AT&T Archives: A Voice for the Farm

that phone Oh Davey just look what a mess you're making hello oh he's in the barn I'll have to call in just a minute hello oh hello miss do I know you I'm getting delivery today yes well I better talk to him about we've just been looking in on the Robert's family and you can see they've been having some problems communications problem they encountered some real obstacles in trying to run their household and the business of the farm recognizing some of these problems the Bell Telephone company's a few years ago decided to make a thorough study of foreign communications to see how they could be of greater help to the farmer and his family we began by talking to farmers all across the nation and we found that many encountered the same problems the Roberts did I'm always missing telephone calls from the wife the way I wish to honor time and money running back and forth to the house to make calls about farm prices flippin clean orders and many other things sometimes I'm just too busy to leave what I'm doing to answer the phone the farmers wives - had their problems I keep the records and I'm always having to run outside and ask my husband questions well with the boys and my husband tracking muddy and every time to answer the telephone I just can't seem to keep my house clean yet it seems like every time I come out here to work with the eggs the phone rings there was something else that came to light during our survey of communication on the farm a whole new idea brought up by the farmers themselves well I was wondering if there wasn't some way of hearing what's happening after the yard but we're here in the house we asked other farmers what they thought of this I'd say that's a pretty good idea myself especially during a fair one season when the showers liable can match the new pigs what yes if I could hear what was going on in the yard I could keep track of those kids our survey convinced us that the problem of communication on the farm was entirely different from that of any other business for one thing Farms by their very nature are spread off someone has said that the average farmer walks over a hundred and fifty miles a year just between the house and the barn this takes time and time means money in some seasons you might even say it's priceless by the time our study was finished it became apparent that an entirely new system had to be developed to meet the special communication needs of the farmer in his family bell engineers went to work on the problem designing new equipment testing adapting redesigning and testing again finally they believed they had the answer but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the system would have to be tested in actual use to see if it really did the job accordingly the systems were installed in more than a hundred farms farmers put it to work for over a year and reported to the telephone company just what they thought of it their suggestions helped the company to make further improvements and this system the farm interpol has finally developed got the wholehearted approval of the farmers here are the components the telephone instrument with push-to-talk bar and associated speaker an outdoor loudspeaker a small ringer and an equipment box now let's see how it fits into the farm here's a typical layout of a general farm before the installation of the system there was just a conventional phone in the kitchen this phone call could be very important to the farmer for the phone is his connection with his market and his suppliers with the implement dealer the seed dealer the vet but we may never know who was calling for there was no one in the house to answer the call now let's install a new farm enter phone system since this farmer spends much of his time in the barn and a great deal of time in the shop we'll put phones with speakers in both locations and we'll put a loudspeaker in the farm yard where it can be heard over most of the rest of the farm now the phone rings again there is no one in the house but as it happens the farmer is in the bar hello oh hi Joe yeah I'm glad you call I've been trying to get in touch with you or take another example the wife is in the garden when the phone ring hears the phone ring from the loudspeaker in the yard and goes to the house to answer the phone but it turns out the phone is for her husband she doesn't know where he is so she simply calls him on the farm in her home okay I'll get it in the barn mr. Tate Stan will be with you in just a minute well it saved a lot of looking and calling around the farm didn't it now let's take a closer look and see exactly how that call was handled when the wife found out the call was for her husband she merely operated this button to hold the call and then turn this button to call her husband who was in the bar then she pressed down this bar and spoke into the phone telephones fans her voice was carried to every speaker location on the farm the machine shed the barn and the loudspeaker in the yard when she released this bar she could hear anyone answering over the speakers you can see that the far her phone will be useful anytime the wife wants to call her husband better make it 30 minutes and send Billy out here to help me you can also see that the system is quite flexible