USA > Connecticut > Connecticut yesterday and today : 1635-1935 : celebrating three hundred years of progress in the Constitution state > Part 4
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One of the most complete airports in the East is Rentschler Field, owned
and operated by the United Airports, another United Aircraft unit. Located there are facilities for servicing and completely overhauling Pratt & Whit- ney engines as well as adequate hangar space for airplane storage. One of the large hangars on the field houses all experimental flight test work for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and Chance Vought Aircraft, while a portion of the other is utilized as the Hartford ticket office and waiting room of American Airlines which operates a convenient and fast air serv- ice between Hartford, Boston, and New York.
All United Aircraft units are actively engaged in the development of the science of aeronautics. They have contributed greatly to the spec- tacular achievements of Connecticut's aviation industry just as they have contributed to the advancement of this latest form of rapid communica- tion. Equally as rapidly as the in- dustry has grown in this state during the past decade will it continue to ad- vance, carrying Connecticut's fame to even more remote and inaccessible localities.
THE PRATT AND WHITNEY AIRCRAFT COMPANY AND THE CHANGE VOUGHT CORPORATION PLANTS
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THE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANY
MARSHALL JEWELL 1882-1883
MORRIS F. TYLER 1883-1907
JOHN W. ALLING 1908-1917
JAMES T. MORAN 1917-1930
HARRY C. KNIGHT Elected 1930
PRESIDENTS OF THE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANY SINCE 188?
HE telephone was invented in Massachu- setts, but telephone service first became a reality in Connecticut. On January 28, 1878, in New Haven, Mr. George M. Coy opened the first commercial telephone exchange in the world. Before this time, there had been a number of installations of telephones connecting two points, and there were also a few private exchanges connecting groups of people or the various offices and buildings of manufacturing establishments. The business of providing telephone service to all who desired it, however, began with Mr. Coy's venture.
Mr. Coy and Mr. Herrick P. Frost, who had become associated with him in the undertaking, formed a company known as the New Haven Dis- trict Telephone Company-with a total capitaliza- tion of $5,000. During the same year, the com- pany underwent two successive changes of name; two years later, in 1880, a merger with another enterprise resulted in the formation of the Connecti- cut Telephone Company; and in 1882, when there were 25 exchanges in the state, serving in all about 3,000 subscribers, The Southern New England Telephone Company was incorporated.
The first switchboard, devised by Mr. Coy, affords an interesting contrast to the complicated central office equipment now required to bring the modern telephone subscriber into almost instant communica- tion with nearly 31 million telephones in 60 countries
Left-George M. Coy, who built the first commercial switch- board in the world. Right - Herrick P. Frost, business asso- ciate of Mr. Coy and telephone pioneer.
I reproduction of the first switchboard, known as "Coy's chicken".
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
New Haven District Telephone Company.
OFFICE SICHAPLL STELLT
February 21, 1878.
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The first telephone directory was printed on one page!
Above, one of the telephone company's modern buildings. This one is in Hartford. . It the right, a modern operating room in a dial exchange, where out-of-town calls and assistance calls are handled.
and places all over the world. The story is told that in the earliest days, when a subscriber was particu- larly anxious to hurry a call, the operator would sometimes wet the forefinger of one hand and place it on the plug of the calling party's line; then, by placing the finger of the other hand on the plug of the line wanted, the operator could quickly complete the circuit. Instead of talking over the wire which would normally be used to connect the two plugs, the subscribers then talked through the body of the operator.
The first commercial switchboard, however, was not the only major contribution of Connecticut to the development of the telephone business. In 1877, Dr. Thomas B. Doolittle of Bridgeport-one of the great pioneers in the practical application of the telephone to every-day use-developed a method for producing "hard-drawn" copper wire, and thus laid the foundation for the achievements which have since been made in long-distance telephone com- munication.
Prior to Dr. Doolittle's discovery, all copper wire was extremely soft; it was impossible to make sat- isfactory use of it in building a telephone line, be- cause the wires would stretch, hang loosely from the poles, and get all tangled up in even a light wind. In the first telephone lines, therefore, iron wire was used exclusively. As is well known, however, iron is not as good a conductor of electricity as copper, and long-distance telephone communication over iron wires could never be made wholly satisfactory. The construction of the first long distance line, from
New York to Boston, was begun in 1883, after care- ful and prolonged testing of the new copper wire; and the building of the line was supervised by Dr. Doolittle himself.
