SERVICES TO TELEPHONE COMPANIES UNDER LICENSE CONTRACTS
AND
OPERATION OF LONG-DISTANCE LINES
PROVIDING INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN AND THROUGH TERRITORIES OF THOSE
COMPANIES
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY
MANUFACTURING, PURCHASING, DISTRIBUTING AND CENTRAL OFFICE INSTALLATION
FOR THE BELL SYSTEM
BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WORK FOR THE BELL SYSTEM (INCLUDING WESTERN
ELECTRIC COMPANY)
SUBSIDIARY AND OTHER ASSOCIATED TELEPHONE COMPANIES
PROVIDE TELEPHONE SERVICES AND FACILITIES WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE
TERRITORIES WITH THE AID OF SERVICES RECEIVED FROM THE AMERICAN
TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY UNDER LICENSE CONTRACTS
The organization of the Bell System has grown up in a natural way over a
period of many years. The American Bell Telephone Company, predecessor
of AT&T, owned the original Bell patents. It licensed local companies to
rent Bell telephones to their subscribers. Ownership of the operating
companies by the headquarters organization came about because of their
need to finance expanding service, and as a means of providing the best
service at lowest cost. AT&T bought Western Electric in 1882 because it
was the best manufacturer of telephone apparatus and because a
dependable source of supplies was essential. The Bell Laboratories
stemmed from the shop where Alexander Graham Bell made the first
telephone. The work of the Laboratories is a continuation, on a much
larger scale, of early efforts to discover improvements in the art of
telephony.
[Illustration: _Motor launches pull first segment of the new
transatlantic telephone cable toward the Newfoundland shore from
HMTS_ Monarch, _world’s largest cable ship. The new underseas cable
will link this continent with Great Britain._]