WEBVTT - Did In-N-Out invent the Intercom? 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hate there 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.960 and Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.360 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.040 Tech are You? So? Not that long ago, I was 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:28.280 watching a YouTube video on Max Miller's Tasting History channel, 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.840 And if you don't know what that is. Max Miller 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:35.920 prepares historical meals, you know, like meals that people ate, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.400 you know, way back in history. So he'll pick a 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:43.160 specific time and place and talk about a typical meal 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.559 that was prepared or a special meal that's mentioned in 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.840 some historical document, and he will prepare it himself as 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.559 well as deliver a history lesson to go along with 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.600 the food. It's a great channel. I have no connection 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.240 to it. I have never corresponded with Max Miller. That 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:05.240 bit's not important. But in this episode, Max was visiting 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:10.240 the Mythical Test Kitchen and Josh of Mythical Kitchen. That's 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.880 another YouTube channel as a connection with Good Mythical Morning, 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.360 which has been a show that's been on forever, a 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.360 great success in the world of online entertainment, one of 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.320 the few shows that has had real staying power. But anyway, 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.520 Josh of Mythical Kitchen and Max of Tasting History. We're 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.840 talking about five foods that changed fast food forever. A 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.640 lot of alliteration. I guess that does well in YouTube titles. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.679 During this conversation, they talked about the fast food chain 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.200 in an out Burger, which is a chain I've never 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.520 actually eaten at, because by the time I traveled to 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.320 a place that had in an out Burgers, I was 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.560 no longer eating meat, and that pretty much cuts down 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.480 on what you can order there. I'm on the East 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.200 coast of the United States, where in and Out just 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.480 isn't a thing. You kind of had to travel further 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.520 west to start encountering them. Anyway, Josh dropped a little 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.240 bit of trivia that made me scratch my head. Namely, 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.640 he said that the founder of In and Out, a 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.160 guy named Harry Snyder, invented the two way intercom for 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:17.239 drive through operations back in nineteen forty eight. Now, that 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:19.960 to me can seem a little misleading. First of all, 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.120 if you're talking about just inventing the intercom, that's far 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.239 too late. However, you know, if we use the qualifier 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.640 that he specifically invented it for the sole purpose of 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.480 being able to communicate between a person in their car 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.600 and a person inside a restaurant. Then really it all 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:38.680 checks out. So it all just depends on how you 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.720 word it. He didn't invent the intercom, but he did 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.560 invent what would become the modern drive through. So today 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.079 I thought I would talk about the actual history of 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.679 the intercom, because that starts well before nineteen forty eight 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.080 and Snyder's inventiveness. In fact, we have to kind of 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.280 go back to the nineteenth century to talk about the 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.360 telephone first, even that is super tricky to do. The 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:05.360 simple answer as to who invented the telephone is one 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.040 that I think most people know right. If you ask 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:12.280 who invented the telephone, the answer invariably is Alexander Graham Bell. 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:17.639 But that's not the complete answer. It's not even necessarily 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.960 the most correct answer, depending upon your point of view. 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.360 But we have to remember, like most inventions aren't really 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.120 a stroke of genius that one person in the world 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:34.560 experienced and then created something where nothing was before. Usually, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:39.080 invention is something that is built upon lots of other discoveries, 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:44.080 and saying who is the inventor of something largely comes 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.000 down to just time, place, and who was witness. So 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.640 Bell would be the first to secure a patent for 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.880 a technology that eventually would work. When he applied for 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.840 his patent, he did not yet have a working model 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.000 of a telephone. But he does deserve quite a bit 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.920 of credit for being the first to really secure a patent. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.840 But other folks had mused upon the possibility of a 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.880 talking telegraph and had done a lot of work toward that. 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:17.599 The first mention I find predates Alexander Graham's Bell's patent 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:23.160 by nearly three decades, nearly thirty years. And Tony Miucci 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.480 began to experiment with a way to transmit voiceover telegraph 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.239 wires all the way back in eighteen forty nine, that's 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:36.520 before the US Civil War. He continued to experiment until 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.080 he finally was able to file a caveat in eighteen 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.960 seventy one. Now, in most contexts, we use the word 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:48.360 caveat to mean a warning, right, it means beware, And 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.720 in fact that was the only context I was familiar with. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.039 I had not heard of filing a caveat. But in 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.600 this particular context, what it means is that you are 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:03.360 essentially a that you have an upcoming invention it's kind 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:07.080 of like a preamble toward filing a patent. You haven't 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.960 filled out the patent yet, but you file the caveat. 