Every January 1, copyrighted materials from 95 years ago enter the public domain – this year, that means publications from 1928. I always enjoy looking through the newly public documents related to telephony. Among the many telephone-related documents that are now part of the public domain is a copy of the magazine Telephony, the American Telephone Journal, for the months of January through June 30, 1928. Each issue is a little more than 40 pages long and comes complete with advertising.

It’s an intriguing look at telephony from 95 years ago. Here are just a few of the gems from the various magazine issues:

The Telephone Association of Vermont had its eighth meeting attended by 220 people from 25 telephone companies in the state.

Two circuits were installed to cover the 3,273 miles between New York City and Los Angeles. This enabled roughly 99 cross-country calls per day.

Long-distance calling to Germany was implemented, but at a high cost of $25 for a 1-minute call. In today’s dollars, that’s $440 per minute!

Two Swedish engineers, Mrs. Vogel and Larsson, demonstrated a machine that could record a phone call.

A 5-volume set for the Home Study Course in Telephony sold for $12 that could be paid in monthly installments of $1.

The Midwest Telephone Company in Wisconsin purchased the Rockville Telephone Company for $11,500 and the Appleton Telephone Company for $27,000. There were numerous telephone company transactions listed every month, which makes sense when there were many thousands of small telephone companies.

We had brokers 95 years ago, and H.B. Crandell of Springfield, Illinois, advertised to assist those who want to purchase or sell telephone companies.

An ad by the Bell System compared linemen who make repairs during storms to the Pony Express. “There are no instructions requiring Bell System employees to endanger their lives. It is the spirit of communication that bids them – get the message through”. That is a scary claim that probably wasn’t shared by many linemen. But the ad wasn’t entirely rhetoric. Lineman W.P. Tietjens of St. Louis was splicing at the top of a pole when a tornado struck. He luckily found his way down the pole just before a section of a nearby garage wrapped around the pole.

Phones handsets that combined the earpiece and the speaker in one piece were new. Companies were charging 25 cents per month extra to get this new phone.

The Inter-County Telephone & Telegraph Company of Sebring, Florida had a successful rate case to increase rates. In town, the residential one-party rates was increased to $2.50 while a 4-party line was $2.00. An extension phone in a home was $1.00 per month.  A rural 8-party line within 6 miles of the central office was $3.00. I once had a 2-party line and can’t imagine sharing a phone with 7 neighbors.

Ohio Bell added over 40,000 new subscribers in 1927.  The company spent $17 million in capital dollars for the year.

There are lots of interesting ads for telephony materials. Clay Products Company of Brazil, Indiana advertised a nine-duct clay conduit. American Steel & Wire Company advertised a wide range of zinc-coated flexible steel telephone wire. J.H. Brunell and Company advertised wooden phone booths for lobbies and also carried materials from the Stromberg-Carlson Telephone Mfg. Company. Interestingly, none of the ads in a telephony magazine included a telephone number – just a mailing address. Long-distance calls were too expensive for casual use.

There was an article about the first successful test of a television transmission by Dr. E.F.W. Alexanderson of RCA.

A number of telecom engineers advertised services including Jay G. Mitchell of Springfield, IL, Frank R. Fowle of Chicago, Garrison Babcock of Seattle, J.K. Johnson of Indianapolis, and W.C. Polk of Kansas City.

There was a contractual change between AT&T and regional Bell Companies. The companies had previously given 4% of revenues to AT&T, and this was reduced to 2%, plus the Bell companies had to buy all telephones from AT&T at market rates.

Each issue was full or articles talking about topics like troubleshooting line troubles, setting rates, depreciation, borrowing money from banks, training, and telephone news from overseas.  An interesting article foreshadowed the eventual Telecommunications Act of 1934, where the FCC was created and asserted jurisdiction over telephone companies.