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The Telephone

Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM!

               

            Since 1877, the telephone has been a means of communication and the instrument has gone through many evolutions. On display at the museum is a Western Electric wall telephone, black, with a receiver that hangs on a hook on the left side. It has two bells plus mouthpiece to speak into and a crank on the right side. Usually, the phone was connected to a party line and was mounted on the wall at a height for an adult standing while using the phone. I remember the one on the wall in my grandparent’s kitchen.

            To call someone on an early phone, you would pick up the receiver and turn the crank two or three times to get the attention of the local operator. The operator, usually a woman, would answer and ask what number you wanted to call (7-4 or 7-6, stated as 7 ring 4 or 7 ring six, for example).

A 1921 photo shows the Millinocket New England Telephone & Telegraph switchboard office. To place a local call, you would ring the operator using the crank, she would ask what number you wanted and she (sitting in front of a large switchboard with many cords and plug ins) would connect you to the number. These were all “party lines.” You and 3-4 of your neighbors were all on the same line. It was common in those days for someone hearing their neighbor’s number being called, to quietly pick up the phone and listen in. If the fire horn blew, some folks would ring the operator and ask where the fire was. The operator took the place of “social media’ of that era!

The 1921 Millinocket telephone office photo shows Mabel Rowe McClish, supervisor; Theresa Pinette Arnold and Helen Lewis Farquhar. The office was located on the second floor of the Decker-Gonya Block (corner Penobscot & Central), later Gonya’s Drug Store & most recently the 2-story Fernald building. An early photo shows the building with a sign (2nd level) that says TELEPHONE.

The evolution of the telephone is interesting. The museum has several other vintage phones. One is a battery-operated crank telephone that was part of GNP’s early communication system in the Woodlands Dept. This particular phone was located in the cook’s building near the holding dams at Millinocket Lake. This crank telephone was used to time the water release from the holding dams to the sawmill ponds on Lower Millinocket Lake. GNP had their own phone lines between farms, woods camps and the main office in Bangor. Detailed information on this can be found in chapter 21 of John McLeod’s The Greater Great Northern.

Other phones from other eras on display at the museum include a table phone with no dial…pick up the phone and wait for someone to answer. Another is likely a hotel/motel room phone. Someone as the front desk would answer. Another hotel phone is a room phone from the Heritage Motor Inn. It is brown with a red light to show there is a message and it is a push-button phone.  Another phone on display has a dial which is a challenge for young visitors. Their dialing finger sometimes isn’t strong enough to complete the dial.

A recent donation (in the military room) added a set of two WWII field telephones to the collection. There are cords to attach to a box on the back of a military jeep. The original label is intact with serial number and other information.



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