Evolution of public phone booths and how mobile gadgets tolled their death

Alexander Graham Bell was the first person to be awarded a patent for an electric telephone by the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in March 1876.

At first, the telephone service was available to large businesses and wealthy individuals in expensive monthly packages. But, as the demand for telephone services grew after its invention, so did the need for access to telephone exchanges that connected people through operators.

In 1889, a new solution to the public telephone problem was found in the form of a coin-operated telephone that was installed in a bank in Hartford, Connecticut, created by William Gray.

Legend has it that Gray came up with the idea when his wife fell ill and needed to see a doctor in 1888. Not having a phone at home, Gray went to the nearest place where he knew there was a telephone, a factory down the street.

But they initially refused to let him use the telephone because he was not a subscriber. However, when he explained the circumstances of his wife, he was allowed to use the telephone and that left an impression in his mind. Gray thought to himself that there must be a way of allowing people without telephones to call without paying the monthly subscription.

He came up with a series of experimental models and eventually was issued with a patent on 13 August 1889 for his device. Gray formed the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company in 1891 and along with another inventor named George Long, made a number of improvements.

Described as a “crowning invention” it popularised the telephone, which became a business and household necessity making it possible to use in a public manner in public places.

The earliest coin-operated phones, including the Gray phone were post-pay on an honour system where you made the call and when you were done, since all calls required operators, the operator would tell you what coins to deposit.

The coins hit a bell, creating a sound the operator could hear to determine if it was the correct amount. Pre-pay telephone systems were developed at the turn of the century and 1909 saw the development of a system, which returned the coins if your call did not go through.

1911 saw the introduction of the Model 50A coin-operated public telephone, manufactured jointly by Gray’s company and Western Electric (AT&T’s manufacturing division), which brought many of these features together.

By 1913, New York City alone had 25,000 of these sets installed in subway platforms and any place where it was thought that someone would need to make a call.

Outdoor phone booths made their first appearance in the early 1900s and became commonplace in the 1950s when glass and aluminum replaced hard-to-maintain wood as the building material of choice. At its peak there were more than two million telephone booths in America.

In Kenya, the first telephone network was connected in 1908 with 18 subscribers in Nairobi and Mombasa. During the colonial period, the telephone remained the preserve of the settler community and their businesses. It was not until the early 1960s that red telephone booths (modeled after those in Britain) were first installed in major towns in Kenya.

Previously, ordinary Kenyans had to rely on letters and telegrams as a means of communication. The public telephone booth was revolutionary, providing a real-time, accessible and affordable medium of communication.

Even if you did not have money you could ask the operator for a “reverse charge” call which would be paid for by your counterparty if he agreed.

The demand for telephone services grew rapidly and in the 1980s, even with more than 8,000 telephone booths in the country, long queues were commonplace.

But part of the problem was caused by vandalism and many booths were out of order because parts of the equipment had been ripped off. Poor maintenance by the service provider also meant that fewer functioning sets were available to the public.

Of course, there was also loss to the service provider occasioned by mischievous youths “tapping” calls for free. Even when electronic cards were introduced, these youths still found a way of making free calls.

But the final death knell for the public phone booths came in the form of the cellphone in the 1990s. The cellphone provided instant, affordable communication on the trot. In addition, you could now access a wide range of financial services (such as M-Pesa), e-mail, social media, pictures, movies, videos and maps.

In 2010, Telkom Orange phased out the last public telephone booths. Many ended up with scrap dealers while others were abandoned and are used as shelter by watchmen and street urchins.

From a revolutionary patent that lasted well over 100 years, the telephone booth has been consigned to the annals of history, as a relic of time gone by.