and is really custom designed for every farm suppose this were a poultry farm for example in such a case the farmer would spend most of his time around the poultry houses and would need phones and speakers here or suppose this were a hog breeders farm he would probably want a loudspeaker in the farrowing house and one in a shed on a truck farm well I'm sure by now you can see the endless possibilities it boils down to the fact that the system is farm design to start off with and further is tailored to meet the requirements of the individual farm here's how the new system works on the Roberts farm it saves the family literally miles of walking hello oh yes mr. Johnson well well I don't know I'll risk it can you hang on a minute yeah yeah well you better make that about 8 tons and bulk and honey call a vet for me will you I got a pretty sick calf out here that's like global okay I'll do that mr. Johnson's aunt said we'll need about 8 tons bulk that's right oh okay thanks Oh Davey weave out of the town dr. James sippin Virginia Robert yes listen it says we have a six cap can you come over this morning oh well I don't know I'll have to ask it can you hold on a minute all right yeah yeah listen dr. James says he's got some other calls to make this morning well maybe you better let me talk to him okay dr. James ed wants to talk to you come on Doc this cat's down yeah yeah okay okay seeing a little while Thanks we checked with other families to see how they use the system how much time it saved them here are typical calls Ernie yeah the report sent from the lab on that chicken you sentence they say it's not serious that's good thanks Jim I'm in the barn to know if you want to take your fertilizer on early order telling ya five will save the money gene are you there yeah why you're in town you pick up a fan belt for the tractor just asking that will it's implement you don't know what I want all right there's something I'd like to point out right here you notice that on those called one person talked without touching the phone far as we say hands-free you see on farm inter phone calls it takes only the person making the call to operate the equipment the other can talk from wherever he happens to be without stopping what he's doing or if you desire complete privacy both can use the phone Jam sure be right with you you've seen the system and two of its important applications handling of telephone calls and used for enter communication now we come to the third feature of the system its use as a monitor or watchdog you can listen in on sounds from the various yard speaker areas 1015 2 plus X out of fare is 8 3 PI / 6 still running Betty the clump what are they station water clusters broken bones about to be flooded my gosh sounded like the bull broke that latch again the monitoring incidents you have just seen are only two of the many reported to us when the farmer was able to save livestock or avoid expensive repairs because the system alerted him that something was wrong on the farm the advantages of the farm Interphone system the time saved a step saved and the convenience convinced the farmers that had really met their communication needs for example we're on a 200 acre truck farm in the Far West vegetables are a year-round crop it's important for the farmer to keep in touch with the produce market I used to go back and forth to the house I'll bet you 20 times a day for phone calls then sometimes I'd miss an important call I tell you I've got enough new business already to more than pay for the system and on this poultry farm in the southeast they turn over about 80,000 boilers a year most of the daylight hours are spent working in and around the poultry houses if you told me a year ago that I could save so many miles of walking every year I don't think I'd have believed it I know it adds up to plenty saves me a lot of time and trouble too and in the Grain Belt a wheat farmer manages the farm and directs to hired hands keeps him pretty busy my wife used to say Ken you ought to be twins to keep up with a farm and you know with this new system it's almost like being in two places at once well I can keep up with the hands and take phone calls and work all at the same time in the Corn Belt they're fattening up frying beef most of the year much of a farmers time is done around the feedlots feeding and loading I wouldn't be without this system any more than I'd be without a mill to grind fee just yesterday I got a long-distance call shipped off a hundred head I might have missed that sale if it hadn't been for this system when the results were all in and editor the telephone company was just as pleased as the farmers for it net we had done what we set out to do we had a system is specially designed for the unique needs of the farm not only did it save the farmer time and money but also it made farm living that much more pleasant and the farmers themselves had had a large part in the creation of the system making it possible for the telephone company to provide a much needed business to a voice for the farm you you

Channel: AT&T Tech Channel

Views: 40,329

Keywords: AT&T Tech Channel, AT&T, AT&T Archives, History, Communications, Phone, 1960s

Id: HO37_MvZOTM

Length: 16min 48sec (1008 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2011