Today’s residents of Chicago can’t imagine their lives without a mobile phone. However, few people know the history of the city telephonization. It is very interesting and eventful and originates from the 19th century. Learn more about what were the first telephones in Chicago and whom the townspeople called at chicago-future.com.
First contact and companies
The first telephone appeared in Chicago in 1877. This happened a few months after a small group of Massachusetts investors decided to commercialize the outstanding invention of Alexander Bell.
Later, the Western Electric Company appeared in Chicago and became a leading manufacturer of electrical equipment. Western Electric employed well-trained specialists who were familiar with the latest advances in electrical engineering.
Elisha Gray was a famous electrical engineer and owner of Western Electric. In 1870, he developed a voice transmission method that embodied several main principles of telephony. Unfortunately, Gray didn’t become the telephone inventor because he was overtaken by Bell, who filed an application two hours earlier. Bell’s patent became the most valuable.
At the turn of the 20th century, the dominant telecommunications companies in the city were the Chicago Telephone Company and Illinois Bell. They belonged to the Bell System national telephone network, which was coordinated by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) after 1900.
The first Bell Telephone Company began its activities in Chicago in 1878. At first, it served only 75 phones. By 1905, their number had increased to 100,000, and to 1.26 million by 1930. It meant that every third resident had one phone and it was one of the highest rates in the world.
In the early years of Chicago’s telephony, people made calls within the city limits. Intercity communication was expensive and of poor quality. A good telephone connection between Chicago and New York was established in 1892 and between Chicago and San Francisco in 1915.
Active use of phones
The first telephones weren’t available to everyone but to wealthy citizens. A little later, middle-class people became active users too. Telephone communication began to develop and spread in 1890. Then several related companies opened in Chicago and thereby challenged the Chicago Telephone Company.
Eventually, the residents started using phones in business. For example, they ordered household goods and arranged a meeting with their business partners.
The profession of telephone operator was quite common among women. In 1928, Chicago’s Illinois Bell Company employed more than 12,000 women operators. Their activity was very important because before the introduction of the telephone dial in 1920, every telephone call required the intervention of an operator who established a connection. Thus, the operator eavesdropped on the users’ conversations.
Residents who couldn’t afford to connect to a telephone line had the opportunity to use a payphone. The call cost 5 cents.
Starting from 1900, such telephones were installed in pharmacies, hotels and other public places.
A new era of telephone communication began in 1960. Then the regional codes were standardized, long-distance dialing appeared and people got the opportunity to call friends and relatives who lived in another region or state. Still, telephony wasn’t perfect. It continued until the 1970s when Chicago acquired many quality communication companies as well as a large number of factories, some of which were the best telephone manufacturers in the world.
