LXII.
TELEPHONE.
The
telegraph is one of the most wonderful and also one of the most useful
inventions of modern times. The remotest portions of the world through its
instrumentality are brought within speaking distance. The benefits to trade and
commerce by its use are incalculable, In a thousand ways it is beneficial to
mankind. In fact, so necessary has it become in the every day transactions of
business that it could not be dispensed with without serious loss.
The
first telegraph line built in this part of the state was what was called the
Ohio and Mississippi line. It extended from Chicago through Michigan City;
LaPorte, Plymouth, Rochester, and thence to Logansport, where it intersected a
line extending from Toledo, Ohio, along the Wabash river, and having its
terminus at Evansville, Indiana. An office was opened in Plymouth in 1852,
mainly for the purpose of enabling the company to keep its line in repair.
Before the office was opened here there was no office between LaPorte and
Logansport, a distance of nearly 100 miles, and the frequency with which the
line "got down," owing to the wilderness through which it was built,
and the long distances the repairers had
327
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
to
travel to repair it, and the difficulty of finding out where the break was, made it necessary to shorten the
distance between stations. The
merchants, and businessmen of Plymouth contributed to the purchase of an
instrument, and the office was established in John Cougle’s store, which stood
where the post office is now located. An operator was sent from Chicago, who
put the office in shape and taught Henry Cougle the telegraph alphabet and how
to operate the machine. He was an apt pupil, and it took him but a few days to
master the whole thing. In those days messages were taken and conversation
carried on between operators on what was called paper instruments. These
instruments were made so that strips of paper an inch in width could pass
through between the cylinder and pen lever when the line was being used by any
operator on the circuit and the impression made on the paper, which enabled the
operator to decipher the message by dots and strokes. Mr. Cougle learned very
rapidly and soon became an expert operator. He and his father had a misunderstanding
and he left the office in 1853 and was stationed at Kansas City, Missouri,
where he had charge of the repeating office. A year later he returned to
Plymouth, was taken sick and died. After he left the office it was turned over
to Daniel McDonald, who was then postmaster, who operated in connection with
the post office immediately west of the Masonic Temple until the office was
closed and the line removed to the New Albany and Salem railroad about two
years later.
From
that time until the completion of the Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad Plymouth
was without telegraphic communication. Upon the completion of that road, in
1858, the Western Union Telegraph Company built a single line along the track
of the railroad, when an office was again opened in Plymouth, the writer of
this history was employed as the first operator, who continued as such until
the breaking out of the war in 1861. After the beginning of the war the
movement of troops from west to east commenced, and as the soldier trains were
usually run through in the nighttime, operators were required to remain until
relieved, which frequently did not happen till morning. The business of the
road increased so rapidly from that time on that it became necessary to
establish a night office and employ a night operator, which was done in 1862,
and has been continued until the present time. The business of the telegraph
increased rapidly, also, so much so that it became necessary to erect
additional lines. As the business increased lines were stretched until now
there is a network of lines on either side of the Pennsylvania road, numbering
probably forty. Lines have been built along all the railroads in the county and
offices established in all the principal towns in the county.
It
would be impossible, even were it necessary, to get the facts in regard to the
date of establishing offices and building the lines that have been erected
since the first line was built in 1851. The whirligig of time whirls us around
too rapidly to permit us to keep track of the rapidity which these numerous
public improvements grow into existence before we are aware of it.
A
Totally Deaf Operator.
Totally
deaf, yet able to distinguish the dots and dashes of the Morse telegraph
alphabet, William E. Elliot, of Tippecanoe, in Tippecanoe township,
328 HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Marshall
County, has for twenty-six years represented the New York, Chicago & St.
Louis Railroad company, commonly known as "The Nickel Plate" road, as
agent and operator. Just after the railroad was built through to Chicago in
1891, Mr. Elliott took a position as the sole representative of the company at
Tippecanoe. At that time his hearing was far from being good and in time it
gradually became worse, so that he was unable to detect any sound.
Some
years prior to the time Mr. Elliott began to learn telegraphing, operators
caught messages that were sent them by letting long strips of paper run through
their machines, on which the pen lever left the indentations of the letters and
words so that operators could take their time and decipher the message at their
leisure. But since that time paper instruments, as they were called, have been
entirely abandoned and operators are required to read by the sound of the
instrument, and, pencil in hand, have the message written out in full when the
operator at the other end of the line has finished sending and closed his key.
The telegraph letters are made entirely of dots and dashes properly spaced, and
to an inexperienced ear when rapidly made by an operator on his instrument,
convey no more meaning than the sounds produced by the falling of shot in a tin
pan.
