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A Call That Made History, 100 Years Ago Today

Posted by timothy on from the bet-he-was-slammed-for-texting-too dept.

alphadogg writes These days, making a call across the U.S. is so easy that people often don't even know they're talking coast to coast. But 100 years ago Sunday, it took a hackathon, a new technology and an international exposition to make it happen. The first commercial transcontinental phone line opened on Jan. 25, 1915, with a call from New York to the site of San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Alexander Graham Bell made the call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. Just 39 years earlier, Bell had talked to Watson on the first ever phone call, in Boston, just after Bell had patented the telephone.

51 comments

  1. :p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I like how the submitter simply copied and pasted the first two paragraphs of the article itself as the summary so that we legitimately have to RTFA if we want to have any fucking idea what happened next.

    1. Re::p by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      Maybe he highlighted the first two paragraphs then clicked the middle button (:

    2. Re::p by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Why the upside-down smiley face?

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    3. Re::p by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      That's the style these days.

    4. Re::p by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      That's the style these days.

      I was into upside down smiley faces before we even knew what they were.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    5. Re::p by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 2

      Back in my day upside down smiley faces were used by left handed people.

    6. Re::p by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2

      Back in my day upside down smiley faces were used by left handed people.

      I thought that was called "The Stranger"...
      or was that just right handed people using their left hands?

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. Done without negative feedback by wiredlogic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Notably, this was accomplished before the negative feedback amplifier was invented in 1927.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    1. Re:Done without negative feedback by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      Negative feedback was known about at the time.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    2. Re:Done without negative feedback by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Funny

      Negative feedback amplifier?

      Is that what a person upmodding a troll AC post is? ;)

    3. Re:Done without negative feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      An amp with degenerative feedback has less gain. I don't understand the connection?

      This type of amplifier was known but rose to popularity only with the rise of solid-state circuits because of the transistor's problems with thermal runaway. Especially perplexing comment because it's just becoming (begrudgingly mine you) acknowledged that what looks nice and linear through a simulated resistive load on a piece of paper becomes notably non-linear through an actual, complex load. A long cable is a complex load.

    4. Re:Done without negative feedback by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      Does this mean that Alexander Graham Bell made the very long range call to his assistant in 1915, but that until 1927 it was just a bunch of garbled noises that no else but the assistant could understand?

      Hopefully, AT&T will jump on that expired patent. It would be nice if AT&T allowed its cell phones to do the same thing by year 2027

    5. Re:Done without negative feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Including the wheel?

    6. Re:Done without negative feedback by dtmos · · Score: 2

      What it loses in gain it gains in bandwidth: While the gain-bandwidth product is a constant, one may trade gain to obtain bandwidth. In addition, the bandwidth was settable by external components, rather than by the parasitic reactances inside the tube (valve) itself -- an important property given the (relatively) short lives of the tubes, and the manufacturing variations between different copies of them.

      Negative feedback was very popular with vacuum-tube (valve) amplifiers of the 1930s and 1940s, for just these reasons.

    7. Re:Done without negative feedback by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

      C'mon, Murray. That's not so.

      What about ordinary criminals -- the kind who get their revenue without requiring you to do paperwork -- muggers and burglars and such?

      --
      There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  3. They should've made the call in Panama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The historical date of the first transcontinental call could've been many years earlier.

  4. First ever phone call? Doubt it by spiritplumber · · Score: 4, Interesting
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

    However, the Canadians got really mad about it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
    1. Re:First ever phone call? Doubt it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Canadians can approve any motion they want, that doesn't magically change the fact that Meucci invented the phone way before Bell.

      By the way, Meucci's wikipedia entry was clearly edited by some canadian trolls: since in his patent caveat he says "sound" but not "voice", then he didn't invent the phone. LOL! No better proof that wikipedia is becoming trashier every day, it's time to stop donating money.

    2. Re:First ever phone call? Doubt it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well how about Olinto De Pretto that came up with MC2 before Einstein?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Uh oh, that's different I guess?

    3. Re:First ever phone call? Doubt it by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      Preston said it even earlier.

      --
      I come here for the love
    4. Re:First ever phone call? Doubt it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MV2 ( a general version of MC2 ) was known for about 150 years, before Einstein nonsense takes over.

  5. Good job, Alex! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And now his invention ruins the movies for us with those damn kids tweeting during the whole fucking movie.

    And now get off my lawn.

    1. Re:Good job, Alex! by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      I rarely see people do this. Are you the type of guy who would blow somebody away for texting the babysitter during the trailers

  6. After the patent? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bell had talked to Watson on the first ever phone call, in Boston, just after Bell had patented the telephone.

    really? He patented it before ever testing it? Same shit, different millennium, eh?

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  7. Hello Valued Customer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is Rachel from Cardholder Services and I'd like to talk to you about something important to you.

    And that is why Bell is an enemy to all mankind. I would go back in time to stop him, but we already did that to the guy who invented the time machine.

  8. How was this possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Companies investing their own money to hire engineers and take risks? Without asking for handouts and welfare from the government? Technological progress without space?

    Someone get me my smelling salts!

    1. Re:How was this possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, they used a lot of handouts and government support.

      But no surprise you've not noticed, it started decades before you were born, even if you are the oldest person alive, and I doubt you were involved in those affairs anyway.

    2. Re:How was this possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Compared to today, they were self-reliant risk-takers. The corporate mentality of today is: "hire no one for the long term, socialize the risks". Let the individuals take risks in the form of lengthy and expensive university educations (subsidized by the government), and then let the people fight over the few jobs left.

