Nowadays, we talk a lot about the massive development there is taking place right now. Internet, wireless networks, traveling in space and so on. A lot of people think that internet is one of the greatest inventions ever. But maybe developing the telephone is a even greater invention. In “Time and Distance Overcome”, Eula Biss gives an account of how the telephone overcame time and distance back then. The essay deals with all the sceptical people, and the consequences from erecting the telephone poles to the crucifixions.
In her essay Eula Biss explains how Alexander Graham Bell first gave live to his telephone in 1876. People had a hard time accept this new invention in the first place, but suddenly, the more wealthy people purchased one “so that he [a banker from Boston] could let his family know exactly when he would be home for dinner.”(23). But the new invention had it’s consequences; people chopped the lines, many mobs began crucify people. As a matter of fact, there was a lot of problems related to the invention of the telephone.
The essay has a chronological order, which makes it seem as a account of the period when inventing. Biss starts off talking about how a very few people found this new invention smart and innovative. Gradually, as we move on with the text people is giving it a shot and purchase one as well. The text is structured into different parts: The pre-sceptical, the adaption, the sceptical of the poles, the problems concerning the crucifixions and finally the partly acceptance of the telephone as a useful tool. This way of structuring is giving the reader a complete account of the circumstances during the period of the invention. Furthermore, the paragraphs of the whole essay is structured in a very short and concise way. This gives the reader a very good overview and makes the essay more easy to read. All these small paragraphs also contains small different stories from different places. One third or more of the text is stating all the murders of people being crucified, while the rest is not that serious actions. It gives the impression that the majority of the period suffered under all the murders and that people was not really taking advantage of the benefits which were connected to this period.
More than distance overcome
In this essay Biss starts out with a quote: “Of what use is such an invention?”(1) This was questioned in The New York World shortly after the first demonstration of Bell’s telephone. This is quite interesting, because in some parts in this essay, Biss has a ironical tone. As I first introduced, the telephone has made a great impact on us today, but at that time people did not really understand the purpose of the telephone. They was confused, and did not really think this was a clever invention. At that time, the idea of a national, or even local, telephone network “seemed far more unlikely that the idea that the human voice could be transmitted through a wire.”(6). The telephone was compared to “a machine that would allow the deaf to hear.”(17). In total, this idea of a telephone network seemed useless and stupid. That is rather ironic, because we, more or less, cannot live without the telephone. Furthermore, in 1889, The New York Times reported a “War on Telephone Poles” (27). People was “sawing them down or defending their sidewalks with rifles” (28). These actions, or stupidities, seem so foolish today. While rich and clever people is taking advantage of these benefits, everybody else is opposing this unique invention. By telling about those who were sawing the poles down and at the same time tell that President Rutherford B. Hayes had installed a “telephone in the White House”, Biss makes the opponents seem even more rebellious and opposing (62). According to the mobs and people who was crucifying others, Biss has a unsympathetically tone in the description of their doings. The criminals were accused of “”disputing with a white man,” for “unpopularity,” for “asking a white woman in marriage,” for “peeping in a window.”.” (79). These words as “disputing”, “unpopularity”, “peeping in a window” are quite formal while having a special tone. “Disputing” for instance, is a mild word to use, when the mod actually was crucifying him. Biss is not having any kind of sympathy with these black men and therefore this ironical tone.
After giving an account of the whole period Biss, tells us about how her grandfather was a lineman, and how he died when a telephone fell and “smashed him onto the road” (136). Earlier, Biss “believed that the arc and swoop of telephone wires along the roadways were beautiful. […] Now, I tell my sister, these poles, these wires do not look the same to me.” (138). Biss has, after the accident, changed her mind about the telephone poles and also telephones, which seemed so smart and innovative in her opinion. But her sister reminds her: “Nothing is innocent […]”, which is completely true (142). The story about her grandfather is a symbol of all the sacrifices there has been to implant the telephone in today’s society. So even though the the telephone has had a lot of great impact on our world today, it had it’s sacrifices. At the end of the whole essay, Biss writes: “One summer, heavy rains fell in Nebraska and some green telephone poles grew small leafy branches.” (144). This leafy branches can be a symbol of two things: The dead grandfather, or even all those people who had died during the adaption of the telephone. Otherwise, it could be a symbol of something new or germinate, just like the telephone was.
Eula Biss writes a essay in which she chronologically describes the adaptation of the telephone from the first demonstration by Bell and to his first call through 14,000 miles of copper wire. At first it was hard for the world to open up against this new invention, but gradually people began accepting it as a part of our society. Through the text there is a ironical tone, like Biss is wise after the event, because people was so sceptical. In short, Eula Biss describes how we nowadays have overcome time and distance.
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