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.
Behind Your Telephone
When you pick up your telephone, you have at your fingertips a communication system that is mainly local in its operations. Probably you will use it most of the time to talk to people in or near your own community, but wherever you wish, it can carry your voice across the continent or even across the seas to other countries. The telephone industry in the United States now includes:
■ Telephones serving homes and businesses in 75,000 cities and towns, and more than 3,000,000 telephones in rural areas.
■ A network of wire linking these telephones. About 95 per cent of this wire is in sturdy cables, and almost three-fifths of the cable is underground.
■ More than 25,000 central offices in which telephones are connected by means of switching equipment. Over 9,500 of these offices are operated by Bell System companies.
■ Literally billions of small parts—relays, condensers, resistors, vacuum tubes each carefully designed and finely fashioned so that it will work in harmony with all other parts, anywhere in the country.
■ Radio-telephone links to automobiles, trains, ships, airplanes, and countries overseas.