Human voices bridge the Atlantic

© Mark Ollig

Before 1956, a person talking on the telephone with someone in Europe had their voice transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean through radio waves.

On Oct. 21, 1915, an American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) engineer from Arlington, VA, made the first transatlantic radiophone voice communication to listeners at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

“Hello, Paris! Voice Heard Across Sea” is The Minneapolis Morning Tribune newspaper’s headline on Oct. 22, 1915.

“Arlington, VA, talked by wireless telephone with Paris, France, yesterday. The human voice had been successfully projected across the Atlantic was made last night,” the newspaper wrote.

“To Benjamin B. Webb, a telephone engineer fell the honor of being the first man to span his voice the space between the Old World and the New. At the Paris end of the wireless radiation were [engineers] Herbert E. Shreeve and Austen M. Curtis, and a group of French officers, listening with specially designed [radio receiving] apparatus,” said the article in The Minneapolis Morning Tribune.

The radiophone message from The United States to France was, “Hello, Shreeve! Hello Shreeve! One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four. Good-bye.”

According to the Minneapolis newspaper, Webb’s message was distinctly heard by Shreeve and the others in Paris, some 3,832 miles away.

On Jan. 7, 1927, transatlantic radio-telephone service began between the US and England, Scotland, and Wales with 12 radio channels. The cost was $25 per minute.

To make an international phone call, you would call your local operator, who would transfer you to a traffic operator. Then, that operator would contact the transatlantic operator to set up the radiophone call.

The first commercial transatlantic radiophone call lasted five minutes from New York to London.

On Jan. 7, 1927, the Minneapolis Star wrote that making a phone call across the ocean was “A new era in communications.”

On Jan. 16, 1927, the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune reported, “The first week’s activities of the new trans-Atlantic radio telephone service closed today with 125 completed conversations between individuals in New York City and London.”

On March 30, 1927, the Brainerd Daily Dispatch published a photograph of the expansive RCA six-tower radiophone antenna array in Rocky Point, Long Island, NY. Some of the towers were as high as 450 feet.

“The radio waves carrying the voices of Americans to the British are shot into the air from this antenna,” said the article in the Brainerd Daily Dispatch.

Radiophone communication audio with Europe was sometimes staticky, with volume levels fading in and out; only occasionally was the audio clear.

During World War II, transatlantic radiophone channels were limited, as most were encrypted for military use.

Radio communication to Europe by amateur radio operators was allowed only with authority from the War Emergency Radio Service. Radio operators could use the 112 MHz frequency on the VHF (30 to 300 MHz) band range.

There was no alternative for voice radiophone communications with Europe, as the existing transatlantic copper-core telegraph cables were unsuitable for transmitting voice communications.

During the mid-1940s, engineers designed a voice communication model for an under-ocean transatlantic copper telephone cable system using electrical high-gain audio amplifiers.

Engineers would install amplifying vacuum tube repeaters along the cable route to power audio voice signals over the 2,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean between continents.

Such an amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion, was invented in 1906 by American inventor Lee De Forest, who built it while working at AT&T.

During the early 1900s, Audion vacuum tubes were commonly used in radio receivers and broadcasting equipment.

The Audion would also operate in the first transcontinental telephone line from the US east coast to its west coast.

In 1913, AT&T began constructing the first US coast-to-coast telephone line using four copper wires attached to 130,000 telephone poles stretching over 3,400 miles through 13 states, from New York to California.

Along the route of the transcontinental line, Audion high-gain vacuum tube amplifier equipment was attached to the telephone wires for strengthening electrical voice signals, ensuring quality voice communication.

By July 1914, AT&T engineers completed their final testing and adjustments to the coast-to-coast telephone line.

Alexander Graham Bell made a ceremonial first transcontinental telephone call from New York to Thomas Watson, who was thousands of miles away in San Francisco.

Bell was granted a US Patent for his telephone invention on March 7, 1876; Watson served as Bell’s laboratory assistant.

