The Later Journeys - 16. Person to Person

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Once we were all assembled back in the kitchen, Ben quietly asked Warren if he might have a word in private. The two of them disappeared back down the hall. A moment later, I heard a chuckle from Warren and their voices combined in discussion. Then they came back, but no one offered any explanation. Warren was smiling.

Trevor had a cloth bag with him; he set it on the table and brought forth the contents. It was a black Bakelite rotary-dial telephone, like the one I remembered my grandparents having. I thought I might even remember how to operate it.

Trevor untangled the long cord, reached behind him and plugged the phone into a jack. He lifted the earpiece and we could all hear the faint humming of a dial tone. Without saying anything, he rotary-dialed a 1, followed by a 10-digit number, listened for a moment, then replaced the receiver.

“All right,” he said. “Ben, this is a telephone. This morning you learned about one of the earlier modes of communication, telegraph. It was popular from the mid-1830s through much of the 20th century. The last telegraph message, or telegram, was sent in the year two thousand thirteen. That's the main reason why Hop said not to worry about learning Morse code. Telegraph was replaced, first by telephones and later by something called the Internet, which we’ll explain later in great detail, I promise.”

He touched the phone that sat on the table, and as he spoke, he punctuated his explanations with numerous mime-like gestures. “A man named Alexander Graham Bell is credited for inventing the telephone, but many other people contributed. The earliest models hung on the wall. You would pick up an earpiece, turn a crank, and an operator would answer you. The operator was usually quite far away. The communication came over lines -- wires. It still does. This is a working telephone. Nowadays we call it a land-line, and currently, these aren’t terribly common anymore. There is another type of telephone that we’ll show you soon.

“This one, you would pick up the receiver--” he demonstrated, then handed it to Ben, who placed it next to his ear, with Warren assisting. We saw his eyes widen at the sound of the dial tone, but a moment later he thrust the piece away from his ear as the gentle hum was replaced by a loud bawp-bawp-bawp.

“Oh, sorry!” exclaimed Trevor, gently taking the receiver back from Ben and replacing it. “It’s been a while since I used one of these. If you keep the receiver ‘off the hook,’ as they call it, for more than a few seconds, you’ll get a reminder like that one. At one point, long ago, you could leave it off the hook as long as you wanted. When you wanted to make a call, all you had to do was tap these buttons --” He lifted the receiver again and punched at the cradle buttons a few times. “--and you’d either get the dial tone or an operator would come on and ask if you needed help. As I mentioned, people don’t use this too often now. I can’t remember the last time I did. You could go out into a city and on every street corner there would be a phone booth, where you could put coins in and call someone. They still have them, but you really have to search.”

He got up and went to a table at the front of the house near the door, and picked up his cell phone, which he’d set down there upon arriving.

“This is my telephone, but I’m only using it for a moment, to demonstrate that one.” He tapped and swiped the screen for a moment as we sat waiting. Suddenly, we all jumped as the Bakelite phone let out a jangling ring. That thing was loud! I could feel my heart racing, starting to slow only after the second ring. That’s when I picked up. Ben wasn’t about to do it; he needed to be shown.

“Hello,” I said, meeting Trevor’s gaze and smiling. Trevor moved back into the hallway so that his voice would be more easily heard through the phone. I handed the receiver to Ben, who once again placed the top portion against his ear.

He said nothing, just listened. I could hear Trevor saying something. Gradually, Ben relaxed visibly, and after a pause, said “Dr. Montgomery, I am...here.” I thought that was every bit as good as “Watson, come here, I need you” or “What hath God wrought?”

We applauded this new breakthrough for Ben. A moment later, Ben listened, then took the phone from his ear, looked at Warren and me and said “Dr. Montgomery says I should ask you to shut up.” He wore a tentative little smile, not knowing precisely what Trevor had meant, but somehow sensing it was humorous.

Trevor spoke again. Ben paused, said “Goodbye, Dr. Montgomery,” and carefully replaced the receiver. Trevor came back into the room and affectionately patted Ben on the back.

“Did you enjoy that?” he asked Ben, ignoring Warren, who smirked and mumbled “Was it as good for you as it was for me?” under his breath.

Ben looked overwhelmed and slightly winded. “People speak with each other everywhere with this device?” he asked. No one bothered to say that “devices like this” was more accurate. We knew what he meant. We told him about party lines, three-way calling, conference calls, collect calls and a few of the other frills that users of land-line phones had enjoyed through most of the 20th century and on into the 21st.

Ben asked Trevor “Why does your... telephone look so different from this one?”

