Past & Present, Washtenaw Home Telephone Co., Washington Street c. 1912

The Washtenaw Home Telephone Co. occupies the second floor of 24 N. Washington. On the ground floor is the plumbing firm of Pickles & Bassett. Next door at 22 Washington on the ground floor is Jay Moore's furniture store. Moore was also a funeral director and embalmer. (Possible motto: "From Crib to Coffin.") At 20 Washington is Frank Stowell's coal office. Upstairs are the offices of lawyer Frank Joslyn and dressmaker Helen Francisco. 18 N. Washington houses Harry Gilmore's wallpaper shop, and 16 N. Washington is Dewey Waterman's plumbing shop. The tall building in the middle right background is the onetime second-floor Hewitt Hall.

Percentage of Rural Farm Homes with Four Technologies, 1930-1950

Hey, check out this chart. Who knew that 12 numbers could have so many fascinating implications? Bear in mind this was true locally too--Augusta Township, Ypsi Township, Superior Township.
First of all, did you try to guess the four technologies? Did you get them all right? I got one wrong. Instead of "telephone," I guessed "sewer system." But I shouldn't have, since this is from a book called Out of the Dark: A History of Radio and Rural America, by Steve Craig. I checked it out from Halle Library--yes, you, fellow average non-student Ypsilantian, can get a FREE library card at Halle! And check stuff out! When I found that out I was like JESUS I just got A WHOLE NEW LIBRARY!!! They charge you an arm and both legs to do that at U-M. But I digress.

1. Amazingly, car and telephone ownership is pretty much steady over these two decades. Why is this so? Well, of course, because cars became available shortly after the turn of the century, so by 1930 they were an established technology. Same with telephony.

2. But wait, why is electricity different? Like telephony, electricity also requires a wiring infrastructure (and as a commercial technology is roughly the same age as telephony). Yet as you can see the vast majority of rural residents wanted electricity--it really caught on as the rural infrastructure kept expanding post-war. Telephones, not so much. Why is this? With a telephone you could save the life of someone who just got injured on your farm. Wouldn't that be the vital, demanded thing?

3. And strangest of all, the least practical technology of all in terms of getting things done in daily life is the most wildly popular. Just look at that adoption rate soaring. And radios were EXPENSIVE---console radios were priced at what is comparable to larger plasma TVs today, hundreds to over a thousand dollars when you adjust for inflation. (There were smaller, cheaper radios too of course). Here are two examples that were on sale in Ypsilanti in 1932. Why would a practical subsidence farmer waste money on this frippery?

4. Comparing telephone and electricity again, it's interesting to note that the initial adoption rates of these two roughly contemporaneous technologies vary. This may be due to a number of reasons, but I'm guessing one big one was that the rural demand for electricity was initially not as strong. After all, rural residents got by previously with daylight and kerosene lamps. Absent a houseful of electric appliances, electricity does not add anything new per se. But the telephone does, so perhaps a larger group was initially willing to pony up for it.

5. Last, a mere seventeen years before DD was born, a 62% majority of homes in areas like Augusta Township did not have a phone. Contrasted to today, that is astonishing. How were people's lives changed by this absence, compared to today? Were their minds quieter? Were their lives calmer? Did things move more slowly? What else might have been different?

What strikes you about this intriguing chart?

325 Ypsilantians Now Have Phones

1906 was an exciting year in Ypsilanti. The city council debated erecting a power plant for municipal lighting. The Detroit News lambasted the town for allowing the Lewis "Horse Exchange," a Depot Town pool room and gambling spot, to remain open. And, announced the February 8 Ypsilanti Daily Press, of the roughly 8,000 residents, 325 were connected to telephone service (4% of all residents).

As a bonus, when you lifted the earpiece and were connected to the operator, Central could tell you if the MCRR trains were on time or running late. "Anyone calling up will be informed by the "hello" girl without a second's loss of time," reported the paper. The phone service was expanding rapidly; of the 325 subscribers, 75 had signed up just the month before.

