Map of Bell Systems Telephone Network (1910) | Hacker News Reader

Map of Bell Systems Telephone Network (1910)

slate.com

56 pointsForHackernews12 comments

If anyone is interested in the history of long-distance telephony in the US, the PBS documentary "Transistorized!" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381663/) (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA97634694AC92A93) has a great explanation into Bell Labs' long-standing interest in the transistor going back to the use of vacuum tubes in signal amplification on the long stretches of telephone cable. The documentary is also really cool since it shows you the inner lives of Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen leading up to the discovery.

Here are a couple more interesting historical maps from Bell, specifically from The Bell System Technical Journal in 1930.

The first shows "special contract telegraph circuits furnished to a brokerage company" (30 circuits / 95 stations / 38K km): http://i.imgur.com/vL4W8Vz.jpg

The second shows "special contract telegraph service furnished a press association" (53 circuits / 124K km) : http://i.imgur.com/ZEsBKKe.jpg

Lots more fun maps and diagrams @ https://archive.org/stream/bellvol9systemtechni00amerrich/be...

They even served Tesla, here in California!

Click the map to load the hi-res version, then zoom in on the San Francisco-Oakland area, and look below the Oakland label.

Background: http://www.teslacoalmines.org/Tesla.html

I was surprised to see Las Vegas as such a tiny blip, before remembering its history is still very recent. Founded in 1905, incorporated in 1911 (and was still decades away from its boom).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas

Las Vegas as a city wasn't really feasible until after the completion of the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in 1936 about 30 miles away. You can't have a city without water.

No calling Miami on Bell's network in 1910.

It only had a population of 5,500 people at the time. Ten years earlier there were only 1,700 people.

The Florida land boom was in the 1920s. The Marx Brothers made a comedy about it: The Cocoanuts (1929), their first full-length film.

An earlier boom in the 1880's was fuelled by the citrus industry and ended with the freezes of 1894/5. Tourism also played a role to such a degree that Roosevelt's Rough Riders were quartered at the Tamap Bay Hotel prior to the invasion of Cuba. That boom is what gave enough population density to run service as far down as places like Conway [or Orlando itself] by 1910.

The The Coconuts boom ended with the onset of the Great Depression...at least for those who believe it soft started with events like the Florida land crash and the Boll Weevil infestation across the South. Two post WWII booms were triggered by the wide spread availability of residential air conditioning and mortgage derivatives respectively.

https://www.floridamemory.com/photographiccollection/photo_e...

John Kenneth Galbraith includes a good discussion of the Florida land rush in his book The Great Crash: 1929.

Can I guess that a 1910 telephone map perfectly overlaps on top of a 1910 railway map?

I imagine the 1910 railway network would be much more extensive: http://cprr.org/Museum/Official_Rail_Guide_1910.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com