August 27, 1898

DanHolohan

Here's another issue of Domestic Engineering that I just scanned for the Library. Get your 19th Century on!



<a href="http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/151/Old-Magazines/1817/Domestic-Engineering-August-27-1898">http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/151/Old-Magazines/1817/Domestic-Engineering-August-27-1898</a>

Paul Fredricks_3

phones

I noticed only a couple of phone numbers in the ads and classifieds. I know there had been phones in Chicago for 20 years at that point. Just interesting how they weren't considered the norm yet.

DanHolohan

Notice also

how most of the companies took ads with just their name and a brief note, but no focus on benefits. These were the days before scientific advertising.



The people stories get to me. They stressed just as we do, and often over similar things. They're all gone anyway. There's a good lesson there. 

Paul Fredricks_3

Yes

Agreed.

Steamhead

At that time

phones in Chicago were all "manual"- you picked up the receiver and the operator came on to get the number you wanted, then set up the call. This was quite labor-intensive so phone service wasn't inexpensive enough that everybody could afford it.



The exchange names you see in those ads reflected what part of the city they were in. For example, "Main" was downtown.



The Bell System introduced dial phone service to Chicago in the early to mid 1920s, using the "Panel" switching system. Like Vapor heating, Panel was a triumph of early 20th century technology. Rube Goldberg would have loved it. It was quite complicated, but was the only system of its time that could handle such a heavy work load. This system also brought dial service to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and other large cities. Those of us who grew up in Panel cities probably remember hearing the "revertive pulsing" sequences as the system put your call through.