The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1920-04-22
THEODORE n. VAIL DKAD

ittfN Bt8Asfh
Home 10 the State for Agricultural
sehool.
Baltimore. Md. April I6-Theodors
\ Vail died in Johns Hopkins hospital
today OF a complication Of cardiac and
kidney diseases His life has been de-
.pAired for several days hr. Van
~as chairman Of the board Of directors
Of the American Telephone a Tde-
graph Company, having retired a.
president last June.
Mr.. Vail had not been in his usual
health for a period Of months, h. V.
Thayer. president Of the American
Telephone & Telegraph Company, de-
clared today.
In January. Mr. Vail went South,
but instead Of recovering his health as
he expected. be rapidly grew worse,
Mr.. Thayer said Last week he Was
taken to the Johns Hopkins hospital In
baltimore for observation and treat
ment, and after his arrival there his
condition was found so serious that his
friends realized that his recovery was
improbable and that the end could be
expected at any time.
-Mr. Vail had not been in condition
for a thorough examination since his
arrival in Baltimore, and his death
probably was due to a complication OF
diseases which could be expected Of a
man Of his age. He never had spared
himself mentally or physically"
As president Of the American Tele-
phone a Telegraph Company, Theo-
dore Newton Vail was the head Of the
largest telephone system in the world.
He was not only It's nominal head, but
he was from the first the genius that
promoted the popular use of the tele-
phone, the first man to establish long
distance communication by telephone,
and, when past 20 years of age, he was
still the initiative head of system
that numbered nine million telephone
subscribers and represented an invest
nent OF a billion and "A half dollars.
Mr. Vail was 81 years old when
Alexander Graham Bell invented the
telephone, and, Notwithstanding his
aye, he was filling the responsible post
OF general superintendent Of the rail.
way mail service. Still earlier, how
ever, he had been "a telegraph oper-
ator, and, interested in the possibili-
ties Of electrical communication, he
had visions that Bells "toy" would
some day be great factor in Ameri'
can life. Bell and his associates hac
equal faith in Mr. Wallis organizing
genius, for he had already made 9
name for himself as an organizer IN
the promotion Of the railway mail ser,
vice, and he was easily induced to re
sign his government post to become
the general manager, in 1878. Of this
first American Bell Telephone com
pany.
Even the most optimistic hackers OF
the telephone then thought that the in
vention would serve only for loca
communication, but Mr. Vail hae
visions of its long distance use. L
was he who inaugurated successive
steps of inter-city communication
The first line from Boston to Provi
dence was ridiculed as Walls side
show" but some Of the persons who
INDUCED in the ridicule at that tim'
lived to see Mr.. Vail telephone, no
only from Boston TO Providence, bu
from New York to San Francisco, il
1915, 35 years later. Further, II
October in that year, they found !
was possible TO send the human voic'
more than half way around the world
as was done by wireless telephon'
from the government station at Ar
lington. Va, the words being recorde'
simultaneously at Honolulu. in tn
mid d-Paeific. and the Eiffel Tower. Il
PFris.
Mr.. Vail was known as ''the bigges
telephone man in the world" not onl.
in tribute to his genius for both me
chanical and financial organization
but from the fact that he was person
ally man Of remarkable physique
He was six feet, two inches tall, am
weighed about $50 pounds. With thi
great physique he had an infinite ca
pacity for hard work. and a genial dis
position.
He was born in Carroll county. Ohio
July Is. 1916. Of Quaker ancestry. Hi
father. Davis Van, removed fron
Ohio to Morris,oWn, " J.. when n
son was four years cid and becam'
associated with a brother. Stephei
Vail. who had founded the Specdwel
Iron Works, near Morristown, wher
they built much q the machinery 70
the FIRST trans-Atlantie steamship
Alfr,.d Val. another brother, xas on