When were telephones first used in homes?
28427#3
Following the invention of the telephone in 1876, the first telephones were rented in pairs which were limited to conversation between the parties operating those two instruments. The use of a central exchange was soon found to be even more advantageous than in telegraphy. In January 1878 the Boston Telephone Dispatch company had started hiring boys as telephone operators. Boys had been very successful as telegraphy operators, but their attitude, lack of patience, and behavior was unacceptable for live telephone contact, so the company began hiring women operators instead. Thus, on September 1, 1878, Boston Telephone Dispatch hired Emma Nutt as the first woman operator. Small towns typically had the switchboard installed in the operator's home so that he or she could answer calls on a 24-hour basis. In 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company installed the first battery-operated switchboard on January 9 in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Telephone switchboard
406703#1
The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "talk with electricity" by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. The first words transmitted were "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you." 
This event has been called Bell's "greatest success", as it demonstrated the first successful use of the telephone. Although it was his greatest success, he refused to have one in his own home because it was something he invented by mistake and saw it as a distraction from his main studies.
Telephone call
18790468#2
Telephone numbers were first used in 1879 in Lowell, Massachusetts, when they replaced the request for subscriber names by callers connecting to the switchboard operator. Over the course of telephone history, telephone numbers had various lengths and formats, and even included most letters of the alphabet in leading positions when telephone exchange names were in common use until the 1960s.
Telephone number
7502814#1
Shortly after the invention of the telephone attempts were made to adapt the technology for military use. Telephones were already being used to support military campaigns in British India and in British colonies in Africa in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In the United States telephone lines connected fortresses with each other and with army headquarters. They were also used for fire control at fixed coastal defence installations. The first telephone for use in the field was developed in the United States in 1889 but it was too expensive for mass production. Subsequent developments in several countries made the field telephone more practicable. The wire material was changed from iron to copper, devices for laying wire in the field were developed and systems with both battery-operated sets for command posts and hand generator sets for use in the field were developed. The first purposely-designed field telephones were used by the British in the Second Boer War. They were used more extensively in the Russo-Japanese War, where all infantry regiments and artillery divisions on both sides were equipped with telephone sets. By the First World War the use of field telephones was widespread.
Field telephone
6800207#21
The earliest telephones had only one wire for both transmitting and receiving of audio, and used a ground return path, as was found in telegraph systems. The earliest dynamic telephones also had only one opening for sound, and the user alternately listened and spoke (rather, shouted) into the same hole. Sometimes the instruments were operated in pairs at each end, making conversation more convenient but also more expensive.
At first, the benefits of a "switchboard" exchange were not exploited. Instead, telephones were leased in pairs to the subscriber, for example one for his home and one for his shop, and the subscriber had to arrange with telegraph contractors to construct a line between them. Users who wanted the ability to speak to three or four different shops, suppliers etc. would obtain and set up three or four pairs of telephones. Western Union, already using telegraph exchanges, quickly extended the principle to its telephones in New York City and San Francisco, and Bell was not slow in appreciating the potential.
History of the telephone
14155024#0
Telephone Newspapers, introduced in the 1890s, transmitted news and entertainment to subscribers over telephone lines. They were the first example of electronic broadcasting, although only a few were established, most commonly in European cities. These systems predated the development, in the 1920s, of radio broadcasting. They were eventually supplanted by radio stations, because radio signals could more easily cover much wider areas with higher quality audio, without incurring the costs of a telephone line infrastructure.
The introduction of the telephone in the mid-1870s included numerous demonstrations of its use for transmitting musical concerts over various distances. In one particularly advanced example, Clément Ader prepared a listening room at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition, where attendees could listen to performances, in stereo, from the Paris Grand Opera. The concept also appeared in Edward Bellamy's influential 1888 utopian novel, "Looking Backward: 2000-1887", which foresaw audio entertainment sent over telephone lines to private homes.
Telephone newspaper
18790468#4
When telephone numbers were first used they were very short, from one to three digits, and were communicated orally to a switchboard operator when initiating a call. As telephone systems have grown and interconnected to encompass worldwide communication, telephone numbers have become longer. In addition to telephones, they have been used to access other devices, such as computer modems, pagers, and fax machines. With landlines, modems and pagers falling out of use in favor of all-digital always-connected broadband Internet and mobile phones, telephone numbers are now often used by data-only cellular devices, such as some tablet computers, digital televisions, video game controllers, and mobile hotspots, on which it is not even possible to make or accept a call.
Telephone number
38216068#12
Richardson introduced the Police Telephone System throughout the Borough during the First World War. They were attached to tram line poles and for the first time Constables on the Beat could contact Harrison Rd. H.Q. Telephone boxes were introduced in 1925 and pillar type telephone boxes (soon to go nationwide) which could be used by the public in emergencies. These were used in Halifax until 1967. An article headed "Police Signals". records that" Lt. Col. Sir Hugh Turnbill, Commissioner of the London City Police, is making full use of electrical devices in connection with his force. He is experimenting with a signaling system in connection with the present ambulance alarm posts. The Journal remarks: Halifax was one of the first towns to introduce this system. When will these who follow the doings of Halifax, as we have wondered before, give Halifax and its Chief Constable the credit that is due in them, and acknowledge Halifax as the very first town to adopt these street signals for the purpose of communicating from headquarters with men on the various beats. There are 24 such lights in operation in Halifax now and the system has been in use for over 20 years. It has been a great boon. For instance, before it was introduced, if headquarters wished to pass any kind of information on to the man on duty in the streets it could only be done by messenger, a waste of time and a very cumbrous method compared with that in existence today." However, it was not until 1937 that London saw telephones that were erected in Pillars in quantity. Soon, their use was extended to the public.
Alfred Herbert Richardson
536576#9
San Francisco continued to install manual offices throughout the 1920s. When PT&T took over the operations of its San Francisco and Oakland competitor, Home Telephone Co., in the early 1920s, their customers were switched from Home's dial service to Pacific Telephone manual exchanges. A 1927 Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. publication proudly describes the company's newest manual offices, without a word of plans to introduce dial service. San Francisco's first dial office, ORdway, opened on 23 March 1929. The first suburban step-by-step (electromechanical stepping switch) office opened in Palo Alto in 1929.
Pacific Bell
112404#4
Gas lights were installed in August 1880. Telephone lines were strung in 1882, with Dr. Eggleston having the first phone. The waterworks were constructed in 1885. Gas was supplemented with electricity in 1897, but gas was still used in many homes until 1915.
Warsaw, Indiana