Story Without End (1950)

This video in the Prelinger Archives is about the innovations and expansion happening in the telephone industry in 1950. This educational video provides an interesting glimpse into the time and shows what they considered ground-breaking and the direction they thought technology was moving in.

This video is useful for people studying the information society today because this was a time when communication technology started to accelerate and connect people like never before. The video shows demonstrations of the "old" way of using a telephone, which included trouble hearing the person and a call taking five minutes as it was sent through many switch boards across the country. However, starting during this time people were able to dial numbers directly on their telephones and improved wires were sending information faster and longer distances. The narrator referred to these new wires as "information highways".

Another interesting part to take away from this short film was how forward thinking the people were during this time. Although telephone technology was not advanced by today's standards, the narrator mentioned how the phone will eventually become, "light and convenient" and that "air is the next highway". Many people today would be surprised to here how people from 75 years ago could predict the trend of the technology, but their predictions were fairly accurate.

Overall, it is interesting to look back at when telephone technology started to take off and see how it has changed over time. The video mentioned people, "having the privilege" to have access to a telephone and today that is something that everybody in the western information society takes for granted. It is also important to see how much of today's technology infrastructure was built, as the film highlights the equipment and procedures that laid power and telephone cables across the country.

By naming the video, "Story Without End", the creators are saying that this communication technology is always improving and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.