A walking installer, 1908.Ah, those were the days, when the walking installer could be seen trudging down the street, sagging under the weight of telephones and tools. Actually, I don’t remember those days, and neither do you, as this breed of hard-working telephone man was unique to the earliest years of the 20th century. So who were these guys, and what set of circumstances resulted in telephone installers being loaded down like pack animals?
I would never have given any of this a second thought if it weren’t for my interest in vintage telephone trade journals and books. The term “Walking installer” comes up all the time in the old periodicals, particularly in articles that wax poetic about the old days. I really cannot stress enough that the expression “walking installer” was universally understood, an industry term that described a type of telephone worker. Even though they seem to have vanished from the scene in the ’20s, career telephone men in the ’30s and ’40s knew who they were. If you Google walking installer today, do you know what you get? Nothing. Not only is the term no longer relevant in today’s world, but it hasn’t warranted a mention in any online historical reference. I’m sure I’ll get to the bottom of this eventually, but I’ve yet to find much about these guys. Three possible reasons come to mind that could partly explain the preponderance of “stuff” they carried. Firstly is the sheer size of phones and their parts. The earliest oak phones were huge, heavy, and I for one would not want to spend much time with a couple of magneto telephones strapped to me. Another factor was that most installs were first-time installations, requiring more time, effort, equipment and tools than would otherwise be the case. Walking telephone installer, 1915.But above all, we’re talking about a time when the sheer volume of new installs must have kept phone company personnel very busy indeed. In an urban environment, I can imagine an installer loading up all they could to expedite the process. I’ve included two photos, the first one showing an installer in Pittsburgh, circa 1908. I found it in the March 1939 issue of The Telephone News, a publication for the employees of Bell Telephone in Pennsylvania. It’s interesting to study the photo, spotting the various components he’s packing.
The second photograph is from the year 1915 (location unknown), and was reproduced in a September ‘47 issue of Telephony. It’s hard to make any judgments based on two examples, but it does appear that the load got lighter in the seven years separating the two photographs. (that, or our second installer isn’t as ambitious as the first!) Those early years of telephony may not interest all vintage phone hobbyists, as many, myself included, focus more on the mid-century rotary era. But I find all telephone history to be important, and will continue to study, learn and share.