MAC's Believe It Or Not!

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", February 1988, page 34

An update on last month's column in necessary in light of the information I received from Morgan Davis. The M.T.CO. "egg cup" pictured on page 31 (January, 1988, issue) belongs to John Dorge of Toronto and not Morgan. 

Of course, Morgan can only dream about that piece being his. Morgan also shares the following information about the CD 742 embossed "D.T.CO" which stands for DOMINION TELEGRAPH COMPANY (not telephone): "Dominion Telegraph was founded in 1870. It was Montreal Telegraph's chief competitor until both outfits were absorbed by Great Northwestern Telegraph Company in 1881. It is a very significant link in telephone history in Canada, as the very first phone call made from Brantford to Paris, Ontario, was over the existing Dominion Telegraph line in 1876. 

I am sure that the same glass house made M.T.CO. and D.T.CO. insulators. The puzzle here is why have so many M.T.CO.s surfaced and only ONE D.T.CO. is known so far? 

Here's a clue that Robert Lloyd and I put together -- Montreal Telegraph leased its right of way along the railway, while Dominion Telegraph ran along the public roads. Over the years the railways have changed little as compared to the roads. So...check those 742's out, especially with damaged embossing -- that "M" could be a "D."

MAC