CHANGES

NOTHING HAS done more to shrink our world globally

_than the telephone. Airplanes and automobiles come close, but, it is the phone that is in the hands of most people every day.

Before the telephone, there was the telegraph, a contraption that required a special language by an operator who tapped long and short strokes on a key.

The key strokes would be convert-

“. ed to electrical impulses and cause a similar key at the other end of a wire (telegraph line) to make the same tap- ping sounds, It was a limited way of communicating, but it did the job.

Amazingly every telegraph opera- tor had his own style of tapping. Other operators could tell who was at the other end.

’ "When the phone first arrived, you couldn’t even dial. Every cail had to pass through a central switch board.

Eventually, the dial system allowed every registered phone loca- tion a number.

Think how magical it is to be able to pick up a phone, dial anywhere in the world and in seconds be talking to somebody with the clarity and ease of

. calling someone next door.

The phone has become a neces-

sary convenience. You can be reached

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alany time, even while you are sleep: ing or cating. Coutl this be an invie sion of privacy? Th has without a doubt sped up the pace of life. lustestd of tiking a leisurely stroll to find somebody and talk to them, now you just phone and presto, you got tem. Not bad. saves a tot of time. But. gosh, a relaxing stroll sounded good too. Then again, think of how many people you could contact by Just sitting glued to the phone all day, More than if you had to walk, right?

People are forever wanting more telephone features, and even if they don’t want them, the phone compa- nies and the technology will see that more are available. It has to be better, faster and more convenient,

Business people want features like hold, and several lines and even speaker phones so they just have to talk in the room and the phone will hear their voice. The competition brought along by the sale of phones produced for the retail market rather than for the telephone compunies sparked a range of new features fora reasonable price.

Hold, redial and storage of phone numbers for one button calling are just a few. .

Notice the words button and stor- age. Sort of sounds like a computer. Well. that’s because it is, Even the early phone could be considered a kind of computer, but, not by today’s standards. The telephone can really do some neat tricks. It hus become less mechanical and more digital — like computers. In fact, the numbers some phones can store, are stored ina tiny computer chip and will likely outlast you. If your phone can do tone dialing, then it is operating digitally. Look the phone over to sce if there is a switch that can change the phone from tone to pulse. If so, you can see what the difference in dialing is between a tone system and a pulse (the old) system.

The whole phone system that we rely on so heavily is, at last, on the verge of becoming completely digi- tal. Phones are becoming more reli- able by using the microchip. and keeping everything down the line dig- ital, even the way the phone directs

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your call when vou dial.

Can you recall a few years apo, you could get Hines that were so faint that you had to shout, Long distance ralls were particularly bad. Now there is fess shouting over the phone to be heard thanks to digital net- works. You see. digital systems do not destroy the sound of your voice, But modem phones have their problems toa,

Itseems that not too many hous or businesses are without an answer- ing machine, Have you ever had to

See Network page 43

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