    3. Re:How was this possible? by AqD · · Score: 1

      That's bound to happen when you ask government for everything from education to health cost, retirement fund and even jobs and training.

      People in 1700s didn't fight over a few jobs left - they created it. They didn't need the government to babysit them. We all do now and that's what we end up.

      It will get worse and worse.

  9. Not particularly impressive ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was laid in the mid 1800s ...

    1. Re:Not particularly impressive ... by dtmos · · Score: 1

      But making a long telephone transmission is much more difficult than making a long telegraph transmission, which just needs to determine whether the guy on the other end is charging or discharging the cable at any instant. Bandwidth, and all that?

  10. BOO to a DOUCHE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    BOOOO to Edison. The only thing he was first at was being a corporate sell out and generally evil. (the two have a correlation of close to 1.0)

    Let's celebrate Tesla instead!!

    http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

    and also worth reading afterwards...

    http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_response

    1. Re: BOO to a DOUCHE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Tesla didn't do squat when the Martians invaded Earth. Edison commanded a fleet of electric ships armed with disintegrator beams and kicked their asses.

    2. Re:BOO to a DOUCHE by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      So you insult the guy who used science to invent stuff that is practical and has in general enhanced our lives.

      While you fully support a guy who had difficulty making a device that can be used.

      Now don't get me wrong, I look up to Tesla as the better scientist. But Edison had the vision to use science to solve problems. Yes He made money from it. But I wouldn't say he is a sell out, he started inventing stuff as a way to make money.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  11. The Bell Telephone: Patent Nonsense? by lippydude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "On May 22, 1886 .. Zenas F. Wilber, a former Washington patent examiner, swore in an affidavit that he'd been bribed by an attorney for Alexander Graham Bell to award Bell the patent for the telephone over a rival inventor, Elisha Gray, who'd filed a patent document on the same day as Bell in 1876." ref

    Bell's telephone sketch

    Elisha Gray's sketch of a telephone

    1. Re:The Bell Telephone: Patent Nonsense? by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      Then as it is now, technological progress was a full-contact sport.

    2. Re:The Bell Telephone: Patent Nonsense? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Funny

      "On May 22, 1886 .. Zenas F. Wilber, a former Washington patent examiner, swore in an affidavit that he'd been bribed by an attorney for Alexander Graham Bell to award Bell the patent for the telephone over a rival inventor, Elisha Gray, who'd filed a patent document on the same day as Bell in 1876." ref Bell's telephone sketch Elisha Gray's sketch of a telephone

      You have to admit, both of thoes were pretty sketchy.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    3. Re:The Bell Telephone: Patent Nonsense? by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      But who won the gold star for most awesome art project?

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
  12. Bell did NOT invent the phone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And neither did Elisha Gray.

    The phone was invented in 1860 by Johann Phillip Reiss, a german self-taught engineer and scientist.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Philipp_Reis

  13. Re:Best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please accept this downmod from an infidel, fuckwit.

  14. Want to guess ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... who they got to connect the call?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  15. It's nonsense all right, I'll grant you that. by westlake · · Score: 3, Informative

    On May 22, 1886 .. Zenas F. Wilber, a former Washington patent examiner, swore in an affidavit that he'd been bribed by an attorney for Alexander Graham Bell to award Bell the patent for the telephone over a rival inventor, Elisha Gray, who'd filed a patent document on the same day as Bell in 1876.

    But read on...

    His October 21, 1885 affidavit directly contradicts this story and Wilber claims it was ''given at the request of the Bell company by Mr. Swan, of its counsel'' and he was ''duped to sign it'' while drunk and depressed. However, Wilber's April 8, 1886, affidavit was also sworn to and signed before Thomas W. Swan. These conflicting affidavits discredited Wilber.

    Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy

    There were 600 lawsuits over Bell's patent, none successful, and a bad smell about the business from the start.

    Others also laid claim to inventing versions of the telephone, including a Mr. Rogers, manager of the Pan-Electric Telephone Company. Rogers distributed his company's stock to members of Congress, including Senator Garland, (soon to become Attorney General) in the unstated hope of favorable treatment. If the Bell patent were to be invalidated, the Rogers patent and the Pan-Electric stock could become very valuable.

    On This Day - February 13, 1886

  16. Notable achievement, but hardly revolutionary by alleycat0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With all due respect to the accomplishment, recall that transcontinental telegraphs had been operating for over half a century prior to this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Telegraph), and the transcontinental telephone was strictly a wealthy person's luxury at the time, with a 3-minute call costing USD $20.70 at the time (worth something on the order of USD $400 in today's currency)...

    --
    I am not a number - I am a free man!
    1. Re:Notable achievement, but hardly revolutionary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      so, they weren't using their own network.. they were roaming on verizon's?

  17. Transcontinental? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Transcontinental? I thought Panama and St.Francisco were BOTH in America...

    1. Re:Transcontinental? by dtmos · · Score: 1

      Yes, transcontinental, as in, "across continent." Perhaps you are thinking of intercontinental ("between continents")?

  18. Boston University professor ... by arit · · Score: 1

    Alexander Graham Bell was a BU professor initially ... interesting writeup at http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archi....

  19. Perpatrating the a lie does not make it ture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the telephone and neither did hi place the first telephone call. Please honor the true first (known) inventor of the telephone Antonio Meucci
    http://www.todaysengineer.org/2008/mar/history.asp (non tech)
    http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/scientific-american/sup4/Meucci-s-Claims-To-The-Telephone.html#.VMZajC7FMRU ( tech )

    1. Re: Perpatrating the a lie does not make it ture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And neither did Meucci invent the phone.