Orville R. Butler (1999). Manufacturing the Future; A History of Western Electric. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 270 p.). Telephone Supplies, Electronic Supplies.
(McCaw Cellular), O. Casey Corr (2000). Money from Thin Air: The Story of Craig McCaw, the Visionary Who Invented the Cell Phone Industry, and His Next Billion-Dollar Idea. (New York, NY: Crown, 310 p.). McCaw, Craig; Cellular telephone systems--United States; Cellular telephones--United States.
(Nokia), Dan Steinbock (2001). The Nokia Revolution: The Story of an Extraordinary Company That Transformed an Industry. (New York, NY: AMACOM. Nokia (Firm)--History; Cellular telephone equipment industry--Finland--History.
James B. Murray, Jr. (2001). Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America. (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub., 338 p.). McCaw, Craig; Cellular telephone services industry--History; Cellular telephone systems--United States; Cellular telephones--United States.
July 21, 2002 - WorldCom Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection, about a month after disclosing it had inflated profits by nearly $4 billion through deceptive accounting.
(DoCoMo), John Beck and Mitchell Wade (2003). DoCoMo: Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force. (New York, NY: AMACOM, 240 p.). DoCoMo (Firm)--History; Cellular telephone services industry--Japan--History.
Anton A. Huurdeman (2003). The Worldwide History of Telecommunications. (New York, NY: Wiley, 638 p.). Former Transmission Product Manager (Alcatel). Telecommunication--History.
February 17, 2004 - Cingular Wireless agreed to pay nearly $41 billion in cash to buy AT&T Wireless Services.
Rich Ling (2004). The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society. (San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 244 p.). Senior Research Scientist at Telenor (Norways largest telecommunications company), Adjunct Professor at the University of Udine, Italy.
(QUALCOMM), Dave Mock (2005). The Qualcomm Equation: How a Fledgling Telecom Company Forged a New Path to Big Profits and Market Dominance. (New York, NY: AMACOM, 224 p.). Practicing Engineer and Consultant to Telecommunications Industry.
Unveiling of Consolidated Communications, Inc. (CCI) sign in Conroe, Texas following the acquisition of TXU Communications in 2005.
© 2022 Consolidated Communications
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