2004-10-30/2019-10-09 - From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991). — With American Telephone & Telegraph, president; possible associate of Hilborne Roosevelt; with Hope-Jones firm of Elmira, New York, 1909, director. — Sources: The Console newsletter November, 1969 (Los Angeles: Richard C. Simonton, Theater Organ Society). David H. Fox.
2015-10-26/2019-10-09 - Note from the Organ Database Builders Listing editor Stephen Hall, April 4, 2017. — Theodore Newton Vail was born in 1847, in Carroll County, Ohio. His early career began as a mail clerk for the U.S. Postal Railway System. He began to develop the mail delivery system used to the present time by the U. S. Postal System. His system allowed mail to be delivered up to two weeks earlier than was previously possible. He initiated schematic distribution in the Western United States, and within six years expanded the system to include the entire network of railroads throughout the country. In 1878, Vail became the General Manager of the newly established Bell Company (Alexander Graham Bell was listed as Electrician and Thomas Watson as General Superintendent). Mergers and buyouts were frequent even in the early years of telecommunications. Thomas Edison had sold his transmitter (far superior to Bell's) to Western Union, which had designs on buying American Bell. However, a young inventor, Francis Blake, Jr., developed an even better transmitter and sold the rights to Bell. In a dramatic turnabout, Bell bought Western Union and began to offer both telephone and telegraph service. The name of the company was changed to The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, or AT&T. In June of 1919, he retired as President and became Chairman of the Board of AT&T. Vail was 74 years old when he died on April 16, 1920 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Source: Telecommunications History Group Virtual Museum, accessed April 4, 2017, http://www.telcomhistory.org/vm/heroesVail.shtml.
2018-05-07/2020-04-09 - See main entry: Hope-Jones Organ Co.
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