Phone Service, 1880
By Gordon E. Hopper
Residents of Milford are known to have been using the telephone as early as 1880. The success of the instrument was evidently instantaneous because three years later, the telephone company was petitioning the town for permission to place more poles on the public streets.
The telephone company continued its expansion until it was recorded in 1888 that there were 75 telephone lines in the town. Plans were underway in 1887 to extend the service to Hopedale and to Upton. The development continued and in 1901, telephone wires were being placed underground and in 1930, the poles on Main Street were removed
A sharp improvement in Milford telephone service was noted in 1913 when a battery system was installed. Previously, the turning of a small crank would ring a bell in the telephone operator’s ear. This gave access to central and the operator would make the connection. With the new battery system in operation, the lifting of the receiver automatically signaled central.
Further extensive improvements were made in 1929 with more than $25,000 being expended in various phases of the work.
The telephone service and equipment sustained a tremendous blow in 1921, when on November 27, 28 and 29, one of Milford’s worst sleet storms paralyzed all traffic and raised havoc with all wiring. Out of 911 circuits and 2,208 telephones, 725 circuits went out of service and the toll lines leading out of town went down. Only the lines to Framingham and Boston, which were in cable, withstood the storm. More than 70 men were added to the crews to repair the damage as quickly as possible.
In 1915, there were 1,176 subscribers in Milford with ten operators. Five years later the number had reached 1,723, with a corresponding increase in the number of operators.
In 1923, the operators went out on strike, but service was not materially delayed. In 1925, there were 2,867 subscribers, and by 1930 there were 3,509 with 30 operators. The increase in 15 years was approximately 300 percent.
Another electrical form of communication – the telegraph – had a history synonymous with that of the telephone, although the non-local nature of the system made it less noticeable.
The local telegraph business steadily increased and later, the Morse keys were replaced with automatic sending and receiving machines, thus making of the telegraph a speedier and more accurate public servant. As early as 1907, a man by the name of George L. Cooke on Silver Hill advanced the claim of discovering thewireless. Records fail to show that Cooke received much credit for his discovery, but it is comforting to know that a Milford person was working at apparatus which is today now widely used.
Research material used in this feature story was supplied by Robin Philbin of Milford. Milford Daily News.
Here’s how the Draper Company could be reached in 1903, according to a Draper publication from that year. “Telegrams are telephoned to us from the Milford office of the Western Union Co. If addressed to Hopedale they will reach us promptly. Our long distance telephone call is Milford 26-13, 12 and 3.” Textile Texts, p. ix, 1903
Voted – That for various reasons, especially the compactness of the town population, a telephone is unnecessary in the library. Bancroft Library Trustees, 1912
The question of a telephone was presented and it was voted to install a two party line in the Library as an experiment. Bancroft Library Trustees, 1919 At a meeting several months later, the trustees’ minutes report, The most noticeable improvement this year has been the installation of telephone service. This has already proved of great assistance, and its increasing use indicates that the patrons of the Library appreciate its convenience and the many advantages it affords.
The High School, the South and the Dutcher Street buildings have been supplied with telephone connections. This much needed convenience is greatly appreciated. We are trying to arrange the use of these so that they will not become a nuisance, but rather a help to all concerned, especially in case of emergency. Electric lights in the buildings not now equipped, will be of service on the short and dark days. Carroll H. Drown, Superintendent of Schools, 1920.
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The Electric Light
Its Introduction in Milford Assured – A Company Formed
Real Estate Bought and a Plant Ordered
For some little time past, Milford parties have been looking into the electric light question, with a view to the introduction of the light here. Conferences have been held with various parties, representing different systems, and as a result, Milford is to have the electric light as soon as the plant can be procured and the necessary arrangements completed. A company has been formed, to the known as Milford Electric Light and Power Company, embracing several of our well-known businessmen.
The Mayhew shop on Central Street has been purchased and work will be commenced at once on the repairs and alteration required. The dynamos have been ordered and everything will be pushed to completion as rapidly as possible. The projectors are confident of the success of the enterprise and state that wherever the light has been put in and properly managed, it has succeeded from the start. They also state that experience in other places shows that instead of its injuring the gas companies, it has proved an advantage, inasmuch as it causes an increase in the amount of gas burned by those who do not use the electric light, in order that their places of business may be as well lighted as their neighbors. We believe the introduction of the electric light will be of benefit to the town and trust the efforts of the projectors will meet with deserved success.
In this connection, it is expected that a concern manufacturing electrical apparatus of all kinds will locate here, securing room in the same building, and Worcester parties, who were desirous of locating here and making small machine supplies a short time ago, will also probably be accommodated. Should both these parties come here, as expected, it will add two new industries to the business of the town. Milford Gazette, September 4, 1885
Milford Electric Light Co., formed and Milford is now to have electric lighting. Poles and wires have arrived, a new boiler bought and carpenters are at work on the building on Central Street. Milford Gazette, October 21, 1885
The Electric Light
The electric light shone satisfactorily for a brief space of time last evening and also on Wednesday evening, one lamp being in operation at the Exchange Street corner and another at the junction of Main and School streets. The rink was also lighted for a short time. As is the case with all new enterprises, it takes some time to get into satisfactory working order, and those who expected to see the light work to perfection from the start have expected more than the superintendent has so far been able to accomplish, but the light will undoubtedly be in entirely satisfactory operation in a few days.
The company sent for the insurance commissioner who came out from Boston Wednesday and pronounced the plant and apparatus all ready for work, with the exception of a few unsuitable switches which have been sent back to the Thomson Houston Co. and new ones substituted. Lights have been placed in the following stores and places of business: Currier & Kendall, skating rink, W.H. Giles & Co., C.W. Wilcox, J. Allen Rice, P. Gillon and J. W. Harris. Milford Gazette, November 13, 1885
Milford Electric Light & Power Co. votes to extend the incandescent lamp street lighting to Hopedale. Milford Gazette, April 14, 1892
Electricity had arrived for a bit of street lighting and for some businesses, but it would be many years before it was in use in most homes.
