A survey of The New York Times<\/em> published between 1917 and the early 1920s reveals the frequent appearance of advertisements promoting devices that were the predecessors – perhaps the harbingers? – of technologies that are now pervasive.\u00a0 Many of these involve the communication, interpretation, storage, and retrieval of information, in the realms of manufacturing, business, and military activity.\u00a0 In their depictions of dress and fashion; of speech; of human interactions, these advertisements are evocative of an era that’s largely receded beyond the horizon of common thought and cultural memory.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

As do all eras, in their own time.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The sometimes implied, occasionally hinted, and typically explicit message behind these advertisements – relevant to the world of 2017 – is the promotion of the benefits of new technologies for an enterprise:\u00a0 Enhancing human skills.\u00a0 Supplementing human activity.\u00a0 Supplanting – whether temporarily or permanently; whether fortuitously or (?!) entirely intentionally – human labor.<\/span><\/p>\n

The image below is an example of one such advertisement.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Published in The New York Times<\/em> on June 18, 1918, the ad promotes the Automatic Electric Company’s P.A.X. (Private Automatic Exchange) telephone communications system.\u00a0 Founded in 1901 by Almon Stowger of Kansas City, who was, “…inspired by the\u00a0idea of manufacturing automatic telephone exchanges that would not require switchboard operators,” the company was acquired by General Telephone and Electronics (GT&E) in 1955, through a merger with Theodore Gary & Company.\u00a0 It continued operations until 1983, when it was merged by GT&E with Lenkurt into GTE Network Systems.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

____________________<\/span><\/p>\n

The advertisement – the text of which is presented below – is simple and direct, relying more on text than images.\u00a0 Well, hey, there’s only one image, anyway:\u00a0 A rotary phone.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The users of the P.A.X. system are listed below.<\/span><\/p>\n

Irony…\u00a0 The system’s largest user – with 880 units – was a firm once known as Sears, Roebuck, and Company…\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Some things never change.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

And other things?\u00a0 Well, they do.\u00a0 And, they will.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Let Your Telephones Help<\/em> \u2013 Not Hinder<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Many business plans today are finding their telephones a hindrance, not a help.<\/span><\/p>\n

Slow connections, wrong numbers, incessant \u201cbusy\u201d are taking a heavy toll of time and efficiency in these establishments because interior calls \u2013 60 per cent or more of the average traffic \u2013 are crowded onto the already overburdened city telephone system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Never before were operators so scarce, equipment so overburdened, traffic so heavy, and these hindrances to efficient city telephone service are daily growing more serious.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your city telephones have one vital duty \u2013 keeping you in touch with the outside world.\u00a0 You dare not slow up these business activities with organization messages.<\/span><\/p>\n

For true efficiency and genuine economy department-to-department calls should pass over separate, distinct lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Automatic Telephones of the Private Automatic Exchange \u2013 the P.A.X. \u2013 handle all interior calls with lightning speed and unfailing accuracy, over separate wires. <\/span><\/p>\n

At one stroke the P.A.X. frees your city telephones for city calls, speeds up every process of your business and reduces rental costs to a minimum.<\/span><\/p>\n

The P.A.X. needs no operator and gives 24-hour-service.<\/span><\/p>\n

The P.A.X. enables fewer men to do more work with less effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

The P.A.X. will serve 20 telephones, 200 or 2,000 with equal ease.<\/span><\/p>\n

The P.A.X. has no complicated cables, no troublesome push-buttons.<\/span><\/p>\n

The P.A.X. is making the telephone a help, not a hindrance, in many of New York\u2019s leading business establishments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us tell you how it can help you, too.\u00a0 Write \u2013 or phone Murray Hill 3209 \u2013 and our industrial telephone experts will confer with you without obligation on your part.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixty per cent of our 1918 output is already booked, but prompt action will insure prompt deliveries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some P.A.X. Users<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/span>
\n U.S. Arsenals, Navy Yards and Forts<\/span>
\n French War Dept.<\/span>
\n British Admiralty<\/span>
\n Collier\u2019s Weekly \u2013 80 telephones<\/span>
\n United Fruit Co. \u2013 66 telephones<\/span>
\n New Remington Rifle Co. \u2013 338 telephones<\/span>
\n Sears, Roebuck & Co. \u2013 880 telephones<\/span>
\n New York Central Lines (in New York City) \u2013 592 telephones<\/span>
\n Federal Reserve Bank of New York\u00a0 – 51 telephones<\/span>
\n Equitable Trust Co. of New York \u2013 150 telephones<\/span>
\n International Banking Corp. \u2013 46 telephones<\/span>
\n W.R. Grace & Co. \u2013 124 telephones<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

References<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Automatic Electric 40-60D P-A-X Business Telephone System<\/a> (Promotional Brochure and Technical Specifications, at TCI (Telephone Collectors International) Library<\/span><\/p>\n

Automatic Electric Corporation<\/a> (Historical Overview)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Disappearing PAX, at Strowger.net<\/a> (“Devoted to Trailing Edge Communications”)<\/span><\/p>\n

Intranet <\/a>(general overview)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A survey of The New York Times published between 1917 and the early 1920s reveals the frequent appearance of advertisements promoting devices that were the predecessors – perhaps the harbingers? – of technologies that are now pervasive.\u00a0 Many of these involve the communication, interpretation, storage, and retrieval of information, in the realms of manufacturing, business, … Continue reading Before the Intranet? – Automatic Electric Corporation’s Private Automatic Exchange: June 18, 1918<\/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":[5,7,2],"tags":[399,379,380,390],"class_list":["post-2516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advertising","category-sociology","category-technology","tag-automatic-electric-corporation","tag-p-a-x","tag-private-automatic-exchange","tag-strowger-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516","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=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2903,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions\/2903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepastpresented.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}