Phone Booths

June 3, 2009

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Profile America — Wednesday, June 3rd. Clark Kent ducked into one to change into Superman — and millions of Americans used phone booths to stay in touch with friends and loved ones all over the country. The first public phone booth was installed this week in 1880 in New Haven, Connecticut — just four years after the telephone was invented. These first public telephones were supervised by attendants, while those operated by coins came along nine years later. Today, most pay phones are in transportation terminals and the latest models have a color monitor and allow callers to access e-mail or connect a portable fax machine. At the same time, the number of people using cell phones has exploded — nearly doubling to more than 255 million in just five years. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: American Speakers Calendar of Events
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009, t. 1112
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2009edition.html