At 8:30 p.m. On April 16, 1916, John J. At the Engineering Societies Building in New York City, President Carty brought the American Institute of Electrical Engineers meeting to order with a resounding bang of his gavel. This was no strange gathering. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) had decided to host a massive national conference, bringing together over 5,000 participants across eight cities spanning four distinct time zones. Long before Zoom revolutionized virtual meetings, telephone lines connected auditoriums across the country, rendering remote gatherings a commonplace occurrence. During the annual meetings of AIEE members and visitors in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco, attendees were provided with phone receivers at their seats to facilitate attentive participation.
The Institute of Radio Engineers, a precursor to the IEEE, hosted this event to celebrate groundbreaking advancements in communication, transportation, science, and energy technologies. The assembly was a testament to human innovation and engineering prowess, with newspaper-lined routes crisscrossing multiple host cities. Heralding it as a feat that has never been achieved within the annals of world history, the Philadelphia-based endeavour successfully linked over 6,500 kilometres (approximately 4,000 miles) across 20 states, supported by more than 150,000 poles and utilising 5,000 switches to facilitate seamless communication. The milestone was accomplished just one year prior to this point of note.
As Carty, President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), addressed the gathering remotely from New York, local part-chairmen steered the regional discussions and proceedings with precision. First up: roll name. From a small gathering of 40 individuals in Denver, the newest addition to the institute, to a large-scale event drawing over 1,100 attendees at the AIEE headquarters in New York, metropolitan areas have had the opportunity to learn from the diverse range of members and visitors in attendance. More than 5,100 attendees participated in total.
Due to limited seating in both New York and Philadelphia, members were initially only granted a single admission ticket, with an explicit policy excluding girls from attending. In Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, members received a pair of tickets each, whereas in San Francisco, they received three. Notably, girls were permitted to attend events in all four cities. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) did not recognize its first female member until 1922, with limited affiliation status. This pioneering woman became the first female author to have her work published in an AIEE journal when she contributed a paper in 1926.
Six cities had been the sole entities formally collaborating within the alliance. Despite the phone lines straining with instant connections between Denver and Salt Lake City, local AIEE sections in those cities decided to participate silently through telegrammed attendance and greetings to headquarters during the meeting. During a contemporary virtual meeting, these notes would have been shared within the interactive discussion platform.
The inaugural digital summit hosted a series of dynamic breakout sessions.
The moment everyone had confirmed their presence and ensured they could all hear, Carter learned a telegram from the U.S.? At a momentous gathering, President Woodrow Wilson extolled the attendees with praise for their extraordinary achievement, dubbing it “a compelling testament to the innovative prowess and engineering acumen embodied by the Institute.”
Upon reviewing my initial estimates, I’m delighted to observe that the phone has surpassed my early projections with remarkable ease. , first president of AT&T and one of many males who was instrumental in establishing phone service as a public utility, supplied his personal congratulations. A British engineer, attending the AIEE Requirements Committee in New York, represented his country’s engineering associations by presenting their views. Thomas Watson, Bell’s trusted assistant and the first person to hear voice transmissions over the phone, extended an invitation to all electrical engineers across the country to gather together.
At precisely 9:00 p.m., the phone portion of the assembly was paused for a thirty-minute interval, allowing each metropolitan area to receive a special address from an invited guest speaker. Let’s name them breakout classes. The audio systems pay homage to the innovations and achievements of engineers. In a unified and steadfast manner, they presented a relentlessly optimistic perspective on engineering advancements, with subtle variations.
In Boston, Lawrence Lowell, the president of Harvard College, hailed the invention and harnessing of electrical energy as the most significant singular achievement in human history. Despite his reservations, he chastised engineers for their failure to anticipate the extent to which humans would become subservient to the manufacturing facility’s operational systems.
During World War I, Edgar Smith, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, drew attention to the limitations imposed by the conflict on the availability of certain resources and supplies, and accordingly advocated for increased investment in developing America’s natural resources.
Charles Ferris, the dean of engineering at the University of Tennessee, extolled the benefits of long-distance energy distribution and its profound impact on rural communities, while expressing concerns over the reliance on fossil fuels. His primary focus remained on extracting resources from coal, gasoline, and oil, neglecting to consider the detrimental effects these had on the environment.
More than a century before Zoom revolutionized digital conferencing, telephone lines seamlessly connected auditoriums across the country, facilitating the American Institute of Electrical Engineers’ (AIEE) national gathering.
