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June 10, 2015

Devil’s Rope

devilsrope.jpg

Right around the same time that barbed wire was invented, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
At first, telephone companies were laying telephone wire in cities, but they weren’t interested in the rural market. Still, farmers also needed phones, which meant that they needed a network of wires to connect the farms. Barbed wire fences could serve this purpose. The barbed wire couldn’t transmit a signal quite as clearly as a nice insulated copper wire, but for many years, they did the trick. A dozen or so farms might be connected on one system and for about 25 dollars, farmers could buy a kit to rig themselves into the network. In 1907 there were 18,000 independent telephone cooperative serving nearly a million and half people. Because of this, farmers were some of the earliest adopters of telephone technology.- - | 99% Invisible
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Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 10, 2015 9:09 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

I don't think that the lower picture is of the Wichita Lineman.

Posted by: Fat Man [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 10, 2015 10:17 AM

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