The first president of The Southern New England Telephone Company, Marshall Jewell, was a former governor of Connecticut who had also served as Postmaster General under Grant, and as United States Ambassador to Russia. The active manage- ment of the business, in the very earliest days, was in the hands of Herrick P. Frost, Charles I .. Mitchell, Colonel Andrew H. Embler, Morris F. Tyler and Ellis B. Baker.
Today, 57 years after Mr. Coy opened the first exchange, Connecticut enjoys telephone service on a par with the best to be found anywhere in the United States. The Southern New England Tele- phone Company, one of the Associated Companies of the Bell System, serves practically all of the state. The Company had approximately 294,000 tele- phones in service on January 1, 1935. On the same date, the Company's plant included 90 central offices, 5,744 miles of poles lines, 570 miles of underground conduit, and 1,636,029 miles of wire-976,019 in underground and submarine cable, 615,128 in aerial cable, and 44,882 in aerial wire. All told, the Com- pany's investment in telephone plant amounted to nearly $78,000,000 at the beginning of the year.
THE GRAY TELEPHONE PAY STATION CO.
Founded 1891
Model of the first Pax Station
1774484
A Modern Pay Station
GEORGE ALEXANDER LONG, President and General Manager
EORGE ALEXANDER LONG, president and general manager of the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company, has devoted practically his entire life to the pay station and its needs. At the age of sixteen, while in the employ of the Pratt & Whitney Company, he was commissioned to make the model of the first pay station. Today, nearly a half-century later, Mr. Long has received international recognition for the continuous improvements he has added to William Gray's original idea. To him more than any other man is due the credit for this great modern device.
Among the most notable of his many later inventions are the first single-slot coin collector, the first three-slot com collector, and the first portable coin collector. Fol- lowing these he developed the compact type of telephone and pay station combined, and later he provided the first automatic multi-coin prepay station.
His success in this field is attested by the long and still- growing list of pay station patents granted to him both in this country and abroad. Today he has to his credit more putents on telephone toll apparatus than any other single prixin.
As the public pay station came into general use and collected increasingly large sums of money, the need de- veloped for a more secure lock than was available. To fulfill this need Mr. Long invented a new lock with many patented features, which is in use today on all Gray Telephone Pay Stations. The Long Security Lock Com- pany, which was formed to manufacture these locks, has also developed and patented several ingenious and success- ful locks for banks.
For his work he has been accorded special honors by the governments of the United States and Japan. Also as a collaborator with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company he received the silver medal of the Panama- Pacific International Exposition for automatic telephone pay stations and telephone meters. He is also a member of The Telephone Pioneers of America.
From its very birth in the machine shop of Pratt & Whitney, Mr. Long has seen the telephone pay station grow under his direction until today it has reached the remotest corners of the earth. Far from being content, Mr. Long is still hard at work on new developments.
٠٠٨٩٤٠٠
CREATES MODEL OF PLAY STATION
WILLIAM GRAY
AMOS WHITNEY
CHARLES SOBY
HE Gray Telephone Pay Station Company was founded in 1891, the joint enterprise of Wil- liam Gray, Amos Whit- ney, and Charles Soby. A few years later they were joined by the young George A. Long, the only one of this original company now alive.
The story of the invention of the telephone pay station and its develop- ment through this company is one of the most important and interesting parts of the telephone industry. For it was the pay station which first placed the telephone within reach of the general public and thereby brought millions of dollars into the coffers of the infant industry. And whenever we pay tribute to Alexander Graham Bell for his epoch making discovery, we must also remember the men who placed that marvelous instrument at the service of even the poorest man or woman at any hour of the day or night.
William Gray was the man who first conceived the idea of making the telephone available to the general pub- lic through pay stations and it was George A. Long who contributed the
working model of the first pay station to the world.
