Answering Machines and the U.S. Telephone Companies

In the U.S., the telephone company's response to the growing demand for answering machines was to introduce live r live answering services. This consisted of a special switchboard and circuitry that allowed a sort of "call forwarding." Live answering services (which are still available today) were popular among small businesses and doctors. However, the success of the answering services stimulated inventors to develop new answering machines. Under pressure from these inventors, the Federal Communications Commission for the first time permitted the use of automatic answering machines on AT&T lines in 1949, although there were tight restrictions on what technologies could be used and who controlled their use.  The Electronic Secretary was one of the first of the postwar answering machines. The original model recorded on wire and used a 45 rpm record as the outgoing message. Later models used two tape transports. Succumbing to customer demand, the Bell System companies and GTE rented this machine to customers by the early 1960s.

 

 

 

The "Electronic Secretary," an early post-World War II answering machine.