The Telephone and Telephone Exchanges. Their invention and development

Notes:

An account of the development of the telephone rather than of the telephone industry but provides much contextual information about the latter. Chapters include: 'The spoken word'; 'Growth of an idea'; 'The undulatory current'; 'The solution to the problem'; 'Development and demonstration'; 'Production of a commercial instrument'; 'Application to commercial uses'; 'The telephone exchange'; 'The battery or variable resistance transmitter'; 'The microphone'; 'Philip Reis and his work'; Call bells'; 'The telephone switchboard'; 'Organisation of the industry in the United States'; 'Competition, consolidation and development'; 'Introduction of the telephone in Europe and abroad'; 'Public apathy and appreciation'; 'The multiple switchboard'; 'Outside or line construction'; 'The development of dry core cable'; 'Early exchange systems'; 'Telephone engineering on a scientific basis'; 'The branching system'; 'The common battery system'; 'Automatic and semi-automatic switchboards'; 'Long distance service'; 'Instruments'; 'Rates'; 'The economics of the tewlephone'; 'The telephone and governments'. As an appendix provides statistics re telephone services in different countries 1913/14 - numbers etc of phones; earnings; plant investment