Evening star., 1933-06-25
Telephone Companys Fiftieth Anniversary

ONCE was opened at 1882 Thirty first, George
town. Two years later the North central
Office was opened at Fourteenth and r streets,
and the following year the company constructed
a six-story building at 722 Twelfth street which
was known as Main"
Since then the growth has been continuous.
In 1904 Lincoln" central office was established
at 629 street northeast: Cleveland" and
Columbia" were added in 1903 and the Frank
lin" central Office at 1872 Twelfth street came
into being in 1917. Since the World War five
manual central Offices have been added to the
list, Adams Potomac" Atlantic Decatur
and Georgia" The dial system has not only
made big change in equipment but has also
resulted in a change in stations, and Main"
and Franklin have been discontinued and
their subscribers are now served by the down.
town dial offices, District" Metropolitan"
National and Sterling" located in modern
seven story building at 730 Twelfth street
northwest. The cleveland subscribers are
taken of by the new cleveland Emerson"
dial central Offices, at 4268 Wisconsin avenue.
Washington has today seven dial central
Offices and eight manual Offices, to which are
connected more than 900 telephones. or
about 334 telephones for every 1000 persons of
the Districts population. Only city in the
world, San Francisco, has a more extensive
telephone development. In Washington the
telephone company employs regularly 5000 men
and women
The majority of people look upon the tele-
phone company simply as an organization that
furnishes telephones over which enc may
transact business, attend to necessary matters
just gossip, but there is another field it has
entered in the last decade, and of which the
public knows little, and this the writer realized
when he recently visited the main Office on
Thirteenth street. where he had the pleasure
of being shown around by Mr. r. H. Davidson
Upon this occasion the radio room-if such
it might be called-struck him most forcibly,
since from this point all the local radio sta
tions and those to the south of Washington
supplied with programs from New York
and elsewhere when required. This room is
the top floor of the building and is open day
and night single wire brings the program
to this point where it is sent on its way over
many wires may be necessary. This is
why get such little static local sta
tions and demonstrates the big part the tele-
phone wires play in radio programs, for
which We seldom give the company credit. OF
course, somebody pays for this-but We do not.
TODAY We unreservedly acknowledge Alex
ander Graham Bell to be the inventor Of
the Bell telephone but Mr Bell-the originator
and pioneer-was not without his troubles and
difficulties in the early days when he was try
ing to sell his invention TO the public, and
then, even after he had got it in operation
and on its way to success he still forced
to fight off those who would have gladly taken
from him the glory he entitled to and the
financial reward due him from his ingenuity
and labor.
Looking over The Star of January 26. 1881,
the writer came across this item of interest
which illustrates just what Mr. Bell had to
put up with for quite while before it
definitely settled that the honor rghtfully be-
longed to him. The article reads:
History of the Telephone Company.
The Bell Company and the Peoples Company.
Contest in the Courts Between the Two
Yesterday counsel for the Peoples Tele-
phone Co. of New York filed in the Patent
ONCE their side of the application of the
Daniel Drawbaugh application for a patent
for telephone. This opens up peculiar and
interesting phase of affairs in this connection
just now and brings to light the history of
the companies
The first telephone patent granted in
1876 and since then the patents of Gray, Edi-
son and Bell, with the Blake transmitter, has
been consolidated into what is known as the
Bell American Telephone Co. The stock was