A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection Against Ma Bell

NOTES

NOTES Introduction 1. R. H. Crutchett, "Call Me Up Sometime;' Volta Review 37 (1935): 101. 2. For additional discussions ofTTY terminology, see CA-SK Newsletter, 10, no. 2 (1980); 12, no. 2 (1982); 23, no. 2 (1992); 23, no. 3 (1992); 23, no. 4 (1992); 24, no. 2 (1993); and DeafAmerican, 32 (July-August 1980): 30. 3. Sylvia Schechter, letter to author, January 16, 1996. 4. Allan F. Bubeck, "How to Use the Telephone in Emergencies," The Silent Worker 13 (July 1961): 23. 5. Robert C. Sanderson, letter to author, February 1995. 6. Samuel C. Florman, Blaming Technology, 93. 1. AChance Encounter 1. Teleprinters were available as early as the 1840s. The "printing telegraph machine" recorded messages in Roman letters. In 1849, the teleprinter was used to send messages between New York and Philadelphia. Various forms of the telegraph also came out, many of them offering potential convenient access for deaf people. The "autographic telegraph" in 1848, for example , allowed a person to write a telegram on a piece ofpaper. This message could be transferred to a metal plate for transmission over telegraph lines. Some entrepreneurs envisioned this technology in every American home and business. 2. Robert H. Weitbrecht, "The RTTY Story at W6NRMIW9TCJ," RTTY 4, no. 7 (July 1956): 5. 3. Robert H. Weitbrecht, "W6NRM/RTTY at the San Mateo Hamfest," RTTY 7, no. 8 (August 1959): 8. 4. Ibid., 9. 5. Robert H. Weitbrecht, "Tape Off the Floor," RTTY 7, no. 2 (February 1959): 11. 6. During his career, Weitbrecht combined his photography and astronomy interests, producing one of the first designs for automatic camera 205 206 I NOTES TO CHAPTER 1 systems for Dearborn Observatory, and a high-precision astrometric camera system for Lick Observatory. He also conducted studies of high-definition photography for the ECHO satellite system. 7. James C. Marsters, letter to Robert H. Weitbrecht, April 3, 1964. 8. Marsters, letter to Weitbrecht, April 26, 1964. 9. Weitbrecht, letter to Marsters, April 29, 1964. 10. Marsters, letter to Weitbrecht, April 30, 1964. 11. Marsters, letter to Weitbrecht, April 3, 1964. 2. Up the Mountainside 1. Fred DeLand, "The Telephone, the Radiophone, the Graphophone, the Music Record, and Modern Lip-Reading," 251. Bell's interest in developing the telephone diaphragm was sparked by his wife Mabel's comment that she could feel sounds through her muff while walking in the winter weather. 2. "The Telautograph," Our Deafand Dumb 1 (March 1894): 111-12. Deaf people were able to send telegraph messages through Western Union service just like hearing persons, although the telegraph was primarily a means for business calls and was used much less for personal exchanges. One could not easily telegraph a doctor or a neighbor. 3. Silent Worker 12 (April 1900): 119. The failure of deaf people to protest the decision to discard use of the Telautograph at the turn of the century is due to a number of factors. First, businesses monopolized the telephone during its early years, and the Bell Company was very responsive to their needs. The company was much less influenced by the priorities of "social telegraphy." By the turn of the century, there were more than two million telephones in the United States, but only a small fraction were found in residential environments. Most telephones were being used by large and small businesses. Another reason for the lack of reaction was economic. As early as 1882, a residential telephone in New York City cost $150 a year. Because most deaf persons were in low-income occupations at this time, the cost was far beyond what they could afford. Social factors also played a large role in deaf people's acquiescence. These factors included the emotional debate over communication methods; the dismissal of deaf teachers by school administrators who expected all instructors to teach speech; the Eugenics movement, whose proponents sought to discourage marriages between deaf people in order to eliminate hereditary deafness; the refusal of many states to license deaf drivers ; and the difficulty of obtaining life insurance. It is no wonder, then, that the pursuit of the telephone, or any technology intended to make life more comfortable, was second to the need to just survive in a paternalistic society. 4. "Telephone for Deaf-Mutes," California News 28 (October 1912): 7. NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 207 Nothing more was heard of this invention. Several major contributors to the science of telecommunications in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries...