November 7, 2025 • 8 mins
Communicating quickly with family, friends, and work colleagues, whether miles apart or rooms apart, has always been a challenge. It’s one human beings have been dealing with for thousands of years. We’ve used everything from smoke signals, to telegraph, to telephones, to weird devices like a tube you’d blow into to fetch an extra blanket.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You can't argue with me about this. We're all kind
of locked on our phones these days, and while that
can drive you nuts, it's also an incredible benefit when
it comes to communicating quickly with family, friends, and work colleagues.
But what if people do to keep in touch before
the telephone. I'm Patty Steele. Put your lips together and blow.
(00:21):
That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory.
We're so used to being able to get through to
anybody at any time by just grabbing our cell phones.
It's kind of hard to imagine what people did to
get what they needed before we have them. Yeah, there
(00:41):
were landlines, but they couldn't go with you anywhere. And
what about when you were upstairs in the house and
your parent or kid or sweetheart was in the basement.
You had to go all the way downstairs to get
one stupid question answered. It wasn't that long ago that
folks had to rely on much less reliable tech when
it came to communication. By the year two thousand, only
(01:03):
twenty eight percent of us had a cell phone. That's
just twenty five years ago. That popped up to fifty
percent just two years later. Today they are ubiquitous. Ninety
eight percent of Americans have a cell phone, but before
the late nineteen nineties it was complicated. Sure, we had
landlines starting in the late eighteen seventies, but even by
(01:25):
nineteen forty five, only around forty five percent of American
homes had a phone. And even if you had one,
if you were going to meet somebody somewhere, you had
to set up a rendezvous spot and hope you found
each other. Before phones, the greatest invention for communicating was
the telegraph, which was first demonstrated in eighteen thirty eight.
(01:46):
The first official long distance message was sent from Washington,
DC to Baltimore in eighteen forty four. The message reflected
how freaked out people were with this new technology. It
read what hath got wrought? It literally changed the way
we communicated news, business, and government, and ran the government.
(02:07):
Of course, long distance messaging goes back thousands of years,
and it wasn't just snail mail they used. Some of
the tech used to get messages where they needed to
go didn't even involve couriers. In Rome, they relied on
carrier pigeons. They continued to be used right up to
World War One, when the Pigeon Corp. Had twenty two
(02:27):
thousand birds working for the cause. In fact, the last
pigeon messaging service only closed down in two thousand and six.
And another ancient long distance messaging system was talking drums.
These things used certain drum sounds and beats to mean
specific words. They were used to communicate from village to
(02:48):
village in Africa and are still used today to share stories.
And there were also smoke signals and beacons to send
messages across the miles. Native Americans famously used them, but
so did ancient Chinese along the Great Wall. They used
the signals between towers to warn of attacks and even
use different colored smoke depending on the size of the
(03:10):
attacking force. The ancient Greeks also used both smoke signals
and torch beacons that communicated the same warnings using certain
patterns and number of lights or smoke puffs. They were
used in medieval Italy the same way. Smoke signals or
beacons were mostly used by all these cultures to send
military warnings, but they were also used to gather people together.
(03:33):
In fact, the Vatican still uses a smoke signal system
to indicate the process of choosing a new pope while
the cardinals are sequestered for voting. Moving forward, telephones and radio,
of course opened up the world to folks who previously
could only rely on letters, newspapers, and word of mouth.
But let's go back to trying to reach somebody in
(03:54):
your own house. Well, there was something you'd see in
a lot of houses in the nineteen sixties and seven,
the intercom system. You could ask who was at the
front door, or you could shout to the entire household,
or just to an individual that it was dinner time
or time to take out the garbage. But intercoms actually
began to disappear by the nineteen eighties, mostly because installing
(04:17):
them was kind of pricey. One of the most interesting inventions, though,
came long before intercoms and even telephones. It was the
speaking Tube. Now, I gotta tell you, one of the
things I love about looking back at everyday life years
ago is understanding how people balance their needs and wants
with what they had available at the time. I recently
(04:40):
took a tour of one of the houses used as
a setting for the HBO Max show The Gilded Age.