On Jan. 25, 1915, Alexander Graham Bell, seated at the desk with a telephone connected to the transcontinental line, repeated the historic words he said in 1876 over his experimental phone to Watson in the laboratory, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”

Hearing Bell through his telephone in San Francisco, Watson jokingly replied, “Sorry, Mr. Bell, it would take me a week now.”

One thousand five hundred AT&T employees were geographically located along the transcontinental telephone route in case the telephone lines needed any repairs during the highly-publicized ceremonial telephone call.

On Dec. 21, 1942, AT&T telephone workers completed the installation of an underground transcontinental telephone cable connecting the East Coast to the West Coast of the US.

In 1952, AT&T successfully installed an underwater telephone cable used for voice calling between Florida and Cuba.

This success led to work installing the first transatlantic telephone cable called TAT-1 (Transatlantic Telephone Cable System 1) from the United States to Great Britain.

Next week’s column is “Telephone cable connects voices across the Atlantic.”

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune
Oct. 23, 1915

                     Transcontinental Telephone Route (1915)

Alexander Graham Bell placed the first transcontinental phone call,
 ringing up Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco from New York.

Twirling the familiar dial

© Mark Ollig

Shortly after World War II, AT&T’s Long Line Department switchboard toll operators began using pushbutton keys.

These keys generated MF (multi-frequency) tone signals to set up and route calls for telephone subscribers.

MF signaling reduces the time for operator-assisted calls to be processed through switching equipment within the long-distance network.

For decades, when a telephone subscriber called a number, they used a round rotary dial finger wheel attached to the telephone.

Calling a number could take up to 30 seconds as the first digit dialed needed to complete its recoil-spring rotation cycle before dialing the next digit.

While dialing a number, the caller commonly hears sounds described as “clicks” (electrical phone line interruptions during pulse dialing) in the receiver of the telephone’s handset.

During the late 1940s, engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories worked on a subscriber telephone using pushbuttons rather than a rotary dial to transmit digits.

One experiment involved modifying a 1947 Western Electric model 302 desk phone.

Western Electric was the equipment manufacturer of AT&T's Bell Telephone System.

The model 302 phone’s rotary dial was replaced with a ten-button horizontal arrangement of pushbuttons, with digits one, two, three, four, and five on the top row and six, seven, eight, nine, and zero below it.

Instead of generating MF tones, which are exclusively used by equipment within the long-distance network, the phone produced metallic tones from 10 rectangular three-inch metal reeds attached to the base inside the telephone.

When a subscriber pressed a pushbutton digit, a metal reed was plucked like a stringed bass instrument, generating a unique audible tone vibration.

The metallic tones of the called number would be transmitted over the phone line to the telephone company’s switching equipment, where they would be processed. The calling party would then be routed to the called party’s telephone.

In 1948, 35 metal-reed pushbutton phones were installed and tested from the homes of Bell Telephone Company employees in Pennsylvania.

The test results were unsuccessful.

Bell Telephone engineers discovered the slightest bit of static or noise on the line caused audio level discrepancies in the metallic tones received by the telephone office switching equipment.

Missing, garbled, or incomplete metallic tone transmissions resulted in many failed calls.

Also, the metal reeds would not operate correctly if the telephone were slightly bumped or jarred while pressing a button.

You can hear the metallic tones from a modified 1947 Western Electric 302 telephone calling 978-555-1212 at https://bit.ly/3fBspNR.

Nov. 1, 1960, AT&T began a two-year field trial with telephones in Findlay, OH, equipped with a new pushbutton signaling method called dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF).

For example, when the digit “four” button is pressed, a combination of the high-frequency 1,209 Hz and the low-frequency 770 Hz tones are audibly generated and processed by the telephone company’s switching equipment.

Due to the initial success of the test trial in Findlay, Bell Telephone Company hurried a large-scale test assessment of telephones equipped with DTMF pushbuttons.

On April 1, 1962, hundreds of telephone subscribers in Greensburg, PA, volunteered to participate in a real-world testing of touch-tone telephones manufactured by Western Electric.