As
soon as Mr. Elliott realized that there was a time not far distant when he
would be totally deaf, he set about to devise some way of reading the telegraph
by which he could still continue in the employ of the railroad company.
Following the idea adopted by the old-time telegraph operator, he loosened the
hammer on the telegraph sounder and read the dots and dashes by sight. There
were times, however, when he was not watching the instruments, and on these
occasions the train dispatcher frequently called and called without a response
from the "TP" station. Mr. Elliott realized that some other plan was
necessary, and he tried attaching a metal cord to the sounder and holding a
metal plug fastened to the cord in his mouth.
This
was not altogether satisfactory and he tried other things. An old horsewhip
fell into his hands. He had never paid much attention to a horsewhip before,
but this particular whip interested him. He cut a piece about two feet in
length from the butt, and to one end he attached a metal plate. The other end
was fastened to a telegraph sounder. Elliott placed his forehead to the plate
and his problem was solved. For years he has received the code through his
frontal bone and through a horsewhip. Mr. Elliott is fifty-five years of age,
but he is still regarded as one of the most expert sending operators on the
division of the road on which he works.
The
writer, having during his life been a telegraph operator nine years, four of
which were under the original paper ribbon system and the remainder of the time
as a "sounder," is prepared to say that the achievement of Mr.
Elliott has probably never been equaled in the history of telegraphing the
world over.
The
Telephone.
The
telephone, which came into use about the latter half of 1878, is the latest and
most useful discovery in connection with electricity yet made. In its first
invention it was considered only useful as a toy, but it was but a very brief
and a very short space of time before it was found out that it
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 329
was
to be an invention, when permanently introduced, that not be dispensed with.
It
is an instrument attached to a telegraph or other wire, similar in appearance
to a mouthpiece to a speaking tube, and is so arranged that the voice of the
speaker talking at it in an audible tone is forced over the wire; almost any
distance, and can be distinctly heard by the listener at the other end of the
wire listening through a similar tube. Telephones are very useful in
transacting business, and in social intercourse. In fact, they have become so
thoroughly interwoven into our business and social relations that they are a
part of us, and we could hardly get along without them. The Bell Telephone
company was the first to start here, probably in the latter part of 1878. The
price for the use of phones was, the people thought, exorbitantly high, and as
they had not been educated to the necessity of their use they did not give it
sufficient patronage to make it a paying invest- ment. Mr. C. A. Reeve secured
their franchise to do business in Plymouth, and later, in connection with Dr.
D. C. Kt1ott, built up an excellent system, which gave general satisfaction,
and by fixing the price at living rates succeeded in securing nearly all the
business men as patrons. He also extended his wires to all the towns of
importance in the county and to many farm- houses as well. He also connected
his system with the long-distance wires, giving his patrons facilities to
communicate with all the large cities. He recently disposed of his plant to the
Winona Telephone Co. Bremen, Bourbon, Argos and Culver each maintain a
telephone exchange.
Wireless
Telegraphy and Telephony.
The
most marvelous discovery of the infancy of the twentieth century in which we
are living is that of telegraphing and telephoning through the air without the
aid of wires or any other mechanical appliances. The rapidity with which
wireless telegraphy has come into general use is as marvelous almost as the
discovery itself, and while the machinery and appliances by which it is
operated are not as perfect as they undoubtedly soon will be, they are much
more so than the Morse system of telegraphy was in the early history of that
marvelous invention, less than sixty years ago. The government of the United
States, after experimenting and thorough investigation, has adopted it in the
naval service especially, and finds that it is a perfect success. The great fleet
of United States battleships commanded by Admiral Evans, before leaving Hampton
Roads in December, 1907, were furnished with wireless telegraph and telephone
instruments and appliances, and as the fleet moved out into the boundless sea
communications were carried on between the officers of the several vessels of
the fleet as easily and correctly as if they were sitting together in one of
the cabins of the flagship" This is the first practical application of the
wireless telephone in the history of the science of navigation, and the
experiments thus far have produced results that are almost incredible. For the
first time the commander of a fleet can give his orders silently and secretly
into a mechanical apparatus and have them communicated instantly and accurately
to the subordinates for whom they are intended. This seems like a fairy story,
but it is nevertheless true. It seems almost beyond belief that a man can sit
in the cabin of his ship and converse across the water with a man in the cabin
of another ship without even a wire-without anything but atmosphere and water
330
HISTORY
OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
between
them. But Admiral Evans reports daily to the department at Washington from
across the sea that the wireless system, both as to the telegraph and
telephone, is almost a perfect success. As the poet has well said:
We
are living, we are dwelling
In
a grand and awful time-
In
an age on ages telling-
To
be living is sublime!