There was no gas or electricity, and our light came from kerosene lamps. The week’s ironing was done with half a dozen irons that were heated on top of the stove, and tested for heat with a wet finger. A few years later, gas was brought across the pond (to Bancroft Park and the Lake Street area) and we became quite modern. The simplest gas light was the open flame, but for brighter illumination the Welsbach mantle burners were superior, and gave off a sizzling sound as they burned. Charles Merrill, Hopedale As I Found It, writing of life in Hopedale in the 1910s.
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GReenleaf-3
Thousands of men, women and children in Milford, Hopedale, and Mendon, and sections of Bellingham, Holliston and Upton were in the throes of a new two-million dollar telephone system yesterday, testing the latest in ultra-modern communications with weary forefingers.
Confusion, as expected, followed the conversion early Sunday morning from manual operation to that of automation, which has idled upwards of 90 telephone operators. But a special lineup of operators was on duty to intercept the calls of tired, weary and perplexed customers, and an orderly transgression to contented calmness was expected in a day or two.
Milford was dark, damp and dreary at 1:45 a.m. Sunday when the nerve-tingling cut-over to dial took place. The switchover had many telephone workmen moving in unison when the final signal came.
The old telephone office on Main Street went into oblivion in a cloud of dust as 11 pairs of hands pulled the heating coils. Elmer M. Hollis, retired veteran employee, intoned the final words. As the coils were pulled loose, dust from years of accumulation blanketed the entire rear section of the 80-foot equipment bay. A drop-cloth of gauze has been erected to protect workmen.
Simultaneously, at the new dial building on Water Street, “shims” were pulled — and two and a half years of work ended in dramatic success. Subsequent checks of all lines for dial tone by trained trouble-shooters showed the system to be in vibrantly healthy condition.
Almost immediately, the internal racket in a snap, crackle and pop symphony punctuated the morning calm in the $315,000 brick dial building as scores of residents began to place calls to test the new equipment. It was estimated that several hundred households maintained a morning alert to be among the first to talk over the history-making system.
Officials explained that the cut-over alert was sounded at 1:30 a.m. and the cut-over was made at the next opportune moment. All lines had to be cleared and all emergency calls completed before the old was replaced with the new. The conversion caught three or four lines still in use, and a terse announcement of the cut was made to these customers before they lost contact with the old system.
Milford’s permanent association with the new given name of GReenleaf is an actuality and a total of 9188 telephones are now part of a marvel of scientific achievement. Milford has come a long way from April 7, 1880, when the first telephone was installed in this town, about four years after Alexander Graham Bell’s invention.
Nearly 27,000 calls went through the dial equipment in Milford up to 11 a.m. yesterday, indicating the tremendous interest in trying out the new service.
Loyalty of employees of the telephone company was starkly evident, as 30 off-duty and some unemployed girls gathered at the old office to watch the event. An official said it was the first time he had ever seen such a turnout at a conversion. Earlier in the day, these girls had placed a wreath on the front door adorned with a ribbon. “Rest in Peace.” The old manual office building on Main Street went into darkness for the first time since 1900 as the lines were severed.
After a few minutes, three operators clutching headsets walked across deserted Main Street to the new building to take their positions at the new toll board. They were Mrs. Jane Marshall, Mrs. Alice Gillon and Miss Elizabeth Van Alstine.
The rundown of events leading up to the dial conversion went this way:
At 1:30 a.m. all permanent signals (receivers off the hook) were reported to Walter Parker, cutover supervisor, who dispatched repairmen to the homes where the receivers were off.
At 1:40 a.m., on all new calls, persons placing them were informed that the office was about to be cut over and they were requested to place their call after 2 a.m. using the new dial number.
At 1:42 a.m., on all calls that still existed that were started before 1:40 a.m., the operator cut in on the call and announced that the office was about to be cut to dial and asked the parties to place their call after 2 a.m.
Since there were no emergency calls, and the old board was clear of calls at 1:45 a.m., Richard Kingsbury, traffic manager, notified Parker at the new office who in turn called Elmer Hollis, retired wire chief at the equipment room in the old office. Hollis then told the central office repairman to pull the heat coils.
Simultaneously, Parker told Howard Johnson, chief switchman in the new office of the condition and he notified his men to pull the blocking shims from the switches. With the shims removed, 48 watts of power then surged throughout the equipment in the new office and dial service was in operation. The entire Milford area with its vicinity towns are now on a dial system with the exception of Franklin. When the newness wears off here, subscribers will notice improved local and toll transmission, faster and more trouble free service, as evidenced in other towns.
One and two-party line customers are able to dial many parts of the country without the aid of an operator by using dial codes. There is no waiting for an operator to take a call. If a line is not busy, connection takes but a second or two after all local or long distance calls are dialed.
The cutover of the “GReenleaf 3” office ended a series of events in Milford. Last Thursday the first call had been placed by Anthony Allegrezza, chairman of the board of selectmen to Elmer Hollis, retired telephone company wire chief. On Friday the first direct call to Atlanta, Georgia was placed by Thomas West, president of Draper Corporation. Mr. West dialed the code 404 plus the two letters and five digits of his Atlanta sales office telephone number and within fifteen seconds was talking to Walter M. Mitchell, director and vice president in charge of the Atlanta sales office of the Draper Corporation. Robert Bennett and Howard Johnson, central office switchmen, had actually opened up both lines so these were actual calls although it was a few days before the switchover. Nick Tosches, Milford Daily News, November 3, 1958.