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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
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![]() How is it possible for people encased in individual spacesuits to converse with each other? The ingenious Mr. Edison provides the solution.
This delightfully retro solution is based on the recent (from the point of view of the writer) introduction of telephone central exchanges, in which operators could connect two distant telephones with switchboards.
The first telephone switchboard was put into use in New Haven, Connecticut in 1878. Built from carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire, it could handle two simultaneous conversations.
Plug boards manned by operators characterized later telephone exchanges. Subscriber lines terminated in bantam jacks lined up in banks; when a distant caller picked up their phone, a light near the jack came on, the operator inquired as to the number needed, and then plugged a connecting wire into the subscriber's line to complete the call.
Compare to the suit-phone from The Sargasso of Space (1931) by Edmond Hamilton, the audiphone from Blood of the Moon (1936) by Ray Cummings and the suit-radio from The Long Way (1944) by George O. Smith.
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