In the last two centuries, the world has welcomed many important inventions. But today our lives are almost completely ruled by one. The telephone.

History

Telephones have come a long way since the construction of that first telephone line in 1877-78. Three years after its installation, nearly 49,000 telephones were in use. By 1900, that number had jumped to almost 600,000, and a decade later had exploded to 5.8 million!

To make those first phones “work,” they needed human help—an operator located at a central switching station who manually connected one line to another.

Small Towns

Anyone who has watched The Andy Griffith Show has seen Andy or Barny pick up the telephone and ask Sarah, Mayberry’s operator, to connect them to someone. While the operator’s job was to put the call through then get off the line, it wasn’t unusual for Sarah to chat with the caller while she was making the connection. Or to stay on the line after the connection was made, doing a little eavesdropping. This behavior wasn’t just TV fiction. It was often reality, especially in small towns.

Mrs. Y

My hometown was no different. While the need for manual connection was gone long before my time, Dad has confirmed that the town’s telephone switching station operator—I’ll call her Mrs. Y—like Mayberry’s Sarah, knew everyone in town and everything that happened there. If she didn’t know where you were, she could—and would—find you.

Granddad

My Dad’s father loved to play practical jokes. Once, in 1939, Mrs. Y helped him play one on his wife’s best friend, “Bert.” He’d returned home from Florida earlier than expected, but at his request, Mrs. Y gleefully called Bert, telling her he was calling from Florida. (Back then long-distance calls were extremely expensive, so you said what needed to be said then rang off.) As expected, Bert, talking extremely fast, tried to tell Granddad everything that had happened in town since his departure.

Dad

Years later, Dad and his best friend went away to college. Since one was in Waco and the other in Austin—and long-distance calls were still very expensive—they had to find another way—a cheap way—to communicate. The answer? Mrs. Y. Dad said that after midnight he’d call Mrs. Y, and she’d connect him to his friend for free. Oh, and prior to connecting the call, she’d share the town’s latest gossip.

Lost Era

Today, landlines are being edged out by cell phones, just the way automatic systems once edged out manual connections and switchboard operators. When it comes to placing calls, removing the human element wasn’t a bad trade-off. The same can’t be said for the replacement of human representatives by automated phone systems in industries in general…but that’s a topic for another time.

Bonus: Did You Know…

• The first telephone operator, hired in 1878, worked for the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.
• The first telephone operators were men. But due to their general lack of patience and problematic behaviors—including cussing and playing pranks—male domination of this new occupation didn’t last long.
• Emma M. Nutt, hired in September 1878, was the first woman telephone operator. She worked for the New England Telephone Company for more than 30 years.
• We celebrate this trailblazing pioneer every September 1 on National Emma M. Nutt Day.