In the 1880s, lonely farmers connected their phones to barb wires in
order to communicate with each other. Building telephone lines was
expensive and it did not make sense to build one in an area that
barely had any people. The patent for barbed wire was first filed in
1867. By the 1880s, barbed wire was strewn all across the country.
The set-up was far from perfect because there was no switchboard,
which meant that every phone connected to the barbed wire would ring simultaneously when a call was placed. Each house had a distinctive
ring, but there was no guarantee of privacy. Anyone on the line could
listen to the conversation.
According to historian Rob MacDougall, "Talk was free, and so people
soon began to 'hang out' on the phone, just as they do today in online
social networks. People would read the newspaper over the telephone...
They'd have musical nights where someone would play their banjo,
someone else would sing along, and others would listen. The shared
line could even serve as a rudimentary broadcasting system. On many
fence-phone networks, a single, very long ring would signal a 'line
call,' an announcement of interest to everyone on the system. This
might be a weather report, weekly livestock prices, word that the
train would arrive late, or news of an emergency such as a prairie
fire."
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1704911420440068597
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