World Post Day - 125th Anniversary of the first Telephone Exchange in South Africa Stamp issue date: 9 October 2007 World Post Day 2007 is celebrated by the South African Post Office by issuing a stamp which commemorates the first public exchange telephone switchboard installed in Port Elizabeth in 1882. A stamp and commemorative envelope was issued to coincide with the yearly worldwide celebrations for World Post Day which takes place on 9 October. For thousands of years the speed of communications was determined by the speed of the swiftest runner or the fastest horse. The development of telegraph as a method of communication was a major step towards speeding up communication worldwide. The first telegraph office in South Africa was opened in 1860 and was housed in a little kiosk, known as the Pagoda, in Adderley Street, Cape Town. Over the next 20 years the telegraph system developed to cover large parts of the country. From the earliest date certain “private wires” were used. These were initially hired from the Telegraph Company. During 1878, two years after Alexander Graham Bell had invented the telephone, Mr G A Boettger, a jeweller in Cape Town imported some “Microphonic Apparatus” models or telephones from Siemens. In 1880 there were eleven sets of these telephones in use. By 1887 there were some 356 sets in use. In 1882 it was thought that the system had grown so rapidly that a qualified mechanician could be employed to maintain the telephones. As a result R G Andrews from Dublin was appointed to the position. The first telephone exchange in South Africa opened in Port Elizabeth on 2 May 1882. The exchange was located on the third floor of a castle-like building at the corner of Main and Jetty Streets in Port Elizabeth, later known as “Union Castle Corner.” The building was built by the London & South Arican Bank, who sold it to the South African Government for the sum of £10,000 in 1877. The building was subsequently demolished and replaced by the General Post Office building in 1900. The telephone exchange had a capacity for 50 lines and it started off with 44 subscribers. The vast majority of these first subscribers were businesses. Connections to the various subscribers were done by overhead wires which fed from a large circular distribution frame attached to the roof called the “birdcage.” Since the first telephone exchange opened, it became possible for citizens to experience the advantage that the telephone had over the telegraph which was that you get an immediate answer “viva voce” (by spoken word.) They were amazed at the fact that you were, in fact, in close conversation with the person at the other end, and it was not necessary to wait for replies anymore. At the time it was difficult for people to imagine how far electric telegraphy could be extended but they were sure that they were at the infancy of a science of which they could only guess at what the future will hold. Who could have imagined that almost every household would eventually have a telephone and that it would be possible to make phone calls locally and internationally? Today, we are able to send e-mails and receive vast amounts of information from the internet via telephone. Mobile phones makes it possible to make wireless phone calls and 3G networks enables us to receive live streaming of radio and television!
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