The house is on the Hudson River about twenty five
miles north of New York City in Terrytown. It's called
Lyndhurst Mansion, and it was left to the National Trust
in nineteen sixty one by the Gould family, who had
owned it since eighteen eighty. Everything in it was preserved,
(05:02):
so you get to see the evolution of how the
house was used when it was first built back in
the eighteen thirties, right up until the nineteen sixties. Anyway,
what early technology did these folks use to communicate in
their giant, old Gothic mansion. Well, as we walked through
the place, we noticed outside the bedroom doors were little
(05:23):
brass bell shaped devices. Turns out, if you were upstairs
in your luxurious bedroom, far away from the kitchen or
the housekeeper, you needed a way to request a cup
of tea. The speaking tube was right outside the bedroom
door to protect your privacy, and you would step out
and blow through the tube that would force a sort
(05:44):
of tea kettle device to sound down in the kitchen.
The housekeeper would call through the tube to you to
find out what you needed, and you'd request your tea
or more blankets or wood on your fire. The tubes
were so efficient you could easily hear what was being
said from as much as three hundred feet away, likely
in the basement, kitchen or the housekeeper's office three or
(06:07):
four floors below. Some houses also had a system of
bells attached to strings, which could also summon a servant
to the speaking tube. Later, when electricity arrived, they could
press a button located next to the tube to alert
the staff. Problem is it required an intense infrastructure, with
different tubes and strings, and later on wires running all
(06:31):
over the house from in two various rooms. Of course,
early on, because of the installation expense and the size
of the houses, these devices were mostly found in upscale homes,
but by the early nineteen hundred so a lot of
middle class houses had them as well. At the end
of the day, if you could afford them, they did
the job. And you know what it inspired some common
(06:54):
phrases we still use today. Ever, hear somebody say get
on the horn, on the blower, or give them a blow.
In fact, some people still refer to the telephone as
a blower. Those all came from the speaking tube. No
matter when or where we live, we all got to
get stuff done as quickly and easily as possible. Right,
(07:17):
Hope you like The Backstory with Patty Steele, Please leave
a review. I'd love it if you would subscribe or
follow for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and
also feel free to DM me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(07:41):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(08:04):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
You can't argue with me about this. We're all kind
of locked on our phones these days, and while that
can drive you nuts, it's also an incredible benefit when
it comes to communicating quickly with family, friends, and work colleagues.
But what if people do to keep in touch before
the telephone. I'm Patty Steele. Put your lips together and blow.
(00:21):
That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory.
We're so used to being able to get through to
anybody at any time by just grabbing our cell phones.
It's kind of hard to imagine what people did to
get what they needed before we have them. Yeah, there
(00:41):
were landlines, but they couldn't go with you anywhere. And
what about when you were upstairs in the house and
your parent or kid or sweetheart was in the basement.
You had to go all the way downstairs to get
one stupid question answered. It wasn't that long ago that
folks had to rely on much less reliable tech when
it came to communication. By the year two thousand, only
(01:03):
twenty eight percent of us had a cell phone. That's
just twenty five years ago. That popped up to fifty
percent just two years later. Today they are ubiquitous. Ninety
eight percent of Americans have a cell phone, but before
the late nineteen nineties it was complicated. Sure, we had
landlines starting in the late eighteen seventies, but even by
(01:25):
nineteen forty five, only around forty five percent of American
homes had a phone. And even if you had one,
if you were going to meet somebody somewhere, you had
to set up a rendezvous spot and hope you found
each other. Before phones, the greatest invention for communicating was
the telegraph, which was first demonstrated in eighteen thirty eight.
(01:46):
The first official long distance message was sent from Washington,
DC to Baltimore in eighteen forty four. The message reflected
how freaked out people were with this new technology. It
read what hath got wrought? It literally changed the way
we communicated news, business, and government, and ran the government.
(02:07):
Of course, long distance messaging goes back thousands of years,
and it wasn't just snail mail they used. Some of
the tech used to get messages where they needed to
go didn't even involve couriers. In Rome, they relied on
carrier pigeons. They continued to be used right up to
World War One, when the Pigeon Corp. Had twenty two
(02:27):
thousand birds working for the cause. In fact, the last
pigeon messaging service only closed down in two thousand and six.
