While I was hunting around on the Bell System Memorial site the other day, I ran across this audio file that demonstrates how long it took in the 1940s to connect a call from Los Angeles to Murphy, Idaho. Time from the initial dial to a connection on the other end? Nearly two minutes, and listen to how many people it took to connect that call!

I pretty much take it for granted these days that calling someone else, be it on Skype, my mobile phone, or some VoIP provider, that zero humans are involved in connecting my call. In fact, with point-to-point calling, calls are connected in just a few seconds!