But it was inevitable; and in 1883, while the dispute about it was in full blast, one of the young men quietly slipped it into use on a new line between Boston and Providence.

The effect was magical.

"At last," said the delighted manager, "we have a perfectly quiet line." This young man, a small, slim youth who was twenty-two years old and looked younger, was no other than J.J.Carty, now the first of telephone engineers and almost the creator of his profession.

Three years earlier he had timidly asked for a job as operator in the Boston exchange, at five dollars a week, and had shown such an aptitude for the work that he was soon made one of the captains.

At thirty years of age he became a central figure in the development of the art of telephony.
What Carty has done is known by telephone men in all countries; but the story of Carty himself--who he is, and why--is new.