The Voice That Connected a City
Imagine picking up a telephone but having no buttons to press and no way to call someone directly. In the earliest days of telephone service, a person called an operator helped make the connection. One of those operators, Emma Nutt, became a pioneer in a job that would change how people communicated.
In the late 1870s, telephones were still a new invention. A customer’s telephone was connected by wires to a central office, sometimes called an exchange. To reach another customer, the caller first contacted the exchange and told an operator whom they wanted to speak with. The operator then connected the two lines at a switchboard, a piece of equipment used to direct calls.
The work required attention and patience. Operators had to listen carefully, find the correct line, and make connections for many people. A caller might not know what was happening at the exchange, but the operator’s work made the conversation possible.
A New Kind of Worker
Early telephone companies hired boys and young men as operators. According to a Smithsonian Magazine article, some customers complained that the boys were impatient or rude. Telephone companies began hiring women, who were expected to speak politely to callers.
- pioneer:
- A person who is among the first to do something new.
- patience:
- The ability to stay calm while waiting or dealing with difficulty.
- coordinating:
- Organizing parts or activities so they work together.
- network:
- A connected group of people or things that work together.
- courteous:
- Polite and respectful toward others.
- workforce:
- The people who work for an employer or in an industry.
- assumptions:
- Ideas accepted as true without being fully proven.
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Main Idea
Identify the central idea and explain how important details develop it.
Context Clues
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Summarize
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Purpose
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Structure
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Vocabulary
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Writing Prompts
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1How did an operator connect two telephone customers in the late 1870s?
- 2Why did early operators need both attention and patience?
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About this explanatory article passage for Upper Elementary
“The Voice That Connected a City” is a explanatory article reading passage about Telephone history, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 4 minutes to read (537 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.