@Mark Ollig
In late 1877, George Willard Coy (1836 to 1915), a Civil War veteran, obtained a telephone franchise from the Bell Telephone Co., established earlier that year.
He opened the District Telephone Company of New Haven, CT, Jan. 28, 1878, the first commercial telephone exchange.
The New Haven District Telephone Co. published the world’s first telephone directory Feb. 21, 1878.
This single-page cardboard directory listed approximately 50 subscriber businesses and residences with telephones – without telephone numbers.
When a caller wanted to reach a specific subscriber, they would signal and provide the subscriber’s name to the telephone switchboard operator, who would then connect the call.
George W. Coy built the telephone switchboard, the first in the US, assembling it himself using materials from a local telegraph company and household “carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids, and bustle wire.”
Early telephones required a single wire for transmission, with an earth-ground used as the return path to complete a talk circuit.
Wet batteries or lead-acid batteries with a nominal voltage of 48VDC powered most of the central office telephone equipment.
Magneto telephones were connected to galvanized iron wires strung between poles and attached to glass or porcelain insulators to prevent electrical shorts and signal loss.
Subscriber telephones, like magneto wall phones, relied on dry batteries, such as zinc-carbon dry cells, with a nominal voltage of about 1.5 volts.
Typically, two or three of these cells were connected in series in a magneto phone to power the transmitter (microphone) and the magneto generator (for ringing).
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Winsted Telephone Company (where I once worked for many years) used a single-folded cardboard directory.
The subscriber would crank the hand generator on their magneto phone, creating an electrical ringing current that traveled to the local switchboard, alerting the operator to an incoming call via a spring-loaded metal drop annunciator.
The annunciator, visible above the line connector jack, would fall open when a subscriber signaled the operator by hand-cranking the magneto on their telephone.
An audible click could be heard from the activating relay of the drop annunciator on the switchboard panel.
Other switchboard models illuminated an associated status lamp above the subscriber’s connector jack.
Early telephones used magneto generators and dry-cell batteries, and later models adopted a ‘common-battery’ system from the local telephone office.
In the 1940s, Winsted Telephone Co. used a common-battery system, which eliminated the need for individual dry cell batteries in each telephone and enabled automatic signaling without a user-generated ringing current.
When the phone’s receiver was removed from the switchhook, it completed a circuit and sent a signal to the switchboard.
My grandmother, father, or someone from Winsted who was employed to work the switchboard would see a lamp light or a metal cover drop over the corresponding subscriber line port, signaling that a call was coming in.
The switchboard operator would plug into the line using a patch cord, then connect the call to the requested number using another patch cord and flip a toggle switch to ring the calling party.
In 1947, the US introduced 86 numbering plan areas (area codes) as part of the original North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA).
AT&T established NANPA to promote direct-distance dialing and speed up long-distance calling without using an operator.
The same year, Winsted and many other central Minnesota towns were incorporated into the 612 area code.
In 1996, the western segment of the 612 area code, including Winsted, was split off due to escalating demand for phone numbers and reassigned into area code 320.
The 1948 Winsted Telephone Company directory, a double-sided, single-folded cardboard sheet, listed 293 subscriber names with their alphanumeric codes, but it did not include any street addresses.
Back then, a subscriber would lift the telephone receiver off the switchhook and ask the switchboard operator to connect them to the individual or business’s name, or the code from the directory.
Say a subscriber in 1948 wanted to call Glenard Gatz.
Mr. Gatz’s telephone party line code was “10 R 18.” The 10 stood for the line, and the R meant ring, 18, for ring 18.
The calling subscriber would tell the operator, “Connect me to Glenard Gatz,” or “ten, ring 18,” which directed the operator to use Mr. Gatz’s unique ringing pattern on the shared party line to make the connection.
I knew Glen Gatz. He operated the gas station on Second Street, just south of the Winsted Telephone Co., from the building where Al LeDoux previously operated the Phillip’s 66 gas station; I remember Mr. LeDoux, as well.
In the 1940s, Winsted rural telephone lines could serve up to 24 subscribers on a single party line, although eight to 12 subscribers per line was more common.
Those on the party line had to pay attention to the number of rings to figure out who was receiving the call.
I was told many folks on the party line would pick up their receivers to listen in no matter how many rings or to ask if the call was for them.
Brownies Cafe used a private business line, and its number was listed in the directory as “137.”
A subscriber would request either “137” or “Brownies Cafe,” and the switchboard operator would connect their call using a patch cord.
The Coast-To-Coast store’s telephone number was 66.
How many Winsted residents remember Brownies Cafe and the Coast-To-Coast store?
In 1949, Winsted Telephone Company installed a Wilcox Electric electromechanical automatic relay telephone exchange switching system, which allowed Winsted subscribers to use telephones with rotary dials to complete local phone calls without operator assistance.
The 1878 District Telephone Company’s telephone directory can be seen at the University of Connecticut digital archives:https://bit.ly/4hDw1cZ.
Today, most local telephone companies no longer publish printed directories; digital directories are now accessible online or through mobile apps.
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| Winsted directories from 1948, 1978, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1993, and 1994. Photo courtesy Mark Ollig. |
