The telephone was born in America and has reached its highest
development in this country. Since 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell
first talked successfully over his primitive telephone, a network of
voice highways has grown up throughout the nation, linking more than
fifty-four million telephones. About four-fifths of these are owned by
the Bell System, which is a group of closely associated telephone
companies, a research and development organization and a manufacturing
and supply company, all headed by the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company. The other telephones are owned and operated by some 5,000
independent telephone companies and about 20,000 rural or farmer lines
outside the Bell System but connecting with it.
Bell telephone service is home town service. Linked with thousands of
other home town services, it makes a neighborhood of the nation. The
company that furnishes your service is part of your community. Its
operators, installers and other representatives are your neighbors. Some
may be your friends or relatives. Its departments are managed by your
fellow citizens—men and women who have come up through the ranks.
Nine out of every ten telephone calls handled by these home town people
are local calls. The tenth call may go across the continent or across
the ocean. But wherever the calls go, they travel by means of a
marvelously ordered world of wires, cables, switchboards, dial
equipment, radio and above all, with the help of people working together
to serve the public.
This booklet gives you a personal glimpse of that world. It tells the
story of the Bell System, but it should be remembered that much that is
said here applies also to the other telephone companies that share with
the Bell System the privilege and the responsibility of providing
telephone service for the people of America.