Bell Telephone Company connected the Greensburg touch-tone telephones to DTMF receiver-converter equipment at their central office. Modifications to originating dial-register circuitry in the Western Electric Crossbar No. 5 telephone switching system allowed calls placed by touch-tone telephones to be processed.

Success. Thousands of touch-tone telephone test calls were processed error-free by the telephone switching system.

“Greensburg Homes Test ‘Touch Tone,’” was April 5, 1962, headline of the story in The Pittsburgh Press newspaper.

“Telephone testers like the musical notes that replace dial clicks,” the story began.

“Instead of twirling the familiar dial, one simply touches seven buttons [today we use ten] in rapid succession and waits for the familiar ring at the other end of the line,” the article added.

The story went on to say using pushbuttons takes “two to three seconds to ‘dial’ this way, compared with 25 to 30 seconds on a dial phone.”

In addition, the telephone testers were “delighted by a succession of soft, varied musical notes” instead of the repetitious clicking while making a call.

The article mentioned some testers discovered songs, such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” could be played by pressing touch-tone buttons in the correct order.

By the end of 1963, Western Electric had manufactured 20,000 touch-tone telephones with ten buttons labeled zero through nine.

On Nov. 18, 1963, The Bell Telephone System installed the first commercial touch-tone telephones in Pennsylvania homes and businesses.

On Sept. 6, 1964, Northwestern Bell Telephone Company installed the first Minnesota touch-tone telephones in the Minneapolis Bryn-Mawr (Big Hill) and Kenwood neighborhoods.

In 1968, Western Electric added the asterisk/star (*) and hash/pound/number symbol (#) buttons on the touch-tone telephone for accessing “future telephone-based computer systems.”

Today, these buttons are used with telephone banking, security authentication, and features such as speed calling, call forwarding, last call return, and others.

In 1960, AT&T obtained a trademark for the word “touch-tone,” referring to its dual-tone multi-frequency signaling method used with pushbutton telephones.

Using touch-tone is the worldwide standard, whether activated by pushing a button, pressing a flat screen, or using a voice command.

We have come a long way from “twirling the familiar dial.”

Modified 1947 Western Electric model 302 desk phone.

Modified 1947 Western Electric model 302 desk phone.

Welcome to the World Wide Web

© Mark Ollig

The 1990s saw the web as the new frontier of the internet.

Businesses, news organizations, federal and state governments, educational institutions, and others were busy building websites.

Many local communities were also starting a website.

A website not only serves the purpose of providing services and information, but it also gives people building and using them the satisfaction of keeping up with the technology of the times.

On Nov. 4, 1997, while serving on the Winsted City Council, I submitted the final proposal for a City of Winsted website to the Mayor and members of the City Council.

A council member motioned to establish the website with a two-year contract at $12 to $18 per month.

Another council member seconded, and the motion was unanimously carried.

The city’s website took little time to finish and get online, as personnel had previously worked on much of its design and content.

I had been writing the Bits and Bytes column since January 1996, so I volunteered to write an article for the local town newspaper titled “City of Winsted on the World Wide Web.”

The article appeared on the front page of the Nov. 10, 1997 newspaper. I will be republishing edited parts of it today.

The following was written 25 years ago.

“At last. The city of Winsted is a part of cyberspace.

Winsted is now officially on the internet for the whole world to see.

Bookmark this web address into your Netscape 3.0 or compatible web browser: http://www.winsted.mn.us.

The City of Winsted website welcomes visitors with a recognizable view of the town taken from the east side of Winsted Lake.

Multiple web pages of information and services offered to the city’s citizens are included.

It is also an excellent online resource for others wanting to know more about our area.

The web pages are well-organized and easy to navigate, using hyperlinks for opening referenced sources with just the click of your computer mouse.

The website includes official city notices, meeting agendas and times, and other community information.

City services and policies, along with colorful aerial maps and driving directions, complement this website.

The What’s Happening webpage lists current city projects, such as the new construction of 157 housing units scheduled for Winsted on the Lake.

