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But it did not satisfy Carty, who, not content with simply-operating the board, studied its construction and began planning improvements. As Mr. Carty himself puts it: The little switchboards of that day were a good deal like the automobiles of some years ago one was likely to spend more time under the switchboard than, sitting at it!
Certainly Carty made these switchboard troubles the first stepping-stone in his climb to the top in the field of telephone engineering.
These electrical pioneers did not work as individuals, but were grouped together as the engineering staff of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. At their head was John J. Carty, and it was under his guiding genius that the great work was accomplished. John Carty is the American son of Irish parents. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1861.
Are there not more cells in one human body than there are people in the whole earth?" Some future Carty may solve the abandoned problem of the single wire, and cut the copper bill in two by restoring the grounded circuit. He may transmit vision as well as speech. He may perfect a third-rail system for use on moving trains.
Carty and his associates had not only developed a system which made it possible to talk across the continent without wires, but they had made it possible to combine wire and wireless telegraphy. He and Vail talked with each other freely and easily, while the naval officers who verified the tests marveled. But even more wonderful things were to come.
He was but twenty-six years of age when Union N. Bethell, head of the New York company, picked Carty to take charge of the telephone engineering work in the metropolis. Bethell was Vail's chief executive officer, and under him Carty received an invaluable training in executive work. Carty's largest task was putting the wires underground, and here again he was a tremendous success.
But the early use of "hello boys" was at least a success for the telephone in that it brought to its service John J. Carty. This boy pointed the way to the great improvements that made it possible to handle the constantly growing volume of calls expeditiously and effectively.
In his work with the switchboards young Carty early got in touch with Charles E. Scribner, another youngster who was doing notable work in this field. The young men became fast friends and worked much together. Scribner devoted himself almost exclusively to switchboards and came to be known as the father of the modern switchboard.
"Carty, they'd be arrested in five minutes," he reasoned. "It's a wonder they haven't been already. And Billy's people it would break their hearts. I know some of them well, you see. I was with him only last week over in Orange." "Oh!" Reed groaned. "That Girl from Orange again." He opened his lips once more to launch nervous English against this quixotism, but Strong interposed.
Soon they talked over a thousand miles, from the tower at Montauk Point to another at St. Simon's Island, Georgia. This in itself was a great achievement, but the world was not told of it. "Do it first and then talk about it" is the maxim with Theodore Vail and his telephone men. This was but a beginning, and Carty had far more wonderful things in mind.
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