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:12.160 It's kind of a placeholder to say, I don't want 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.080 anyone swooping in here and patenting a technology that I 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.400 am already working on, so I'm filing this document that 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:24.400 says I have a patent application coming now. Unfortunately, Miucci 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.680 was not really in a secure financial place in his life, 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:33.680 so he wasn't able to afford the fee to renew 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.640 his caveat when it came up for expiration. So for 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.120 more than a century, Miucci was largely uncredited for his 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.360 contributions toward the invention of the telephone. But in fact, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.480 if he had been able to be in a financially 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.760 stable place, it's possible that Miucci would be the name 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.400 we would be talking about when we say who invented 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.320 the telephone. But there are other people who also did 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.240 a lot of early work. There was a french Man 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.280 named Charles Borciul. I'm just gonna call him Charlie because 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.520 I already know I butchered his last name. So Charlie 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:11.240 worked on his own version of a telephone or a 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.920 speaking telegraph. In the eighteen fifties, he was employed by 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.880 a telegraph company and he was convinced he could create 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.480 a device that was capable of transmitting voice across those 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.440 telegraph lines. So he developed a microphone to convert sound 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.599 to electrical signals, but he never quite figured out how 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.840 to make a receiver that could playback sound so that 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.480 you could, you know, understand it. So I imagine a 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.040 phone call with his device would sound like you were 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.719 talking to one of the adults in a Charlie Brown 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:47.520 cartoon that muted trumpet sound. Then there's the potentially shady 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:52.840 story of Elisha Gray. His lawyers applied for a caveat 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.679 for a talking telegraph system, and did so the very 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:00.680 same day that Alexander Graham Bell's lawyers were applying for 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.799 a patent for his telephone system. And if Gray's lawyer 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.640 had been able to secure that caveat early enough, then 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.640 that might have been enough for the patent office to 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:16.400 dismiss Bell's application. But Bell's lawyer was recorded as being 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.920 the fifth person in line that morning at the patent office, 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.120 and Gray's lawyer was listed as the thirty ninth, And 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.000 you know, first come first served. I guess now there 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:30.480 are people who suggest that there were some shenanigans going 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.000 on at the patent office, that perhaps Gray had a 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.600 more legitimate claim to getting his caveat filed before Bell's 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.960 patent was filed, and even some allegations that Bell perhaps 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:50.520 lifted some of Gray's ideas in his design when Bell 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.000 went on to actually make a working device, because like 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.840 I said earlier, when Bell filed for his patent, he 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.760 didn't yet have a working model of a telephone. And 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.320 I found most of this information at the Library of 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.600 Congress website, by the way, it's a fun little read, 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:05.840 and you know, some of the other info were from 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:10.440 other sources. But in the end, Alexander Graham Bell gets 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.440 the simplified credit because he first secured a patent for 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.200 the invention, and then later he was able to build 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.640 a working version. His telephone had two components. It had 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:25.080 a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter had kind of 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:30.720 a cylindrical speaking phone device. You would speak into this 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.120 cylinder and the other end of the cylinder was closed 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.000 off right, the end you spoke into was open. The 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.080 other end had a membrane across it. Technically a sheet 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.520 of paper in the early days. And connected to this 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.480 sheet of paper, on the opposite side from where you 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.920 were talking in was a piece of cork that had 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.400 a needle attached to it, and the needle would make 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:59.760 contact with a conductive liquid like sulfuric acid and stuff 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.640 in it. This was Gray's approach, by the way that 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.319 he had described in his caveat This is the bit 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.360 where some historians suggest that perhaps Bell was lifting from 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.960 Gray in an effort to build a working version of 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.000 his invention, and that he was essentially stealing. Whether that's 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.000 true or not is still one of those historical mysteries. 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.760 On the other side of the container of this liquid 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.840 was a metal contact, and so the paper would vibrate 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.040 due to the sound coming in through the cylinder, so 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.040 that sound makes the paper vibrate. That ends up making 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.000 the needle vibrate, and the vibrations mean the needle is 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:42.559 moving through the liquid. In this conductive fluid, the movements 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.280 of the needle would bring it closer to or further 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.880 away from the metal contact. This would actually alter the 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:52.199 current that was flowing through that liquid and thus then 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.160 through the telegraph line. So on the other end was 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.040 the receiver which consisted of a simple electromagnetic setup. So 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.920 you had an an electromagnet that was suspended so that 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.920 it was inside the magnetic field of a permanent magnet, 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.320 like a horseshoe magnet. So as current would flow through 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.800 the electromagnet, the electromagnet would generate its own magnetic field, 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.120 and this would interact with the permanent magnets magnetic field. 