New subscribers included the downtown Davis and Kishlar dry goods store, Michigan Avenue dressmaker C. A. Klavitter, and J. A. Burtis's barber shop at 8 North Huron.

Dusty D tried but failed to get a good understanding of the color code in the list, consisting of black, blue, red, and white numbers. I could take a stab and say these are 4 separate systems, divided up so as to optimize the # of phone numbers, but that would just be talking out of my hat; I have no idea what those colors mean, but hope to learn.

Save Wires for War!

Kind readers, if you were thinking of calling your gramma in Florida over Thanksgiving, or your cousin in California, please--don't.

Those phone lines are required for urgent war-related business. Don't imperil that business by making a social call over the holiday.

Please make only the most urgent Long Distance calls on Thanksgiving Day, and keep those calls as brief as possible.

Dusty D found this ad while researching a Thanksgiving story to turn in to the Courier tomorrow.

Note that it is Michigan Bell that is telling its own customers to NOT use its service--in contrast to today's phone service providers, who, to some, seem intent on determinedly extracting an inordinate amount of money from one's pocket.

Perhaps Michigan Bell's ad was made in a spirit of patriotism. Or, more cynically, perhaps they knew their lines were at the maximum load already with wartime work and they didn't want to deal with thousands of irate civilian customers unable to put calls through MB's over-stressed system.

Around this time, another rationed item was coffee. Coffee was going to be officially rationed a few days after this November '42 ad. If you were caught hoarding it, which translated to buying more than 1 pound before the ration went into effect, you could be fined $10,000 or sentenced to ten years in prison.

The war was real and loomed large in the lives of Ypsilantians, when today, to many of those without a service member in the family, the war is at best just a glimpsed headline to an unread story.

--Ypsilanti Daily Press, November 24, 1942

Telephone Eliminates Horseradish Shortage

In 1931 Ypsilanti, not everyone had a phone.

But housewives who did could simply call in their daily or several-times-weekly grocery order, which was delivered to their kitchen table. They could go and buy it in person, too, but calling was ever so much more convenient.

For those without phones, local grocery stores sent around boys every day to knock on doors and collect orders, which were delivered by truck later in the day. Ypsilanti grocery stores cooperated on this delivery plan in order to reduce the hideous inefficiency of this system. They didn't reduce it enough, however, to compete with the new low-priced "cash and carry" A&P which opened during WWII and doomed the many little groceries scattered around town.

This Michigan Bell ad appeals to the housewives without phones who forgot, perhaps several times, to mention something to the kid who took their grocery order at the door, and then had to do without a crucial ingredient. Despite it being the Depression, the large size of this ad implies that the phone company was taking plenty of orders for this revolutionary new home appliance that today we take for granted.

Yet Another Post about Early Telephones

"If the call was long distance, she plugged into a trunk circuit to begin making the necessary connections to another locale. The call could be completed only if all the intermediate trunk lines between the calling centers were available at the same time. The average time to complete a connection for a long distance call in 1918 was 15 minutes. This time estimate extended to two hours during World War II when the government was given priority for military calls.

"A city operator might process as many as 600 calls in an hour. A rural operator often had the switchboard in her home and was given an extra long wire for her headset so that she could move around and do other things until a call came in."

Wow. Doing the ironing, fixing up dinner...all while wearing the all-important headset in case a call came through. Sheesh. These gemlets come from the America Comes Alive! website, which has many more for your delectation.

The Telephone Reflects a Hospital's Personality

How good are you at making friends and influencing people on the telephone?

The telephone is one of the greatest aids to modern living there is, and your future may be affected by how well you use it.

The telephone plays such an important part in relations between our institution, our patients, our outside contacts and ourselves that voice personality is often as important as your face-to-face personality.

What makes a good telephone personality? The rules are simple.

