Theodore Vail was president of AT&T between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 5 Conversations Philadelphia Inquirer _______________<\/span><\/p>\n Theo. N. Vail Describes Invention of Multiplex Telephony and Telegraphy<\/span><\/p>\n _______________<\/span><\/p>\n Wires Can Now Be Used Simultaneously for Both Purposes If Desired<\/span><\/p>\n _______________<\/span><\/p>\n Special to the Inquirer WASHINGTON, Dec. 12. \u2013 The invention and development of a practical system of multiplex telephony and telegraphy are described as of recent accomplishment by Theodore N. Vail, in a letter to Postmaster General Burleson, made public by the latter today.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Vail said in his letter:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAfter several years of intense effort a practical system of multiplex telephony and telegraphy has been invented and developed, by the use of which it is now possible to increase many fold the message-carrying capacity of long telephone and telegraph wires, especially of the open wire type.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Four Conversations at Once<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Vail said the service had been in operation between Baltimore and Pittsburgh for more than a month.<\/span><\/p>\n Under the system four telephone conversations can be carried on over one pair of wires at the same time, in addition to the telephone conversation provided by ordinary methods.\u00a0 Heretofore the best possible over a single pair of wires was one conversation, although a \u201cphantom circuit\u201d arrangement, developed some years ago, enabled three telephone circuits to be obtained from two pair of wires.\u00a0 Now, by the latter device, ten simultaneous telephone conversations are obtainable from the two pairs of wires.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis represents an increase of more than three fold in the telephone capacity of the wires as compared with the best previous state of the art,\u201d said Mr. Vail in his letter.\u00a0 \u201cAnd a five fold increase under conditions where the phantom circuit is not employed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sensational Results<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Vail goes on to state that sensational results have also been attained in telegraphy by the new system.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe nature of the developments,\u201d said Mr. Vail, \u201cis such that if desired wires may be used partly for telephone and partly for telegraph.\u00a0 _____ pair of wires is available either for five simultaneous telephone conversations or for forty simultaneous telegraph messages, or partly for one and partly for the other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It is announced that from the nature of the apparatus and methods, the system is not practically advantageous [for] short lines.\u00a0 Its application on lines, however, is to be extended immediately.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n ____________________<\/span><\/p>\n Theodore Newton Vail, at<\/span> “New Multiplex System of Telephony”, Electrical World<\/em>, V 73, N 1, January 4, 1919, pp. 11-13.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An article from the Philadelphia Inquirer on December 23, 1918, carrying Theodore N. Vail’s announcement about the the advent of Multiplex Telephony.\u00a0 The full text of the article is presented below, followed by an article from Electrical World of January, 1919, describing the development and implications of this technology in more detail.\u00a0 Theodore Vail was … Continue reading Multitasking Begins! (Somewhat…) – The Advent of Multiplex Telephony, circa 1918: “Five Conversations On One Pair Wires”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[333,331,332,337,330],"class_list":["post-2388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sociology","category-technology","tag-american-telephone-telegraph","tag-american-telephone-and-telegraph","tag-att","tag-multiplex-telephony","tag-theodore-n-vail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2393,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions\/2393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Article-Philadelphia-Inquirer-1918-12-13-22-5-Conversations-On-One-Pair-of-Wires_edited-2.jpg\")
<\/a>____________________<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOn One Pair Wires<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>December 13, 1918<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>INQUIRER BUREAU, 1406 G St., N.W.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a>References<\/span><\/p>\n
\n https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Theodore_Newton_Vail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n