2-358-710 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Telephone exchange, 1883. A new telephone exchange: it is an extraordinary feat that two persons at a distance are enabled to converse. In an 'exchange', the 'switch-board' attendant switches the subscriber to a table-operator, who calls his required number to the first attendant, who connects the subscriber's pair of lines by means of corresponding plugs. The first commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, in 1878.