1. Answer promptly.
2. Speak directly into the mouthpiece in your natural tone of voice.
3. Be courteous.
4. Listen carefully; make the caller feel you are interested in what he has to say.
5. Don't tie up lines with personal calls.
6. Don't insist that the other guy get on the line first.
7. If a call is switched to your line accidentally, take the time to have it transferred promptly to the proper local. Don't just drop it.
8. If you take a call you can't handle satisfactorily or at once, take the caller's name and number and say he will be called back or refer him to the right person.

If you're observing these eight simple rules when you answer the phone, you're making friends for yourself and Beyer hospital.

--"Beyer Banner" newsletter from Ypsilanti's Beyer hospital, March 1954

Readers: Please Consider Installing a Telephone: For the Children!

Kind readers, far be it from me to butt into your business. But have you ever considered getting a telephone installed in your home?

This poor babe in the March 15, 1938 Ypsilanti Daily Press entreats you. "And if I do get a touch of colic...or have a nervous breakdown...do you know what'll bring it on? Worry! Yes sir, worrying about how long it would take to get the doctor."

Poor li'l tyke. Now, I know kind readers have a million other expenses...but this is just a gentle reminder that it might not be a bad idea to go ahead and get one of those Michigan Bell phones in your very own home.

Just a thought. Poor kid.

1920 Ypsi Telephone Directory Was Only 9 Pages Long

Belleville's was only two. Willis, one. And all of the Washtenaw County phones were listed in a mere 47 pages.

Ypsilanti's population in 1920 was a little over 7,000 people. Only 1,971 residents owned a telephone: just 28%.

In the directory, addresses could be vague. "One residence, for example, that of John Hamilton, was listed as "Congress Street near limits." Addresses of those outside the city limits were usually listed as 'farm, Ypsilanti township.' If a visitor did not know where the farm was located he could find it simply by asking."

By asking? Is there an app for that?

What would happen today if you were to knock on a door and ask where someone nearby was? They might call the police.

At any rate, the article lists those who had phone numbers 2-9. To call local dry goodsman W. H. Sweet, you could dial, simply, 10. If the user could figure the phone out, that is: "the telephone was apparently still a somewhat baffling apparatus to residents here judging by the multitude of warnings and instructions contained in the book."

July 1919

The Witchita Lineman (and Dusty D) is Still on the Line

Shortly after posting the recent, perhaps overly jocular, post about the confusion of calling plans in 1913, Dusty D's phone and Internet service abruptly died.

(ooo-WEEEE-ooooh!)

It took a certain Telephone and Telegraph* Company f o u r d a y s to send out anyone. This savior came today. One of the old-school group of aging guys who actually know how to fix stuff and keep the world working. He was great. When he hooked up a lineman's telephone to our outside box, I got to show him my prized antique lineman's telephone. Check it out; it's awesome:

It is I believe a felony for a private citizen to misuse this potent device to listen in on someone's phone. So if you see Dusty D biking in your neighborhood with this (heavy!) doodad clipped to my belt loop, it's not because I'm intent on sidling into your back yard...scrooching along the side of the house...pausing to mentally critique your gardening efforts...silently unscrewing the outside call-box...and clipping on my lineman's telephone to quietly listen to your most private conversations. Nosir!

...because like other sensible people you don't have a land line anymore. So I just wear it around town as historical bling. Rockin' it old school, with a 1950s lineman's telephone, oh yeah.

At any rate, I gave the lineman my best pot of tender leaf lettuce in gratitude--turns out he is a gardener, and told us a story about a squirrel stealing his prized sunflower. Dusty D is drifting off topic here, so I'll close and get right to posting Allie's diary and some other goodies that piled up in the in-box while Internet was down!

*Sheesh, you can't even SEND a telegram anymore; company name update-time perhaps?

The Utter Confusion of Choosing a Calling Plan...in 1913 Ypsilanti

Like one o' them new-fangled phones? OK--but you have to choose a calling plan. How about this one?

