It was then, and is yet, the most sensitive instrument that has ever been put to general use in any country.

It opened up a new world of sound.

It would echo the tramp of a fly that walked across a table, or repeat in New Orleans the prattle of a child in New York.

This was what the young men received, and this was all.

There were no switchboards of any account, no cables of any value, no wires that were in any sense adequate, no theory of tests or signals, no exchanges, NO TELEPHONE SYSTEM OF ANY SORT WHATEVER.
As for Bell's first telephone lines, they were as simple as clothes-lines.