CARLI Digitized Book of the Month – April 2014

Chicago telephone directory (1892)

“The Mail is Quick. The Telegraph is Quicker, but the LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE Is Instantaneous and you don’t have to wait for an answer.” So reads the footnote advertisement in the Chicago Telephone Directory from 1892. It is hard to imagine, in these days when email, texting, and Skype are all everyday terms, a time when using a telephone was a novelty and considered the height of convenience.

Rules and regulations have always been a part of well-run companies, but sometimes regulations from the past can surprise us. For instance, in 1892 public telephones were available for a fee of ten cents per five minutes to non-subscribers and the general public. However, if a subscriber was caught allowing a non-subscriber to use their telephone, the company would remove the telephone from the location. “Private telephone subscribers are requested to refer unauthorized persons desiring the use of the telephone to the nearest public telephone station.” (p.6)

Page 8 of this telephone directory details special services offered by the telephone company – Fire Alarm and Watch Service, and Burglar Alarm Service. The Fire Alarm and Watch Service provided a box and a watchman who was to check in at stated intervals. When a check-in signal was overdue, a policeman would be dispatched to check things out. The boxes were also available to call for police or fire help so that the watchman could use the boxes not only to check in, but also to alert the authorities in case of an emergency. In lieu of a Watch Service, a subscriber could employ a Burglar Alarm Service, which worked startlingly similar to today’s home protection companies.

While “reading the phone book” was often used in recent years to describe a very boring activity, reading this directory can only prove quite interesting.

Written by Julia Thompson, Library Specialist, Western Illinois University

This volume was contributed by the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library. You can find this volume and others from CARLI participant libraries in the Internet Archive.