Local community pictures of interest are on the Photo Gallery webpage.

A picture of Winsted taken from the air presents how the city appears when viewed looking north, which is similar to the shape of the state of Minnesota. Winsted Lake borders the town on the northeast side, comparable to how Lake Superior does with the state.

Another photo shows the historic Winsted City Hall building built in 1895.

The Lake Mary brick used in the construction of the original City Hall still displays its rich history.

Other photos include picturesque sunrise and sunsets over Winsted Lake.

The Parks and Recreation webpage includes information on the five city parks and the Luce Line Trail, along with a map showing their locations.

Meeting schedules, notices, and special announcements are also posted on the Winsted city website.

A Who’s Who webpage lists the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of the federal, state, county, and locally-elected officials.

The Services and Policies webpage provides information about local service utilities, building permit requirements, and additional city guidelines, including dog permits – you will find them all here.

The Community Info webpage links to the Winsted Guidebook and lists local businesses and industries.

Information about the Winsted Airport is accessible at its link from the city website’s home page.

The Maps and Directions webpage provides a user-friendly interactive Minnesota map, including directions for getting to Winsted.

The City of Winsted website is an online informational resource that will continue to grow and expand in its offerings and services through input from its local citizens and city officials.

Establishing a city website on the internet is another first for our hometown, of which we can be proud.

With city residents now having a local internet dial-up telephone number, I encourage folks to install a modem on their computer, get online, and explore Winsted’s city website and the others occupying this new and growing virtual community.

Winsted, welcome to the World Wide Web of the internet.”

And that’s the way it was Nov. 10, 1997.

For better clarity, a bit of “columnist’s prerogative” was used in today’s republication.

I found the following links of interest from the internet’s Wayback Machine.

The Winsted City Council minutes from Nov. 4, 1997, are at https://bit.ly/3T6t1IO.

The Herald-Journal newspaper’s website, as it appeared on Dec. 22, 1997, is at https://bit.ly/3FPSVxI.

The Nov. 10, 1997, “City of Winsted now on the Web” story from the Winsted-Lester Prairie Journal can be seen at https://bit.ly/3t9nd6J.

How will my hometown’s website appear on its 50th anniversary?

It is anybody’s guess.

However, I plan to write about it in the Bits and Bytes column Friday, Nov. 8, 2047.

Nov. 10, 1997, “City of Winsted now on the Web”
story from the Winsted-Lester Prairie Journal 

Minnesota welcomes the radio revolution

© Mark Ollig

At the start of the 1920s, hundreds of commercial and amateur radio stations quickly appeared coast-to-coast.

Names like RCA, AT&T, Westinghouse, General Electric, Philmore, and amateur radio enthusiasts were building radio broadcasting equipment, networks, and listening sets.

The country’s population in 1922 was 100 million, with nearly two million homes having a radio.

At the end of 1922, approximately 500 radio station licenses had been issued by the US Department of Commerce.

Minnesota entered this period by establishing radio stations with support from local businesses, colleges, various organizations, newspapers, and individuals.

On May 10, 1922, Minneapolis radio station WBAH began operating on a radio frequency of 833 kilocycles (kilo meaning one thousand), abbreviated as kc.

There are 1,000 cycles per second in a kilocycle, so a radio frequency of 833 kilocycles would be 833,000 cycles per second.

Jumping ahead to 1960, the International System of Units replaced “cycles” per second with “Hertz” to represent a unit of radio frequency equivalent to one event (cycle) per second.

By 1970, kilocycles (kc) were called kilohertz (kHz).

Amateur radio resonant frequency bands primarily reference their radio wavelength in meters.

But that’s another subject, and I now digress back to 1922.

WBAH, owned by The Dayton Company, was mainly used to broadcast radio advertisements for its department stores.

On Sept. 4, 1922, WLAG became Minneapolis’s first licensed commercial radio station. Its broadcast originated from the sixth floor of the Oak Grove Hotel in Minneapolis.

