1900

Telephone Talk was the glossy bimonthly publication of the British Columbia Telephone Company. It was written by employees for employees to present information of interest to those engaged in the plant, traffic, commercial, operating, accounting and other departments of the service. Each issue is replete with black and white photos and information on topics such as: company, industry and technological news, traffic levels, expansion plans, personnel announcements, publicity and social events, deaths, weddings, lists of exchanges, and more. As such, these issues serve as a vital preserve of rare and fascinating British Columbia history. This volume covers topics including: Nice photo montage of six female lower mainland agents; Commendation for Excellent service; Industrial Review - statistics for the province; Bar graph of phones in service between 1903 and 1921; When the telephone was a curiosity in the Capital City - nice seven page feature on the history of telephony in Victoria, beginning in 1877; Page of the 1880 Victoria and Esquimalt phone book; Facsimile of letter dated 1878 from the Bell Telephone office in Brantford, Ontario which says Mr. R.B. McMicking has accepted the agency of the company in British Columbia; City of Vancouver gets new phone number; Telephone development keeps pace with progress; Cover photo of the operating room of the Nanaimo exchange; Five-page illustrated article on Nanaimo, including 35 year-old photo of downtown with Bastion visible and an 1890 photo of a portion of the downtown and bowl area; Trouble shooting in Kootenay; The manufacture of porcelain; photo of operators at work in New Westminster; 6-page illustrated feature on New Westminster with mid-90s photo of the Colonial Hotel and area plus a photo of Columbia street before the fire of 1898; Composite cables will be important betterment; Fairmont operating room photo; Great photo montage of the old wooden bridge connecting Nanaimo's Fitzwilliam St. with downtown (the caption mentions E.P. LaBelle, whose name is stamped on the top edge of this book); 11 page feature on the history of telephony in Vancouver, with several photos from before 1900; pulling coils of duplex wire through the mountains by snow shoe(!); Nice photos of the following exchanges - Seymour, Fairmont, Highland, Bayview, Victoria, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Nanaimo, Chemainus, Cobble Hill, Cumberland, Belmont, Duncan, Courtenay, Port Alberni, Colquitz, Ladysmith, Keating, Aldergrove, Abbottsford, Collingwood, Fraser, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, West Vancouver, Ladner, Kerrisdale, Eburne, Milner, Cloverdale, Steveston, Sidney, Hammond, Mission City, Kamloops, Agassiz, Trail, Rossland, Kaslo, Nelson, Grand Forks, Greenwood, New Denver, plus plant headquarters for the Mainland and Victoria; statement of development showing number of operating phones per community; Cover photo of the Foul Bay area of Victoria; More Switchboards for Seymour; Bayview Extension; Centralization of observation equipment; Demo. switchboard for school; Much outside construction; Seven duct miles of conduit laid in Seymour underground; Table showing exchanges in order of percent good toll calls; Alexander Graham Bell dies; Oaks Point snap shots; new motor control switchboard; Wireless telophony in early nineties (article); Laying underground conduit in Shaughnessy; New aerial cable across Capilano River; Passing of William Farrell, Company President; Rejuvinating used Plant material in machine shop; a peculiar case of hydrolysis; photo of Georgia street conduit trench; Second Annual Telephone Convention; 1885 B.C. Provincial Directory - article with 1885 photo of Vancouver Harbour; Autobiography of a switchboard plug; photo of burying conduit on Seymour in 1905; Appreciation shown by Port Alberni business men; Long Distance operators usually get their man; 7,000 mile motor trip of B.C. Telephone man; The telephone directory - my favourite book; Map showing routing of two cable between Book