Images: Tekniska Museet
The 19th century heralded the patent of the telephone, and soon there was a mad scramble to get everyone connected to the phone grid as folks started to embrace this new technology.
Unfortunately the practicalities of telephone technology at the time meant a physical line had to be strung from each telephone to the phone exchange – where an operator would then manually connect the call.
This resulted in an elaborate weave of telephone wires stretching from people’s homes and businesses up through the sky to large, imposing towers.
The central telephone exchange pictured is the Telefontornet in Stockholm, Sweden. Standing 80 metres tall, it connected an astonishing 5,000 telephone lines, and as you’d expect it was not just vulnerable to the Scandinavian weather but had an air of danger that would turn any modern health and safety officer ten shades paler!
Suffice to say fallen lines, fires, ripped off roofs and disconnected calls were the norm.
Luckily the technology soon developed, and although it obviously took awhile to get to where we are today, these towers were soon abandoned. The mighty Telefontornet was decommissioned in 1913, but was kept as a landmark and a nod Stockholm’s technological past, until a fire in 1953 which saw it torn down. Now all we can do is look back and wonder at the amazing images of the telephone’s formative years…
Images: Tekniska Museet