September 1: Getting Connected

The earliest telephones were very basic. One telephone couldn’t call another phone directly unless the two were connected. The caller needed an intermediary. Phone users called an exchange instead of the person or business they wanted to reach. Telephone operators connected them. On this date in 1878, Emma Nutt became the first woman to work as a telephone operator. She started a trend, and it wasn’t long before virtually all telephone operators were women who worked out of their own homes.