The Birth of The Telephone Industry, 1928

This 1928 film documents the creation of the telephone industry and the ability to have two-way communication over long distances. Shows a primitive telephone switchboard and telephone instruments. Man talking (using) early home telephone. Shows a car (automobile) driving down a country road in the late 1920s' with telephone poles along side of road. Various scenes of telephone poles with telephone cables attached. As manufacturing of telephone cables was solved the numbers of "wiring pairs" increased from 50-pairs in 1888 to 606 pairs in 1902 to 1212 pairs in 1928. Shows worker installing telephone cables underground under a city street. Workers "feeding" a large telephone cable through a street manhole. Shows complex array of wiring in underground tunnel. Shows wooden telephone poles being transported by mule and wagon. Shows a tracked tractor pulling a hugh reel of telephone cabling on a tracked trailer. Shows special technique used to "pull-in" (pulling cable from telephone pole to next telephone pole) cable along a highway in the late 1920s'. Shows worker on telephone pole splicing or joining wires together and then wrapping wires to form a weather proof cable. Melted lead is used to weatherproof connection joints. Shows testing of lead covered joints for air holes. Shows the New York to St. Louis telephone cable put into service at a cost of ,000,000 dollars. Point of view (pov) automobile (vehicle) driver driving down an unpaved road. Shows the final splice in the New York-Chicago cable. Shows a long distance headquarters (switchboard) that joins the underground cabling from Boston to Washington. A bridge over water is used to support telephone cables or the cabling is laid on the bed of the river or stream. Shows laying telephone cable under water. Man in underwater diving suit going into the water. Cuba and the United States became telephone neighbors in 1921 with the laying of 100 miles of telephone submarine cable between Havana and Key West, Florida. Footage of laying the Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida telephone cable. Various scenes of the manufacturing of telephone cables.