Trevor said “The technology is very different. It has been evolving for decades. People wanted something portable. This one,” he indicated the Bakelite phone “has the drawback of attachment to the wall. The cord stretches a bit --” he picked up the receiver, stood and walked a few steps from the table. Almost immediately the main unit started sliding across the table. Warren grabbed it before it could fall. Trevor hung up the receiver and slipped his fingers under the platform where the cradle buttons were. “--and so does the wire to the wall, but--” He stood again, this time carrying the phone, with the receiver tucked between his face and his shoulder, until the cord had stretched to the max and threatened to come out of the wall. He sat back down, returning the phone to the table. “You can’t do much. My parents said it was awkward sometimes, when they needed to leave the house or even use the bathroom, if they were in the middle of a conversation and didn’t want to interrupt. People would answer the phone for other people in the household. Later, there were companies called ‘answering services,’ that would be located in an office somewhere. You could give them your number and if a call came in, it would go to them, and they would take a message.”

Ben furrowed his brow. “Your number?”

“Oh -- yes,” said Trevor. “I almost forgot. Every telephone has its own dialing number, so you can reach the owner. This one’s number is -- hold on --” He got up again and grabbed his cell phone off the shelf near the door. “Okay, it’s 856-555-8939. That’s the number I dialed to make it ring. On my phone, I tapped in some numbers. But this one is called a rotary phone. The dial is used by putting your finger in the hole for each number and -- kind of -- pulling it around until it --” He demonstrated by dialing his cell number. We heard nothing -- Trevor’s phone was on mute -- but he glanced down and, after a moment’s deliberation, turned the screen so that Ben could see the blinking green "receiver" icon. “That’s how I know the number. I can’t do the same thing on that end, though. That’s why cell phones like this are popular. There are a lot of advantages.”

“Anyway,” said Trevor, “Phones are great. Period. They’re not perfect. No technology is, and almost every single invention like it gets people complaining. I think the main concern is that it makes it less necessary for people to see each other face to face, to talk, to get to know one another. In other words, it’s impersonal.”

Ben sat and pondered this. “I could not see your face while you were out of the room, but I could hear your voice. It sounded like you, but...” He struggled to articulate the strangeness of this completely new experience. “...I could not see your face.”

We all nodded encouragement. “We understand, Ben, trust me,” I said. “But if you were traveling alone, let’s say, and needed to find someone, this could save your life. It’s happened too many times to count. In fact, there’s a special number -- you only need to dial three digits, 9, 1, 1, and the police, the fire department, or medical assistance would rush to where you were. But we only use that in a real emergency.” I sounded like a parent instructing a small child, but in this case, Ben was like a babe in the woods.

He sat back on the bench and sighed. “My word. This is nearly miraculous,” he said, and we understood that he didn’t necessarily mean that in a good way. He probably saw it as a near-supernatural phenomenon.

“Take it easy, Ben,” said Warren. “We know we’ve been throwing a lot of things at you. You don’t have to use any of these devices until or unless you get comfortable with them. And I hate to tell you, but we haven’t shown you all of them yet.” Ben shut his eyes for a moment, looking genuinely overwhelmed. Finally he looked around the table at us.

“Might we...take a break?” he asked. We were glad to do so.

After Ben went down the hall, I asked Trevor why his demonstration of telephones was so abbreviated. "Even I know it involves electromagnetism -- won't he get confused? Won't he want more of an in-depth explanation of how it works? You didn't even cover tin cans and waxed string."

"You're totally right," said Trevor. "The equipment involved for a basic demonstration is extensive -- and expensive, and when Warren and I sat down a week or so before Ben got here, I had to figure out where I'd start on this. Sooner than later, he's going to be exposed to the internet, and once that happens, we'll have Wikipedia, YouTube videos, any number of scientific and electronic journals to peruse -- he'll catch on and probably do a much better job of understanding it than I. Chances are, he'll end up explaining the whole mess back to us. So have your notebook handy."

But when the four of us reconvened for more tutelage, Trevor took time to relay all of this to Ben, with an apology for the quick overview. "For now, I think just knowing that this type of communication technology exists is a leap for you," he said. "We feel a need to give you an understanding of what life is like right now, because sooner or later, you're going to be going out, meeting people, and we think it will be most helpful for you to be able to converse about everyday things. For example, you're more likely to hear microwave ovens mentioned than crystal radios or telegraphs. We currently use phones to communicate, in one way or the other. If you see one, we want it to be something familiar to you. Will you accept my apology for the quick and incomplete lesson on telephonics?"

"By all means," said Ben. "I understand that the objective is to learn, and that I am doing. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. It is a thrilling and wondrous world you have shown me thus far. Perhaps a bit daunting, as I peer off into the distance...but I feel that I am in safe hands with diligent teachers."

"I don't know about 'diligent,'" said Warren, "But your confidence is appreciated."

Thanks again for reading. Comments always welcome. Here's the next chapter.