100 years ago in Spokane: New transcontinental phone line demonstrated

From our archives,

100 years ago

More than 400 employees of Pacific Telephone and Telegraph crowded into the Auditorium Theater to hear an exhibition of the latest – and most astonishing – long-distance telephone technology.

They heard the “roar of the Atlantic surf,” live, over the company’s transcontinental trunk line.

They also heard an operator in New York read the latest news dispatch. “Every word was easily audible,” the paper said. They also heard an orchestra perform the “Toreador” song from “Carmen.”

An accompanying film showed the construction of the transcontinental phone line.

From the prohibition beat: At least 11 people in Seattle had died from wood-alcohol poisoning since prohibition went into effect 10 days earlier.

Police said at least three of them had purchased bootleg liquor from T. Takano, proprietor of a Japanese drugstore in Seattle.

From the blizzard beat: Several Ephrata, Washington, children, walking to school, had to be rescued from deep snowdrifts. Freddie McMillen’s hands and face were frozen when he was picked up by rescuers. Edna Hale, a third-grader, also had to be rescued from a snowdrift.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1935: Aviator Amelia Earhart began an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, California, that made her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.