CHAPTER V.THE EXPANSION OF THE BUSINESS.
The telephone business did not really begin to grow big and overspread the earth until 1896, but the keynote of expansion was first sounded by Theodore Vail in the earliest days, when as yet the telephone was a babe in arms.

In 1879 Vail said, in a letter written to one of his captains: "Tell our agents that we have a proposition on foot to connect the different cities for the purpose of personal communication, and in other ways to organize a GRAND TELEPHONIC SYSTEM." This was brave talk at that time, when there were not in the whole world as many telephones as there are to-day in Cincinnati.

It was brave talk in those days of iron wire, peg switchboards, and noisy diaphragms.

Most telephone men regarded it as nothing more than talk.

They did not see any business future for the telephone except in short-distance service.
But Vail was in earnest.