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.320 So if they were opposite charges like north and south, 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.080 they would attract. If they were similar like north north 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.199 or south south, they would repel. And so this changing 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.559 fluctuation in the magnetic field of the electromagnet would make 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.880 the electromagnet move closer to or further from the permanent magnet. 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:39.200 Remember it suspended, it's not permanently fixed. And attached to 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:44.280 this electromagnet was a taut membrane and a kind of 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:49.320 a sounding horn. So the electromagnet would move due to 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.240 these fluctuations of the magnetic field, and that in turn 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.360 would cause the membrane to vibrate. These vibrations coincided with 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:01.120 those fluctuations, and the flexing membrane would create changes in 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.640 air pressure vibrations. In other words, and we perceived that 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.800 as sound, so the sounds that created the vibrations on 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:13.280 the transmitter aka the microphone side of the system would 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.440 then be replicated by the vibrations on the receiver or 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.440 loudspeaker side. It was a brilliant setup. We'll talk about 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.960 how this led to the invention of the intercom, but 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.120 first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.199 All right, So the invention of the telephone would really 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.280 revolutionize the world, but it didn't happen overnight. It actually 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.960 was a very slow process. For one thing, in the 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.240 early days, not that many people had houses that were 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.400 wired for electricity, let alone a telegraph line. So the 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.440 earliest telephone systems were limited. They only went to a 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:03.200 few locations, and they were all open party lines essentially, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.600 which means there was no way for two people to 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.920 have a private conversation on the telephone. Anyone who was 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.559 connected to that particular network or system could just pick 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.240 up a receiver and listen into whatever was going on 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.040 at that moment. And it also meant that if more 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.600 than two people wanted to chat on the phone at 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:22.880 the same time on the same network, there would be 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.040 an issue. You would either have to have one party 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.720 just sit out and wait or deal with a whole 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:32.000 lot of crosstalk. But for our purposes, the important part 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.360 is the telephone would be the starting point for a 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:40.360 related communication system, the intercommunication device or intercom. So an 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:46.760 intercom is typically a separate, standalone communications system for a 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:51.080 building or other structure. So rather than being connected to 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.920 a larger network that includes lots of buildings like homes 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.880 and businesses and such, and intercom is something you would 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:04.199 find inside a single location like you know, an apartment building, 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.480 or even in a vehicle or in the case of 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.280 a drive through the outside and the inside of a restaurant. 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.440 It is independent of the larger telephone network, so you 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.040 can't make calls to or from the intercom to the 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:22.359 network at large, but it is built on similar technologies 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.960 to the phone network. Now, before the electronic intercom, some 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.520 buildings actually use speaking tubes. Typically these were made out 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.000 of a material like brass, and they worked by channeling 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.760 sound from one point to another. But you know, there 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.040 was no conversion of sound into electricity or anything like that. 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.320 This was just the transmission of actual vibrations. This had 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:48.640 limitations because those vibrations lose power over distance. Right, they 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.959 get weaker as they travel, so at a certain point 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.800 the tube would be so long that the vibrations coming 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:57.400 out the other side would be too weak for the 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.280 typical person to hear, so you'd have people like outing 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.200 their heads off at either end of the tube and 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.199 only barely being heard by the other person. Also, outfitting 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.680 a building with a whole bunch of brass tubes wasn't 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.320 always practical. Like, maybe if you were building it with 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.160 the tubes in mind from the beginning, you could do it, 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.440 But if you were trying to retrofit a building with this, 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.160 it wasn't always easy to do. On a similar note, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.800 like it wasn't just apartment buildings that were running into 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.560 these kinds of challenges. During the First World War, the 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.760 British realized they needed to create a way for piloting 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:37.760 instructors to speak with pilots in training during training sessions. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.920 So the aircraft at this time had open cockpits. You know, 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.360 there's no like glass separating you from the outside world. 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.200 You're flying in an open cockpit. As you can imagine, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.840 that made it very noisy to sit in either the 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.840 pilot's seat or the instructor seat, which sat in tandem 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.320 behind the pilot. What's more, the British were seeing a 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.920 large number of accidents that were caused by pilot error, so, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:07.240 equate to the website air Andspaceforces dot Com, sixty percent 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.240 of the Brits combat losses were actually from pilot error. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.840 Only two percent of their losses came from enemy action 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.200 like having an airplane shot down by the enemy or 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.280 otherwise disabled or destroyed by the enemy. So clearly there 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.240 needed to be a better way for instructors to talk 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.960 with pilots in the training phases because pilots weren't learning 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.520 the appropriate operation of their vehicles. So the way they 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.040 solved this was kind of similar to those brass tubes 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.760 I talked about in apartment buildings, except instead of brass tubes, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.000 there was a rubber hose. So on one end of 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.040 the hose you had a funnel that would fit over 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.160 the mouth of the instructor. The other end of the hose, 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.040 originally there was a similar funnel that would fit over 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.360 the student's mouth. And obviously that's not enough because right 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.240 you could just be shouting into someone else's mouth. Do 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.880 this must be the place by talking heads where he says, 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:05.960 sing into my mouth, but you wouldn't be able to 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:10.440 hear anything. So the hose had little branching elements at 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:15.440 either end that connected over the ear flaps on the 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.240 helmets that the pilot's wore. Remember these are like the 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.920 days of like leather helmets. So they eventually would make 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.880 these metal cups that would fit over the ears, and 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.880 the tubes would fit into the metal cups so that 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.040 the sound could be heard by the person you know, 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.320 wearing the helmet, and that way the instructor and the 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.960 student could communicate with each other. The instructor could belt 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:44.000 out directions, the student could hear and respond and ask questions, 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.680 and it really helped bring down the accident stats as 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.160 well as reduced the amount of time that was needed 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.160 to train up a pilot. It sped up training considerably. Now, 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:58.000 later versions of this setup would just ditch the funnel 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.480 for the student, like they would not have a mouthpiece anymore. 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.600 So learning to fly would mean that you would receive instructions, 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:06.480 but you'd have to hold all your questions until you 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.440 were back on terra firma. So the instructor would still 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.439 have a funnel that they would speak into, but the 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.080 funnel would just go to a branching set of tubes 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.120 that would go to the ear pieces set into the 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.480 helmet that the student was wearing. Even by World War One, 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:28.919 there were already examples of intercom by wire systems. It 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.760 just wasn't practical to use on an airplane yet, but 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.080 it was in use elsewhere. One company that gets credit 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.280 for developing early intercom systems was the Kellogg Switchboard and 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.240 Supply Company, which secured a patent back in eighteen ninety 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.439 four front early system for apartment buildings and the like. 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.800 This is, of course, according to a website I've found 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.520 called Butterfly MX. More on that in a second. So 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.000 Kellogg in this case, it's not the serial guy. Kellogg 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.520 in this case refers to Milo G. Kellogg. He had 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.639 worked for a company called Gray and Martin before he 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.520 founded his own business. And yes, that's Gray, as in 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:14.600 Elisha Gray, Alexander Graham, Bell's rival who filed the caveat 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.440 the same day that Bell filed his patent, Gray and Barton. 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:22.639 That company would later become the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.120 and later it would just be known as Western Electric. 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.679 And Kellogg had worked at Western Electric until eighteen eighty nine. 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:31.959 By the time he went on to found the Kellogg 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.159 Switchboard and Supply Company, he had already secured more than 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.440 one hundred and fifty patents to his name, and these 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.960 patents became assets of his company. Kellogg would actually play 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.840 a really big part in fighting the American Bell Telephone Company, 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.360 which of course was named after Alexander Graham Bell, and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:54.200 that company was attempting to secure a perpetual monopoly over 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.520 the phone system in the United States, even though Alexander 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.280 Graham Bell's patents had expired in the early eighteen nineties. 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.960 So once patents expire their public domain, it's fair game. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:08.440 But the company was trying to change that. They were 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.880 trying to persuade the American government to change patent law 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.960 so that the company would enjoy perpetual exclusive rights to 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:20.280 the telephone invention. Kellogg was one of many people who 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.600 fought back against that movement, and ultimately Kellogg's side would win. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.320 That story by itself is fascinating and it would give 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.480 Game of Thrones a run for the money as far 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:35.160 as deceit and betrayal goes. But we don't really have 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.760 time to go into that for great detail, so I'll 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:40.560 have to hold off on that maybe covered in a 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.480 future episode, because it is a fascinating story and it 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.679 involves a point where Kellogg himself got very sick and 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:53.360 his second in command behind his back, secretly sold Kellogg's 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:58.439 switchboard and supply company to the Bell Telephone Company, and 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.760 then Kellogg would have to take the whole to court 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.680 and ultimately get the decisions reversed. It's a great story. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.960 I've just summed it up, but maybe I'll go into 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.640 more detail in a future episode. Now. According to BUTTERFLYMX, 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.639 which by the way, is a company that makes intercom 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.400 hardware and software applications for businesses and homes, Like we're 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.840 talking like advanced stuff that includes things like video conferencing 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.680 and connections with other home automation systems, that kind of thing. 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.680 Their website says that the intercom system from Kellogg back 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.160 in eighteen ninety four was really just a simple circuit 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.320 that would connect handles at the front door of an 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.040 apartment building that would connect to a specific circuit for 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.040 each apartment inside. So there'd be one handle for like 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.879 Apartment one A and another handle for apartment one B 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.639 and so on. So pulling on a handle would close 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.080 the circuit that would send a signal to the receiver 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.639 that's in that respective apartment, and that receiver would would buzz. Essentially, 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.200 it was like an alarm clock. It would cause a 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:06.080 little hammer to hit against a bell or something, but 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.080 that was the extent of this intercommunication. So essentially it 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.800 was like a door bell that let someone know they 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:15.600 had a visitor who was standing outside the building. I 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.600 would argue that's not really an intercom because it didn't 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:23.080 allow for a voice communication in either direction. However, again 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.720 according to Butterfly MX quote, a few years later, the 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:29.879 Kellogg company added an ear piece and mouthpiece to enable 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:34.000 tenants to speak with visitors end quote. So assuming that 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:38.560 that is correct, then this would be a very early example, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:44.200 you know, pre twentieth century example of an intercom system. Now, 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:48.160 I should add I couldn't really find a love supporting 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:52.160 documentation to give more details about this specific case when 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:54.840 I was looking at Kellogg, I mean, obviously Kelleg Switchboard 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:58.399 and Supply Company was a real company. They did a 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.800 ton of work created elements that were used for telephone systems, 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.640 so that is legit. It really was a thing. How 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.720 much they did in intercoms and how early and when 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.240 it changed. I can't give you details about that because 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.359 I couldn't find particulars, but it is true that early 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:21.720 intercom systems were essentially small, independent telephone systems that were 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:25.000 confined to a specific location and did not interconnect with 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:28.159 the larger phone network. And keep in mind, in the 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.000 early days, there were a lot of separate phone networks, 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:33.879 a lot of regional phone networks where you couldn't call 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.680 anyone who was on a different network because there were 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:41.760 no interconnections that would take time to form. So for 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:44.880 a very long time, phone networks were really only useful 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:49.440 for relatively local calls. Now, in general, finding a lot 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.560 of hard information about the history of intercoms is tricky. 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.600 Most other resources I found get pretty vague with details. 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:00.959 For example, I found a piece that was on Techwala's 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:06.760 article titled history of intercom Systems, and it shows that 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.280 details get pretty fuzzy. There's a passage that says, quote 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:15.680 by nineteen twelve, if not earlier, users had the choice 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.960 between a telephone style handset or a desktop loudspeaker that 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:21.960 let users keep their hands free end quote. So this 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:26.680 is about like an interoffice intercom system and the fact 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:30.399 that it has the phrase by nineteen twelve, if not earlier, 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:34.320 suggests that there's a distinct lack of documentation going on here. 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:37.480 No shade on techwallap, mind you. I'm not throwing them 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.880 under the bus, because I also found it very hard 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:44.280 to find a lot of firms supporting documentation where I 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:49.600 can confidently say, in the year you know whatever, we 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:54.439 saw the first interoffice intercom system. I just don't have 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:56.800 that information. There are a lot of different people who 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:01.000 are accredited as the inventor of office intercom systems, but 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:06.919 usually they invented something very specific that made intercom systems better. 0:24:07.280 --> 0:24:10.359 When it comes to the actual first intercom system, the 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:14.160 details there are a lot harder to find. Okay, we're 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:16.080 going to take another quick break. When we come back, 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:29.720 We're going to talk about fast food and drive throughs. Okay, 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:32.400 so we're back, and the whole point of this episode 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:36.400 is that intercoms were definitely a thing before we ever 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.719 get to In and Out Burger and Harry Snyder, because 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:41.879 the first In and Out Burger didn't open until nineteen 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:44.840 forty eight. However, I don't want to take away from 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:47.520 Harry Snyder here because I don't think it's Snyder's fault 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:50.960 that some people take a shortcut to suggest that he 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:53.880