Life, 1926-06-10 · page 42 of 44
Life — June 10, 1926 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page celebrates the Bell System's infrastructure expansion, featuring a photograph of telephone poles spanning the Rocky Mountains and promotional text titled "The Builders of the Telephone." The article credits Thomas A. Watson (Bell's assistant) as the original builder and emphasizes the massive scale of modern telephone construction—millions of miles of wire installed over fifty years, with a million dollars daily being spent on expansion. The page is primarily **corporate advertising** for AT&T and the Bell System, not satire. It presents the telephone builders as heroic figures engaged in "romantic adventure and unselfish devotion." The remaining content consists of standard period advertisements: Squibb's Dental Cream (for smokers), Mothersill's Remedy (for train/travel sickness), and notices for French lessons and a Broadway theater number. No political cartoons or satire appears on this page—it's largely promotional material celebrating American industrial progress during the Bell System's fifty-year anniversary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
40 Life Telephone line over the Rocky Mountains The Builders of the Telephone Spannino the country, under rivers, across prairies and over mountain ranges, the tclephone builders have carried the electric wires of their communication net- work. Half a century ago the nation’s telephone plant was a few hundred feet of wire and two crude instruments. The only builder was Thomas A. Watson, Dr. Bell’s assistant. It was a small beginning, but the work then started will never cease. In 50 years many million miles of wire have been strung, many million telephones have been installed, and all over the country are buildings with switch- boards and the complicated ap- paratus for connecting each tele- phone with any other. The telephone’s builders have been many and their lives have been rich in romantic adventure and unselfish devotion to the service. Telephone builders are still ex- tending and rebuilding the tele- phone plant. A million dollars a day are being expended in the Bell System in construction work to provide for the nation’s growing needs. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH ComMPANy AND AssociIATED ComPaANIEs IN ITS SEMI-CENTENNIAL YEAR THE BELL SYSTEM LOOKS FOR- WARD TO CONTINUED PROGRESS IN TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION Permanent t th 1 vill not nec here, bat I son in explaining why I do ne ered with either packi tipping, tire trouble or the of travel he Mountains of the noyances The people are quite as agreeable as any that I where terms and the gement Tam not geing away this summe Next Week The Broadway Number Don't miss it! with | | | | FOR SMOKERS Va’. Nm Squibb’s Dental Cream is so soothing to mouth and gums after a day of smoking that you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. It Sweetens breath too. All that is in addition to its ability to prevent acid decay as nothing else can possibly do. The Social Leper hunned by all, Hew RAIN ( SICKNESS| exhaustion, ¥ y by Sea, Car or Air in Health so at Drug Stores or dix Mothérsilt’ Remedy Cos comicbooks.com