Going Silent

Going Silent. . , Economic growth and greater levels of international communication fueled the Pole Farm’s rapid development after World War II. By 1948, the facility had 46 rhombic antennas beaming to 26 countries. In 1955, the station handled one million calls and a few years later AT&T added 14 more transmitters, ramping up to over two million calls annually., Yet, almost as quickly, the Pole Farm became a casualty of changing technology. In 1965, AT&T launched a satellite that was capable of handling millions of calls at a fraction of the cost of shortwave radio. Ten years later in 1975, Lawrenceville's transmitters went silent., Houses on Wheels , Walking around the southern half of Mercer Meadows, you will notice two old barns but no farmhouses. When AT&T first bought the Pole Farm property in 1928, there were at least seven farmhouses. AT&T rented them out or used them to house its employees., With the expansion of the Pole Farm in the mid-1950s, AT&T decided to demolish or sell the remaining farmhouses. Five were sold to new owners who placed the houses on wheels and moved them. In most cases, the houses were moved literally across the road but one house, the Reed Farmhouse, was actually moved all the way into the town of Lawrenceville. Located on Federal City Road, it got stuck in the mud when the movers tried to take it across the fields. The movers waited until winter, and when the mud froze, the house could finally be moved to its new lot on Cold Soil Road. , , Space Age Satellites , In 1965, AT&T launched the Early Bird satellite, which was capable of providing high-quality service and an expanded number of channels at a fraction of the cost of shortwave antennas. Over the next several years, more space age satellites entered orbit and countries that wanted to communicate with the United States merely had to build a satellite earth station to link to the American telephone network. This relegated the Pole Farm to back-up status and eventually to obsolescence., Reach Out and Touch Someone , Chances are that you have a cell phone or some other type of personal communications device on you right now. In seconds you can be connected to a vast network of text, graphics and voice. You have the power to communicate in ways that past generations would have found miraculous beyond words. Here at the Pole Farm, you are standing at the place that heralded the dawn of this telecommunications revolution, where nearly a lifetime ago telephone signals made the first great leap across continents and oceans. , ( photo captions ) , , View of the tractor used to move the Reed Farmhouse off of the Pole Farm to its new location on Cold Soil Road, c. 1958. , , Scientists examine the Early Bird satellite, c. 1965. , , The AT&T Pole Farm, c. 1960.