The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-04-16

Vail. chairman OF the board OF di-
rectors Of the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company died this
morning at 5:52 in Johns Hopkins
Hospital. Baltimore, accorling to
message received here today.
As president Of the American Tele.
phone and Telegraph Company, Theo-
dore Newton Vail was the head Of
the largest telephone system in the
world. He was not only its nominal
head, but he was from the first, the
genius that promoted the popular
use of the telephone. the first man
to establish long-distance communi-
cation by telephone and, when past
10 years OF age, he was still the init
at!ve head Of a system that number
nine million telephone subscribers and
represented an investment Of u billion
and a half dollars.
Mr.. Vail was 81 years old when
Alexander Graham Bell invented the
telephone, and, notwithstanding his
age, he was filing the responsible post
of general superintendent of tho rail.
way mail service. Still earlier, how.
ever, he had been a telegraph opera
tJr, and, interested in the possbilit.
OF electrical communicative he
had visions that Bells TOY" Wo1lG
some day be a great factor in Amer
lean life. Bell and his associates had
equal faith in Mr.. Walls organizing
genius. for he had already made a
name for himself as an organizer in
the promotion Of the railway mail ser.
vice, and he was easily induced TO
resign his government post to be-
come the general manager, in 1878, OF
the first American Bell Telephone
Company.
Even the most optimistic hackers
OF the telephone then thought that
the invention would serve only for
local communication, but Mr.. Van
had visions of It's long-distance use.
II was he who inaugurated successive
steps of inter-city communication. The
first line from Boston to Providence
was ridiculed as Walls side-show" but
some of the persons who INDUCED in
the ridlcule at that time lived to
see Mr.. Vail telephone, not only from
Boston to Providence, but from New
York to San Francisco, in 1915, thir-
ty-five years later. Further, in octo-
Der in that year, they found that 1t
was possible to send the human
voice more than half way around
.he world, as was done by wireless
telephone from the government sta
zion at Arlington, Va, the words be-
ing recorded simultaneously at Hon
olulu, in the mid-Paciiic, and the Elf
Eel Tower, in Paris.
Mr.. Vail was known as "the biggest
Nlephone man in the world" not only
N tribute to his genius for both me
chanical and financial organization,
but from the fact that he was per
sonally man of remarkable physi-
que. He was six feet, two inches tall,
and weighed about $50 pounds. With
this great physique he had an infinite
capacity for hard work, and q genial
disposition.
He was born In Carroll County,
Ohio, July 16, 1S45, of Quaker ances-
try His father, Davis Vail, removed
from Ohio to Morristown, ". j., when
the son was four years old, and be-
came associated with a brother, Steph-
en- Vail, who had founded the Speed
well Iron Works, near Morriston,
where they built much OF the machin-
cry for the first transatlantic steam
ship. Alfred Vail, another brother.
vas one of those associated with Sam
uel Morse in the invention and pro-
motion of the telegraph. Theodore
Van was educated at the old Acad-
emy at Morriston, and for time stud
led medicine, but becoming interested
in the telegraph, he learned to oper-
ate the key and went west In 1868 az
an operator for the Union Pacific
railroad at Pine Bluffs, Wyo. Pine
Bluffs was at that time the principal
supply point for wood for the Union
Pacific. which had not yet been com.
pleted. Through the friendship OF
GGneral Grenville NJ. Dodge, chief
oigneer of the Union Pacific, Van;
IN the next year, was appointed
clerk in the railway mail service.
and here his ability to systematic and
organize was soon felt. At that time
the railway mail service was in an
undeveloped stage, and Vail prepared
special studies on the question Of dis
tribution and dispatching OF the mail,
which brought him quick recognition
from the authorities at Washington,
II was Just after he had been pro-
NOTED to the general superintendency
of the railway mail service that he
acted against the advice OF his friends
and accepted the position OF general
manager of the American Bell Tele-
phone Company.
Mr. Vail set for himself the task Of
making the telephone a universal
convenience and ii was on his tnitia'
tive that every possible Improvement
was seized upon for the perfection
OF the service. In 1885 he resigned
from the original company and became
the first president Of the newly FORM
cd American Telephone and Teie'
graph Company, which at first made
a specially of only long-distance com
munication, but which. in 1900, ac-
auired the property of the American
Bell Telephone Company and also ne
gotiated combinations with the prin
cipal competing telephone companies
fIaA