“Why are brain surgeons ambitious? They want to get a head.”
Trans-US phone callIn 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated transcontinental telephone service in the United States with a call made between New York City and San Francisco, Cal., which was answered by Dr. Watson, his longtime assistant. The previous long distance limit was New York to Denver, and only then with some shouting. Two metallic circuits made up the line; it used 2,500 tons of hard-drawn copper wire, 130,000 poles and countless loading coils. Three vacuum tube repeaters along the way boosted the signal. It was the world's longest telephone line. In a grand ceremony, 68 year old Alexander Graham Bell in New York City made the ceremonial first call to his old friend Thomas Watson in San Francisco. |