And another ancient long distance messaging system was talking drums.
These things used certain drum sounds and beats to mean
specific words. They were used to communicate from village to
(02:48):
village in Africa and are still used today to share stories.
And there were also smoke signals and beacons to send
messages across the miles. Native Americans famously used them, but
so did ancient Chinese along the Great Wall. They used
the signals between towers to warn of attacks and even
use different colored smoke depending on the size of the
(03:10):
attacking force. The ancient Greeks also used both smoke signals
and torch beacons that communicated the same warnings using certain
patterns and number of lights or smoke puffs. They were
used in medieval Italy the same way. Smoke signals or
beacons were mostly used by all these cultures to send
military warnings, but they were also used to gather people together.
(03:33):
In fact, the Vatican still uses a smoke signal system
to indicate the process of choosing a new pope while
the cardinals are sequestered for voting. Moving forward, telephones and radio,
of course opened up the world to folks who previously
could only rely on letters, newspapers, and word of mouth.
But let's go back to trying to reach somebody in
(03:54):
your own house. Well, there was something you'd see in
a lot of houses in the nineteen sixties and seven,
the intercom system. You could ask who was at the
front door, or you could shout to the entire household,
or just to an individual that it was dinner time
or time to take out the garbage. But intercoms actually
began to disappear by the nineteen eighties, mostly because installing
(04:17):
them was kind of pricey. One of the most interesting inventions, though,
came long before intercoms and even telephones. It was the
speaking Tube. Now, I gotta tell you, one of the
things I love about looking back at everyday life years
ago is understanding how people balance their needs and wants
with what they had available at the time. I recently
(04:40):
took a tour of one of the houses used as
a setting for the HBO Max show The Gilded Age.
The house is on the Hudson River about twenty five
miles north of New York City in Terrytown. It's called
Lyndhurst Mansion, and it was left to the National Trust
in nineteen sixty one by the Gould family, who had
owned it since eighteen eighty. Everything in it was preserved,
(05:02):
so you get to see the evolution of how the
house was used when it was first built back in
the eighteen thirties, right up until the nineteen sixties. Anyway,
what early technology did these folks use to communicate in
their giant, old Gothic mansion. Well, as we walked through
the place, we noticed outside the bedroom doors were little
(05:23):
brass bell shaped devices. Turns out, if you were upstairs
in your luxurious bedroom, far away from the kitchen or
the housekeeper, you needed a way to request a cup
of tea. The speaking tube was right outside the bedroom
door to protect your privacy, and you would step out
and blow through the tube that would force a sort
(05:44):
of tea kettle device to sound down in the kitchen.
The housekeeper would call through the tube to you to
find out what you needed, and you'd request your tea
or more blankets or wood on your fire. The tubes
were so efficient you could easily hear what was being
said from as much as three hundred feet away, likely
in the basement, kitchen or the housekeeper's office three or
(06:07):
four floors below. Some houses also had a system of
bells attached to strings, which could also summon a servant
to the speaking tube. Later, when electricity arrived, they could
press a button located next to the tube to alert
the staff. Problem is it required an intense infrastructure, with
different tubes and strings, and later on wires running all
(06:31):
over the house from in two various rooms. Of course,
early on, because of the installation expense and the size
of the houses, these devices were mostly found in upscale homes,
but by the early nineteen hundred so a lot of
middle class houses had them as well. At the end
of the day, if you could afford them, they did
the job. And you know what it inspired some common
(06:54):
phrases we still use today. Ever, hear somebody say get
on the horn, on the blower, or give them a blow.
In fact, some people still refer to the telephone as
a blower. Those all came from the speaking tube. No
matter when or where we live, we all got to
get stuff done as quickly and easily as possible. Right,
(07:17):
Hope you like The Backstory with Patty Steele, Please leave
a review. I'd love it if you would subscribe or
follow for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and
also feel free to DM me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(07:41):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(08:04):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
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