# James Gleick on The Telephone: A New History > On the messy business of inventing an inevitable technology - URL: https://a16zfrontier.com/posts/article/james-gleick-telephone/ - Authors: [a16z Frontier editorial](https://a16zfrontier.com/team/a16z-frontier-editorial/) - Published: 2026-11-12 - Updated: 2026-11-13 - Tags: history, how innovation happens, networks --- [Embedded media](https://www.youtube.com/embed/yl5D4S6m0gM) James Gleick — acclaimed science writer and bestselling author of *Chaos: Making a New Science* as well as biographies on polymaths Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman — joins Sonal Chokshi and Robert Hackett to discuss his new book, *The Telephone: A New History*. It is a story of a device — who really invented it, how? — of a network, of a lab, and of how innovation happens. The telephone was dismissed as a toy or a frivolity — at best, something people could use to listen to concerts or sermons from home. Even with a working invention, everyone was still trying to figure out what a telephone was for, using the framework of what they already knew. Then its users started finding their own answers. Farmers built their own decentralized networks using barbed-wire fences — the “devil’s rope” — and, over time, research at a company built around phone calls helped lay the foundations of modern computing. This conversation explores the nuances of building at the frontier: competing inventors, the experiments, the “scenius of genius.” Why did established businesses underestimate it? Did the telephone network have to become a monopoly? What made Bell Labs so productive? And how a single invention could set off a technology revolution. **In this episode:** - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=0s) Intro: James Gleick and this new book - [02:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=127s) The messy invention of the telephone - [03:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=233s) When a “toy” becomes indispensable - [08:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=495s) How network effects changed the telephone - [14:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=869s) How farmers built a decentralized phone network from barbed wire - [17:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=1040s) What Mark Twain missed while eavesdropping on his wife’s phone calls - [20:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=1212s) To play monopoly or not? - [31:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=1882s) Open vs. closed systems - [37:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=2237s) What made Bell Labs (and Xerox PARC) more than one-hit wonders? - [41:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=2480s) Scientists, tinkerers, and the conditions for invention - [47:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=2842s) Debating whether AI is a fourth industrial revolution - [52:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=3131s) How technology changes the way we think - [54:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=3258s) James Gleick on solo writing vs. social conversation - [58:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=3505s) The world brain - [59:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl5D4S6m0gM&t=3595s) From “ahoy” to “hello, world” --- ### Show notes read *The Telephone: A New History* [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374618940/thetelephone/](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374618940/thetelephone/) subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHq3W46BiAYjKUYZq2qm-Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHq3W46BiAYjKUYZq2qm-Q) subscribe to our Substack [https://a16zfrontier.substack.com/](https://a16zfrontier.substack.com/) visit our website [https://a16zfrontier.com/](https://a16zfrontier.com/) follow us on X [https://twitter.com/a16zfrontier](https://twitter.com/a16zfrontier) --- **image credits (listed alphabetically by topic):** - Alexander Graham Bell patent drawing \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Graham_Bell%27s_Telephone_Patent_Drawing_and_Oath_-_NARA_-_302052_\(page_2\).jpg)\] - barbed wire, Texas (Library of Congress) - Bell Labs campus, 2008 \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_Labs_Holmdel.jpg)\] - Bell System advertisement, 1912 \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_System_advertisement_in_Western_Electric_v1no1_News_March_1912_promoting_universal_service.jpg)\] - Centennial Exhibition, 1876 \[[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Exposition#/media/File:Centennial_Exhibition,_Opening_Day.jpg)\] - Edison & phonograph, 1877 \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Phonograph#/media/File:Edison_and_phonograph_edit2.jpg), Library of Congress\] - Edison’s phonograph, 2004 \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Phonograph#/media/File:Fonograf_01_ubt.jpeg)\] - ENIAC patent, 1954 \[[historyofinformation.com](https://www.historyofinformation.com/image.php?id=5454), Jeremy Norman Collection of Images (Creative Commons)\] - Hello World, 1978 \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Hello_World_Brian_Kernighan_1978.jpg/500px-Hello_World_Brian_Kernighan_1978.jpg)\] - *Mathematical Theory of Communication*, 1949 \[[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematical_Theory_of_Communication#/media/File:The_Mathematical_Theory_Of_Communication_title_page.jpg)\] + Claude Shannon’s diagram of communication (*Bell System Technical Journal*) - Reis telephone, 1863 \[[Science Museum Group](https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co33781/reis-telephone-1863) (Creative Commons)\] - telegraph lines, 1871 \[[Digital Commonwealth](https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:7h149w171) via Wikimedia Commons\] - telegraphing Morse code, 1918 \[[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ada_Jones_sending_morse_code_in_1918.jpg)\] - telephone operators, 1928 \[[Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016853369/)\] - transistor evolution 1941–1997, Bell System Memorial \[[memorial.bellsystem.com](https://memorial.bellsystem.com/images/tube-trans_history.jpg)\] - “We Learn about the Telephone”, 1965 \[[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2eTOqLpT6Q) via Maria Popova (Creative Commons)\] - book covers, various **reference links & readings:** - [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1880/06/a-telephonic-conversation/306078/](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1880/06/a-telephonic-conversation/306078/) - [https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=639](https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=639) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dial\_up\_modem\_noises.ogg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dial_up_modem_noises.ogg) - [https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/](https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/) --- This content is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Views expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of a16z or its affiliates. For additional disclosures, visit [https://a16z.com/disclosures/](https://a16z.com/disclosures/) --- Source: [James Gleick on The Telephone: A New History](https://a16zfrontier.com/posts/article/james-gleick-telephone/) — a16z Frontier. See https://a16zfrontier.com/llms.txt for a site index.