Some two years after the first prac- tical model of the telephone pay sta- tion had been made, the first machine was installed in Hartford at the corner of Main Street and Central Row on the ground floor of the old Hartford Bank, where the Hartford-Connecti- cut Trust Company now stands. This was in 1899.
There was again an interval of two years before the next important step was taken in 1891. At this time Gray had secured financial backing from his friends, Charles Soby and Amos Whitney, and at this time a stock company was formed with these three men as officers.
When Mr. Long associated himself with the company in 1901, the firm was struggling along with only an oc- casional order. While the device was now workable, it was necessary to go still further and create a demand for the pay station, which still remained unknown to the general public. The operating companies offered little as- sistance and Long found it necessary to organize a group of company rep- resentatives to call on hotels and other
public places and explain what the machine would do.
During the next eight years Mr. Long devoted himself to overcoming this difficulty and to fighting patent infringements through the courts. In both of these objectives he was suc- cessful and at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century found the company in a sound financial con- dition, with ever-increasing business.
In addition to his attention to the business problems of the company, Mr. Long interested himself in the mechanical problems of the pay sta- tion, and here again he was pre-emni- nently successful. He entered his first patent for the improvement of the pay station in 1903, and since that date scarcely a year has passed but that one or more patents have been accepted.
William Gray, previous to his death in 1902, had solved many of the faults of the original machine. Yet there were to come tremendous devel- opments in telephony, bringing with them new demands of a pay station. Increased traffic demanded a pre- payment type of machine; machine switching necessitated a machine fitted to this requirement. Mr. Long kept
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PRESENT PLANT OF GRAY TELEPHONE PAY STATION CO. Erected 1913
face with many advances and forecast them many times, as in the case of machine switching.
Following his successful solution of both the business difficulties of the ranpany and the mechanical problems of the pay station, Mr. Long turned his attention to a related problem. As soon as the pay station had come into general us:, those who live by their wits were attracted to it as a new sairce of revenue. The locks then available were an easy prey to any «aprrt at picking locks.
The company felt that it was their responsibility to safeguard the income of the purchaser of these machines, and to this end Mr. Long started work on the development of a lock which would provide safety at all times. Again he was successful in his under- taking and today the 12-B lock is approved equipment on all pay sta-
tions. Nearly one million of these locks are now in use throughout the world.
While we have touched upon only the highlights in the development of the pay station, some real idea of the effort and labor which have been ex- pended to bring it to its present form may be gained from the fact that there are 82 American patents and 35 foreign ones covering the various im- provements which have been made since the first crude machine was in- stalled in Hartford in 1889.
To bring out briefly the importance of the pay station, we would cite as an example the City of New York where nearly 100,000 coin collectors are now installed, giving service 24 hours a day without any expense to the operating telephone companies, other than the cost of installation and collection. In one year 375,000,000
individual coins, weighing 2,800 tons, were collected in these pay stations. In order to effect the collections from these machines it required over one million trips to the pay stations, cov- cring thousands of miles by foot and automobile. It is estimated that if all the nickels collected in New York City were laid side by side, they would form a strip of metal reaching from New York City to San Francisco and extend 800 miles farther into the Pacific Ocean. During one year in the State of Connecticut, the third smallest state in the country, the coins collected in Gray pay stations weighed over 98 tons. Compare this result with that if paid attendants attempted to handle this service 24 hours a day. This gives some idea of the important part that the public pay station has played and is playing in the telephone industry.
The Present Plant of the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company and Long Security Lock Company in Hartford
STATUE COMMEMORATING INVENTORS ERECTED, 1929
George A Long, early in 1926, saw the fitness of erect- ing a tribute to the mechanical and manufacturing geniuses of Hartford. The work of Francis A. Pratt, Samuel Colt, Amos Whitney, Charles E. Billings, William Tucker, George Capewell, Christopher Spencer, David Tilton and Colonel Pope he felt should be commemorated in such a manner that the memorial would serve as an inspiration and incentive to the youth of the city, as well as giving just honor to these men, all of whom had been personally well known to him.
