ervice rendered by the boys
proved far from satisfactory. The average boy proved himself
too little amenable to discipline, too inclined to "sass" the
telephone-users, and too careless. But the early use of "hello boys"
was at least a success for the telephone in that it brought to
its service John J. Carty. This boy pointed the way to the great
improvements that made it possible to handle the constantly growing
volume of calls expeditiously and effectively.

The early telephones were operated with a single wire grounded at
either end, the earth return being used to complete the circuit
as with the telegraph. But while the currents used to operate the
telegraph are fairly strong and so can dominate the earth currents,
the tiny currents which represented the vibrations of the human voice
were all too often drowned by the earth currents which strayed on to
the lines. Telephone engineers were not then agreed that this caused
the difficulty; but they did know there was difficulty. Many weird
noises played over the lines and as often as not the spoken word was
twisted into the strangest gibberish and rendered unintelligible. If
the telephone was to satisfy its patrons and prove of real service
to the world, the difficulty had to be overcome. Some of the more
progressive engineers insisted that a double-wire system without a
ground was necessary. This, of course, involved tremendous expenses
in rebuilding every line and duplicating every wire. The more
conservative hesitated, but Carty forged ahead.

In 1880 he was engaged in operating a new line out of Boston. He was
convinced that the double-wire system alone could be successful, and
he arranged to operate a line on this plan. Taking two single lines,
he instructed the operator at the other end to join them, forming a
two-wire circuit. The results justified him. At last a line had been
attained which could be depended upon to carry the conversation.

No sooner was one problem solved than another presented itself. What
to do with the constantly increasing number of wires was a pressing
difficulty. All telephone circuits had been strung overhead, and with
the demand for telephones for office and residence rapidly increasing,
the streets of the great cities were becoming a perfect forest of
telephone poles, with the sky obscured by a maze of wires. Poles were
constantly increased in height until a line was strung along Wall
Street in New York City at a height of ninety feet