The Telephone History of Hamilton
I copied this from scrapbook at the library
In telephone history Hamilton occupies the eminent position being the city where, in 1878, the first telephone office in the British Empire was established. Outstanding also are the careers of the men who were intimately associated with the establishment of this office and in the development of the business.
The sequence of events which led to the opening of a telephone office and the people involved are of special interest and are therefore included in this record.
The prime mover was Hugh C. Baker and his associates were , Thomas H. Wadland, Kenneth J. Dunstan and George Black.
In 1875 Mr. Black and his friend T.C. Mewburn and C.D. Cory were in the habit of playing chess and using the telegraph wires existing between their houses, communicated their moves by using the code signals shown in exhibit No. 3 of Hamilton "Firsts" in Telephone History.
Mr. Baker witnessed the first public demonstration of the telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in June 1876 and it was his foresight and enterprise which resulted in the establishment at Hamilton of the first telephone office in the British Empire.
In January 1878 Mr. Baker started the Hamilton District Telegraph Co. in the old Kronsbein Block at 6 Main Street.
His experience with the telephones was so satisfactory in his chess games that Mr. Baker visited the Bells at Brantford in June 1878 and secured an exclusive license to install telephones in the counties of Wentworth, Halton and Haldimand. Ten of the telegraph signal boxes were changed to telephones and on July 15, 1878 the Hamilton Central office became a telephone exchange. By the end of 1878 all signal boxes had been changed to telephones.
In the meantime, in fact in August 1876, Alexander Graham Bell succeeded in transmitting the voices of three persons at time from the outbuildings of his father's place Tutelo Heights, Brantford, to the receiver placed on the veranda of the Bell residence.
The first instance in Canada in which more than two telephones operated satisfactorily on one circuit was on August 29,1877.
A telegraph wire was placed between Mr. Hugh C. Baker's residence, Burlington Terrace, Mr. T.C. Mewburn's house at Main Street and Mr. Charles D. Cory's house on Jackson Street. At each of the there were three telephones and the result was a success. The length of the circuit was about three miles and the conversation was carried on between the three points with ease. (A check of the route indicates this distance was in the order of about one mile. The distance reported in the newspaper of that time appears to be incorrect.) The piano was distinctly heard and "Home Sweet Home" and "Auld Lang Syne" were recognized at the extreme distance.
The first contract (officially known as the second lease) for the use of telephone instruments in this country was dated October 18, 1877. The parties to the contract were Alexander Melville Bell of Brantford, father of the inventor; Charles D. Cory, Mrs. J.R. Thomson, sister of Mr. Cory, Hugh C. Baker and George Black of Hamilton. Licenses were obtained for four box telephones - numbered 360, 362, 363 and 659 - to be used between the houses of the lessees and the houses of their friends.
This lease actually was dated back to August 29, 1877 although signed on October 18, 1877.
(N.B. What is officially known as the first lease of telephone service executed in Canada is dated November 9, 1877, but in the body of the lease the rental is given as beginning Sept. 21, 1877. The lease was retained for the Canadian Government by Melville Bell.
On February 4, 1878 Mr. Baker, President of the Hamilton District Telegraph Co., applied to the city for permission to erect poles and by December of that year there were about 40 telephones operating through the Hamilton Exchange.
The headquarters of this company were in the basement of the old Kronsbein Block in No. 6 Main Street and James Street that stood where the "Regent" office of the Bell Telephone Co. subsequently was located. In September 1929 a tablet was unveiled to this effect by Mr. C.F. Sise, President of the company- it reads as follows;
ON THIS SITE
WAS ESTABLISHED
IN MARCH 1878
BY
HUGH COSSSART BAKER
THE FIRST
TELEPHONE EXCHANGE
IN THE
BRITISH EMPIRE