Three years passed before the idea reached its fruition, during which time Mr. Long had given much thought to both the form of the monument and the location for it. Through his own generosity, and that of his friends, the
necessary funds were gathered; and in 1931 two large bronze placques, some eight by ten feet each, were placed in the main entrance hall of the State Trade School on Washington Street, while outside of the main entrance a fine statue, symbolizing invention and industry, was erected. Each of the placques is made up of bas-relief portraits of Hartford inventors and industrialists, with appropriate in- scriptions and designs. Mr. Long's suggestion has become a Hartford "Hall of Fame."
In front of the Trade School is placed a bronze statue given by the Hartford County Manufacturers Association. This statue is the work of the well-known Mrs. Evelyn Longman Bachelder of Windsor and is symbolic in treat- ment, representing the craftsman pondering over his blue- prints. The statue was unveiled on September 17, 1931.
4341
AUSTIN C. DUNHAM, President The Hartford Electric Light Co. 188 2 1912
OUR most precious asset is the heritage of courage and foresight derived from the Connecticut men and women who founded this company on the broad premise that there should be available to everyone the complete service of the great emancipator . .. ELECTRICITY . at a cost within the ability of
all to pay.
THE HARTFORD
ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY
ГИЛЯМОО ТНАЯ ЭМТЭЈЕ ОПОЛТЯАН ЭНТ
THE HARTFORD ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY 19:5 Always a Pioneer
S. G. DUNHAM President, 1912-1924 Chairman of the Board, 1924-1934
HE HARTFORD ELEC- TRIC LIGHT COMPANY has throughout the years built for itself an increasing reputation for progressive and pioncer endeavor. It has shown the way in adopting new methods of gener- ating and distributing electrical energy in the industries and the home, and in the establishment of rate systems that have accelerated the marvelous development in the use of electricity. It was the first electric light company in America to make practical application of several of the most important new developments that were destined to become the standard practice.
As early as 1893 the Company trans- mitted three-phase alternating current and was the first in the country to do so at high voltage for any considerable distance. This type of transmission proved highly satisfactory and outmoded the multiplicity of kinds of current in common use at that time. Today transmission of power up to three hundred miles over gigantic steel towers and cables is a practical reality.
The enclosed arc lamp was first given a trial by the Hartford Electric Light Company when in 1893 it equipped its street lighting system with d .- c. series lamps. However difficulty was experienced in operation, owing to the inferior quality of carbon electrodes then obtainable. Im- provements were introduced to permit the use of a .- c. lamps and this system became,
S. FERGUSON President, 1924-1935 Chairman of the Board, 1935-
from 1898, the standard of street lighting until replaced by tungsten incandescent lamps.
The Company was also the first in America to use a storage battery to econo- mize on water power that would other- wise have gone to waste during the periods of relatively small demand. Also in this same year, 1896, the Company took the advanced step of placing underground its overhead wires in the central section of the city. Further evidence of the Com- pany's pioneer leadership is shown in its introduction of mercury and steam tur- bines. The first steam turbine was installed in 1901; in 1923 the first mercury tur- bine installed anywhere in the world, then a new and radical departure, was installed in the Company's Dutch Point Plant.
Although not always the first to make use of a new invention, the Hartford
CHAI
TION
V. E. BIRD President, 1935-
Electric Light Company is generally rec- ognized as a leader and has done much pioneer work. It was one of the first companies to recognize the value of elec- tric cooking, electric refrigeration, and electric water heating in the home and has led in the application of electric heat in the industries.
The outstanding pioneer achievements of the Company which we have mentioned in part above coupled with its continued policy of sharing benefits with the con- sumer have given it a nationwide reputa- tion. It has recently been praised in the United States Senate by Senator Wheeler as being one of the most progressive utilities in the country.
Further recognition of the Company's services and progressive accomplishments was given in 1933 when the high award of the Charles A. Coffin Medal was given for that year to the Hartford Electric Light Company. This medal, established by the General Electric Company and awarded by the Edison Electric Institute, is given each year to that electric com- pany which has made the most "distin- guished contribution to the development of electric light and power for the con- venience of the public and the benefit of the industry." The presentation address was made by Frank W. Smith. Specifically mentioned by Mr. Smith in his tribute to the progressiveness and pioneer achieve- ments of the Company were the cus- tomer's dividend, credit certificate, trial range, mercury turbine, and the develop- ment of All-Electric Homes.
