Had this question sent in by member David O'Reilly;
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Does anyone know exactly when the first telephone was on the beach?
In 1890 a telephone call was made by the Oakville harbor master, to Capt. Campbell at the Burlington Canal about The schooner W. J. SUFFELL, which was caught in a severe snow storm in Lake Ontario off of Oakville.
"Capt. Campbell was a man who had an outstanding reputation when it came to lending a hand to anyone in distress and this was just one more occasion when he was ready and willing to do so. Neither was he at a loss for extra hands in an emergency. Thanks to the old party-line telephones, every fisherman living along the Beach would have the word as soon as he did. It would be but a few minutes before the first pair of heavy boots would be clumping across his porch. Men arrived during the early afternoon with pike poles, ropes, grappling hooks, and in fact, anything they grabbed on the way out into the fury of the gale."
http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/brookes/default.asp?ID=Y1890
http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/brookes/default.asp?ID=Y1890
_________________________________________________________
Does anyone know exactly when the first telephone was on the beach?
In 1890 a telephone call was made by the Oakville harbor master, to Capt. Campbell at the Burlington Canal about The schooner W. J. SUFFELL, which was caught in a severe snow storm in Lake Ontario off of Oakville.
"Capt. Campbell was a man who had an outstanding reputation when it came to lending a hand to anyone in distress and this was just one more occasion when he was ready and willing to do so. Neither was he at a loss for extra hands in an emergency. Thanks to the old party-line telephones, every fisherman living along the Beach would have the word as soon as he did. It would be but a few minutes before the first pair of heavy boots would be clumping across his porch. Men arrived during the early afternoon with pike poles, ropes, grappling hooks, and in fact, anything they grabbed on the way out into the fury of the gale."
http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/brookes/default.asp?ID=Y1890
http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/brookes/default.asp?ID=Y1890