NON-GUARANTEE SERVICE. Calling party deposits nickel five-cent piece [as opposed to the nickel ten-cent piece--ed.] for each local call. Subscriber agrees to redeem slugs or other tokens deposited as nickels. Subscriber shall receive fifty per cent. commission on receipts from local calls and ten per cent. commission on receipts from long distance messages over the lines of the Michigan State Telephone Company, the commission not to exceed ten cents on any one message.

Huh?

OK, well, that plan is out since it's gibberish. How about this one?

GUARANTEE SERVICE. Subscriber deposits five cents for each local call and guarantees amount inserted in contract for local calls. Also agrees to redeem slugs [but snails are OK--ed.] or other tokens. Excess local receipts to be equally divided, Subscriber and Company each receiving fifty per cent.

Not much clearer. But I love the stern warnings against slugs--clearly this was a big problem as people tried to cheat. But how did it work? Was there a sort of pay phone right in your house? Or just a regular old cardboard box where you put a nickel in every time you called? Bewildering.

The Michigan State Telephone Company took a dim view of other hanky-panky, too. Such as naughty language, the fifth item in this list of "Terms and Conditions".

The lessee shall not make use of foul or profane language, or personate any other individual with fraudulent intent over the wires connected with this instrument.

My favorite part of this contract? The awkward/charming way the MSTC tried to sell you an additional house phone:

AUXILIARY TELEPHONE is a special type extra telephone for residences only. It can be located in any part of the residence.

A special type extra telephone! Ooh! Sounds sparkly!

But none of this fazed R. E. Spencer of 406 Maple Street in Ypsilanti in 1913. He signed the contract and was soon chatting away. The contract he signed is duplicated, front and back, below. You can click on either image to enlarge and scrutinize its many weird details.

Response to Reader Question: Social Networking Technology in 1907 Ypsilanti

In 1907, Ypsilantians had Myspace and Facebook.

Really.

One feature of Myspace and Facebook is that they both have internal email systems. However, you must be a member of one or the other in order to reach others in the same network. You can't internally message a Myspace user from Facebook.

Analogously, Ypsilanti in 1907 had two competing and mutually hostile telephone companies. Ypsilantians subscribed to either the Washtenaw Home Telephone Company (265 homes in Ypsi around this time) or the Michigan State Telephone Company (1,478 homes in Ypsi). The systems did not overlap. If you were a member of WHTC and your friend across town was a member of MSTC, you could NOT call them, just as you can't communicate internally between Myspace and Facebook.

Hardly what you'd expect from communications companies!

Background: Kind readers may recall a discussion the other day about a 1907 Washtenaw Light and Power ad.

Alert reader jml asked, "Any idea what the line at the bottom, "Both Phones 1" means? Were there two competing phone services, and Washtenaw Power & Light got the coveted '1' number for both?"

Dusty D offered a speculation that turned out to have been wrong. However, after snuffling around, it emerges that jml was correct: at the time of this advertisement, Ypsilanti had dual, and dueling, telephone company systems.

The boildown: When Bell's 'phone patent petered out in 1893, numerous independent telephone companies leapt into being and vigorously competed. Michigan had many, and Ypsilanti two.

Ypsilanti businesses subscribed to BOTH the WHTC (which is "the company" referred to in the excerpt at above left) and the MSTC in order to reach and be reached by both pools of subscribers, much as modern businesses maintain profiles on multiple social networking sites.

The WHTC was eventually bought by the MSTC, the latter of which eventually became Ameritech and then SBC.

SBC is the telephone company whose earlier iterations, a century ago, wiped out Ypsilanti's problem of competing social networks. Today SBC also provides Internet service, with which newbie users may create a Facebook page---only to encounter the frustration of not being able to communicate between social networking systems.

The recursive irony!

But, phooey, that's nothing new! High-tech Ypsilantians a century ago had the same dilemma!

Thanks to jml for the great question!