436 ;*
1847
NEW HAVEN GAS LIGHT COMPANY OLDEST GAS COMPANY IN CONNECTICUT
1935
CLARENCE BLAKESLEE Chairman of Board
N May, 1847, the Gen- eral Assembly of the State of Connecticut granted a charter to Henry Peck, Atwater Treat, Philip S. Galpin, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., and Lucius G. Peck; the New Haven City Gas Light Com- pany was organized by these men with a capitalization of $100,000. The name was changed, however, to the New Haven Gas Light Company in 1854. This company was the first public utility to do business in New Ha- ven and one of the earliest in the United States.
During 1848 the first coal gas plant in Connecticut was erected on the north side of St. John Street, between Franklin and Hamilton Streets. Near the close of the same year the Com- pany began distribution of gas through its four miles of street mains. At this time gas illumination was limited to St. John Street, Chapel Street, Fleet Street (State Street), George Street, Crown Street, College Street, and Temple Street. In these early years the price of gas was $4.00 per thou- sand cubic feet and in 1850 the Com- pany sold approximately 500,000 cubic feet of gas, bringing in a gross
revenue of about $2,000. This com- pares with 2,383,475,000 cubic feet of gas and a gross revenue of $2,458,- 457 for the year 1934. At the close of the year 1934 there were 60,364 customers and over 500 miles of street mains.
The early development of the gas company was rapid, and by 1861 a new coal gas plant with a daily capac- ity of 500,000 cubic feet was erected on East Street. After the Civil War gas began to replace kerosene lamps, and, stimulated by this change, the New Haven Gas Light Company eu- joyed a period of uninterrupted growth and prosperity. In 1885 the Company erected a plant for the pro- duction of carburetted water gas. This plant had a daily capacity of 250,000 cubic feet.
The introduction of electricity for lighting purposes in the 90's was thought to seriously threaten the gas industry, but in reality this electric competition compelled gas engineers to explore other fields and resulted in developing gas as the ideal fuel for the home and factory. Since 1895 the use of gas for cooking, water heating and space heating has developed rapidly until today gas is utilized for some purpose in almost every home and
ORIGINAL OFFICERS
WILLIAM W. BOARDMAN, President FRANK TURNER, Secretary JOHN W. Frrcn, Treasurer THOMAS R. DUTTON, Superintendent
PRESENT OFFICERS CLARENCE BLAKESLEE Chairman of the Board
H. R. STERRETT President GEORGE D. WATROUS Vice-President
F. J. RUTLEDGE Vice-President JOHNS HOPKINS Secretary T. R. SUCHER Treasurer and Assistant Secretary C. G. WUESTEFELD Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer
H. R. STERRETT President
factory. The increased use of gas ne- cessitated the construction of a new water gas plant in 1902 and a new coal gas plant in 1906. The company pioneered the use of gas for house- heating as early as 1926, and today hundreds of homes, stores and build- ings enjoy this most modern type of heat. Another important new source of revenue has developed within the past two years through the very suc- ceessful application of gas in the field of mechanical refrigeration.
In 1927 the controlling interest in the New Haven Gas Light Company was acquired by The United Gas Im- provement Company. Also in this year the Company's coal gas plants were discontinued and part of the gas requirements of the Company were purchased, on contract, from the Con- necticut Coke Company, which had erected a large coke oven plant on the east side of New Haven harbor.
Although no longer operating coal gas plants, the New Haven Gas Light Company greatly enlarged and recon- structed its water gas plants, which are used to supplement the gas pur- chased from the Connecticut Coke Company, and serve a territory ex- tending from Devon to Branford.
41371-
ISS2
THE UNITED ILLUMINATING COMPANY
English Station
HE NEW HAVEN ELECTRIC COM- PANY, as it was first known, started operation during 1882 in very modest quarters on Temple Street, near George Street, with the following Officers: F. A. Gilbert, president; James English, secretary and treasurer, and A. F. Hunie, bookkeeper.
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