staff-and-line

Updated: May 10, 2025

It was the final result of ten years of invention and improvement. While this epoch-making line was being strung, Vail was pushing his "grand telephonic system" policy by organizing The American Telephone and Telegraph Company. This, too, was a master-stroke. It was the introduction of the staff-and-line method of organization into business.

Herbert Newton Casson - The History of the Telephone

Plainly, the telephone system of the future will be national, so that any two people in the same country will be able to talk to one another. It will not be competitive, for the reason that no farmer would think for a moment of running his farm on competitive lines. It will have a staff-and-line organization, to use a military phrase.

Herbert Newton Casson - The History of the Telephone