On the West Coast, Stanford University President Ray Wilbur championed the value of discontent, conflict, and campus turmoil as catalysts driving growth and ingenuity forward. Despite disagreement from many college presidents both then and now, student protests continue to drive social change.
Following the town breakout sessions, participants reconvened via phone, as the host cities sequentially announced their hellos, accompanied by enthusiastic declarations of their respective technological accomplishments.
“From Atlanta, situated in the heart of the Piedmont region within the southern Appalachians, where the rhythmic pulse of racing rivers and thunderous waterfalls harmonizes with the city’s vibrant energy, it is our distinct pleasure to extend warm greetings.”
Boston extends its warmest regards and sincerest felicitations to its esteemed sister cities. The telephone’s inception occurred precisely here, where it also uttered its first words. Since then, its reverberations have resonated across distant shores, with phrases echoing to the farthest reaches of the globe.
The San Francisco community proudly welcomes and honors its fellow Institute members. As California’s pioneer spirit of innovation and exploration shapes global desires—the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains have long been a gateway to gold rushes, now replaced by trails of technological advancement, which today enables instant connectivity with individuals who’ve harnessed rivers, spanned chasms, and tapped into the unseen forces that have bridged distances, fostering closer ties between nations and cultures.
That final sentence, according to the editor’s notation, stretches to a whopping 86 phrases; yet, its unbridled enthusiasm led us to include it.
Shouldn’t tech conferences’ lack of rhythm be a bug?
The assembly took a brief respite to indulge in a melodious interlude. As I delve into this peculiar idea, I am struck by its whimsical essence, reminiscent of the surreal ballet interlude that punctuates the theatrical spectacle of my beloved Broadway musical – where every city, in perfect harmony, records a song of their choosing on a phonograph, broadcasting it via telephone wires. As regional identities clashed, discordant notes of “Dixie” echoed from the South, met with defiant renditions of “Yankee Doodle” in the North. New York and San Francisco chose distinct patriotic symbols in their flags: “Hail Columbia” and “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” respectively. In Philadelphia, the iconic “Star-Spangled Banner” echoed through national halls, where, as a symbol of patriotism, audience members rose to their feet upon its performance.
During this period, the AIEE viewed leisure activities with great seriousness. Most conferences featured a formal dinner and dance, complemented by informal social gatherings for smokers, sports tournaments, and guided site visits to innovative engineering attractions in the local area. Committees for women’s events had been established to organize special occasions exclusively for them.
In the 21st century, it’s unlikely anyone would have forecasted that people would be complaining about another digital meeting.
Following the concert, Michael Pupin presented a lecture on “The Engineering Profession,” a topic of considerable discussion at the time. In the early days of electrical engineering, this relatively young discipline was still finding its footing as a recognized profession, with engineers seeking to emulate the societal acceptance enjoyed by long-established fields like medicine. Mihajlo Pupin had achieved significant advancements in the efficiency of transmission for long-distance telephone lines by 1925, when he held the position.
The meeting concluded with the passage of resolutions, approval of amendments, and acceptance of proposals, all conducted in accordance with the established protocols outlined by Robert’s Rules of Order. Despite adhering to the principles, IEEE conferences in fact embody innovative approaches. As a testament to their exceptional organizational skills, the event’s organizers proudly celebrated the success of this groundbreaking gathering, acknowledging their collective expertise as the driving force behind its realization.
They neatly aligned the assembled components. Original reports from native presses provided significantly less insight. The team failed to find any evidence suggesting attempts were made to replicate the assembly. They conducted an additional experiment where a team member presented the same research paper at conferences held in three distinct cities, with the goal of facilitating a collaborative discussion about its content among attendees from diverse geographical locations. Despite this, they reverted to their traditional schedule of yearly and regional conferences featuring technical presentations and discussions.
Despite extensive research, I have yet to uncover answers to the fundamental queries that, as a historian 100 years on, persist in relation to the 1916 event. The total cost of the assembly’s long-distance charges was approximately $1,500. The client, XYZ Corporation, reimbursed us for these expenses. Viewers’ primary receiving devices were digital TVs and streaming devices, which worked seamlessly to display high-quality video content. What did the experiment ultimately mean to its participants and onlookers alike? Why didn’t anyone capture the moment with a photograph?
While the fleeting moment of present action is often prioritized, scant attention is paid to the potential requirements of future historians. As attendees assembled, few could have foreseen that by the 21st century, people would be collectively groaning over a virtual meeting.
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