Mendenhall, 1874
Ohio State was lucky in its early days to have Prof. Thomas C. Mendenhall on staff. Mendenhall, the first physics professor at what was then called the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, reportedly used Alexander Graham Bell’s first experimental telephone and he and students from his department were involved in the construction of the first telephone line in the state of Ohio. The line ran from his laboratory on campus to his residence on High Street. Subsequently, the first transmission of speech by the use of electricity in Ohio was between Mendenhall’s residence and his lab. This was circa 1878, although Mendenhall in his later account of the early days of the campus did not give an exact date.
Telephone in University Hall, 1907
Pretty cool, huh? Even so, ten years later, there appeared to be only one telephone on campus. A “Personal Note” in an 1888 issue of the Lantern said “The Faculty still monopolize the telephone.”
And in light of the recent electronically issued emergency alerts that have been issued by OSU Police, here’s another interesting tidbit: the first Emergency phones, with a direct line to the police department, were placed throughout campus in Autumn Quarter of 1972, and were used that quarter approximately 25 times.
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