-Brad_in_IL
Friday, February 11, 2022
Barbed Wire Telephone Lines Brought Isolated Homesteaders Together
American patent clerks in the 1870s could scarcely have imagined how two inventions, filed two years apart, would together change the lonely lives of frontier Americans. In 1874, there was barbed wire, and in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell’s revolutionary telephone. Together, in an amazing display of rural ingenuity, they connected isolated homesteads to their rural neighbors and the rest of the world.
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Though I didn't grow up with barb wire telephone lines, I did grow up with a party line and ten families on the same line. It was often difficult to make a call since you had to wait your turn and one old neighbor couple picked up every time someone received a call so they could listen in. For a long time after we got a private line I would still pick up the phone and listen to make sure someone else wasn't using it. One funny one happened when Dad was trying to call for parts over noon and the neighbor woman wouldn't get off the phone for an hour. When she complained about people picking up the phone Dad said "listen you damned old heifer, how else are supposed to know if you're done?" A neighbor chimed in "you tell'er Ed".
ReplyDeleteAmazing story, Thank You Ken!
ReplyDeleteThat was the theme of a Petticoat Junction episode.
ReplyDeleteGeeze! The crap my mind retains. Can't remember to tell the electrician all the jobs I want estimates on but I can remember a 55+ year old TV show.