Conversation

When Alexander Graham Bell's patent on the telephone gave out in 1894, local phone networks sprang up across the United States – including small 'barbed wire fence networks' set up by farmers.

For more, try this article by Lori Emerson, author of 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴: 𝘈 𝘙𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬. A quote:

"They would hook up telephones to wire strung from their homes to a nearby fence; at the time, telephones had their own battery which produced a DC current that could carry a voice signal; turning a crank on the phone would generate an AC current to produce a ring at the end of the line. Bob Holmes elaborates on the process: “the barbed wire networks had no central exchange, no operators – and no monthly bill. Instead of ringing through the exchange to a single address, every call made every phone on the system ring. Soon each household had its own personal ringtone… but anyone could pick up…Talk was free, and so people soon began to ‘hang out’ on the phone.” The fence phone lines could also be used to broadcast urgent information to everyone on the line."

Pretty cool. Remind you of anything... like Mastodon?

At first I was hoping the telephone signal was actually transmitted on the barbed wire fence itself. It seemed like such a cool idea: farmers could repurpose miles and miles of metal fencing already present. Then I decided that wouldn't work too well, since the conductivity of the fence is not very high.

But read @loriemerson's comment on this post here: it seems farmers actually 𝑑𝑖𝑑 transmit phone signals on the fencing itself! 🎉

https://loriemerson.net/2024/08/31/a-brief-history-of-barbed-wire-fence-telephone-networks/