Companies underwriting WLAG’s operations with $30,000 of support included L. S. Donaldson Company, Northwestern National Bank, Sterling Electric company, and others.

A 500-watt transmitter powered the radio station’s broadcasts over carrier wave frequencies which many listeners received in surrounding states.

In 1923, Dr. George W. Young began radio station KFMT operating on 1300 kc from his residence in Minneapolis.

KFMT used a World War I era Western Electric CW- 936 5-watt radio transmitter/receiver to broadcast its signal over a 20-mile radius.

In 1924, one of the first battery-powered radios was the Atwater-Kent model 10B receiving set manufactured in Philadelphia, PA. It was called a “breadboard radio” and used five vacuum tubes and three potentiometer dials.

On Sept. 12, 1924, the US War Dept. aired “The National Defense Day Program” over an experimental network of 18 radio stations from coast-to-coast, including WLAG in Minneapolis.

World War I ended six years earlier, and in 1924, the US government regarded nationwide radio broadcasts during a national emergency as the quickest way to notify the most people.

On Oct. 2, 1924, WLAG became the familiar WCCO, broadcasting under the ownership of the Minnesota-based Washburn-Crosby Company and maker of Gold Medal Flour.

WCCO’s callsign means Washburn Crosby Company. It was called “The Gold Medal radio station.”

WCCO’s broadcast studios were located at the Nicollet Hotel in Minneapolis.

On Oct. 5, 1924, the Minneapolis Journal printed “This Week By Radio,” listing daily programming from WCCO, KFMT, WCAL (St. Olaf College), and WCAS (Dunwoody Industrial Institute).

By 1925, 600 commercial radio stations were operating in the US.

On March 4, 1925, the presidential inauguration of Calvin Coolidge was broadcast by over 20 commercial radio stations to an estimated 23 million listeners.

In the mid-1920s, many radio sets used Audion triode vacuum tubes, invented by Lee de Forest while working at AT&T.

Other vacuum tubes, such as the RCA Radiotron and similar, provided higher detection sensitivity to radio transmissions from a broadcaster’s antenna. In addition, they boosted the amplification of audio signals heard by a radio listener.

KFMT changed to WDGY in 1925.

In 1925, the first AC-powered radio receiver, the RCA Radiola 30, Model NS-30-1 console, was sold.

In 1927, radio stations were governed and licensed by the US Federal Radio Commission.

On Nov. 11, 1928, The US Federal Radio Commission upgraded WCCO to a clear-channel station with a frequency of 810 kc.

In September of 1932, WCCO was licensed to transmit its radio signal at a powerful 50,000 watts.

During the day, listeners received WCCO’s clear-channel 50,000-watt signal on radio sets from Duluth to Rochester and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin.

At night, listeners heard WCCO radio throughout the upper Midwest, the central US, and parts of Canada.

WCCO became known as “The station that serves the nation.”

On March 12, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation over the radio in his first evening “fireside chat.”

On June 19, 1934, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began regulating radio, telephone, and television companies.

Also in 1934, WTCN (W Twin Cities Newspapers) radio began broadcasting on 1250 kc and was advertised as “The Minneapolis Tribune Station.”

On June 16, 1940, the “Land Of Lakes” radio station WLOL began broadcasting on a frequency of 1300 kc from studios at 1730 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.

In March of 1941, WCCO’s radio frequency changed to 830 kc.

Minnesota’s first FM radio stations, WTCN-FM in Minneapolis and KSTP-FM in St. Paul, began broadcasting in 1947.

In 1947, AT&T Bell Laboratories demonstrated an electronic component called a point-contact transistor that would eventually replace the vacuum tube.

In October of 1954, the Regency TR-1 radio manufactured in Camden, NJ, became the first pocket-sized handheld transistor radio sold in the US.

On Jan. 4, 2022, the FCC reported that 15,389 AM and FM radio stations were operating in the country.

What will radio be like for those listening in 2122?

Stay tuned.

WLAG became Minneapolis’s first licensed commercial radio station. 
(Sept. 5, 1922)