Telephone

Image of Telephone made by Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, 1906.
Early 20th century innovation

This phone was made by the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company of Chicago in 1906. Known as the Microphone 1, this model was the first telephone in the United States to integrate a transmitter and a receiver into a single handset. Between 1900 and 1910, the number of telephones in use in the United States went from 600,000 to 5.8 million. The telephone had a dramatic impact on American society, not the least of which was the popularization of the word “hello” as a greeting. (Before the telephone, “How do you do” and “Good day” were standard American greetings).

Kellogg S. & S. was founded in 1897 by Milo Kellogg after Alexander Graham Bell’s patents expired a few years prior. The company was purchased in 1954 by the Illinois Telephone & Telegraph Company.

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