Jump to content

Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/414

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
410
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

for educational purposes; that is, to gradually acquaint the subscriber with the convenience and value of having a telephone in the home. A glance at Fig. 33 shows that A is an electric tap-bell, B the hand telephone or receiver, as it is now called, C the Blake transmitter, D 'an automatic switch on which the telephone must be hung when not in use,' and E the signalling key.

Installing the regular Blake telephone sets in residences was not an easy task by reason of there being three separate parts to find location for, the magneto bell and receiver, the Blake transmitter, and the batteries (Fig. 30). So much opposition was encountered in handsome homes where the owners objected to the disfigurement of walls,

Fig. 33. Fig. 34.

that immediate efforts were made to devise more compact forms. Finally the different parts were all merged into the oblong set or wall telephone (Fig. 34) so familiar to users of telephone service. An elaborate Gilliland set, designed for use in the better class of residences, is shown in Fig. 35. The battery was kept in one drawer, and pencil, memorandum book, etc., in the other. The Law set used in New York City in 1879-80 is shown in Fig. 36.

Some years ago it was asserted that all the credit for this serviceable arrangement belonged to a grocer in Denver, who, all unconscious of the value of the idea to telephone companies, fastened the magneto