Oakville Phone Subscribers To Almost 21,000 At Year When Oakville's first tele phone exchange was set up in 1887, few people then envisaged a man walking or floating around in space. The first telephone was a s fair away from tlie present day push-button model as the horse and buggy is to the s p a c e crafts which are now whizzing around the earth. Through these years of scien tific · advancements Bell h a s been in the forefront of t h e communications field. The first few telephones went into oper ation here 11 years after Alex ander Graham Bell's invention, and 60 years aifter Col. William Chisholm had purchased t h e town's site for $4.25 am acre. *Growth of the town in both population and area has b e e n matched by the growth of the t e l e p n o company in the area." H. A. Blachford, Manager, said today. O V E R 20,000 As part of the continuing ex pansion policy Bell men a r e now working towards the e xteiision of the local calling area for Oakville, Streetsville and Clarkson, scheduled to t a k e effect in November, 1966. Oakville's first telephone ex change, a small, p r i m i t i v e switchboard with associated ap paratus, was set up in a corner of a store operated by William Busby, a Colborne Street jewe ller. E IG H T SU BSCRIBERS "As of Decemlber 31, 1964, there were 20,980 telephones in the Oakville excliange, a growth of 1,416 over the previous year. Bell paid $101,884 in taxes to Oakville last year and the company's payroll here for 1964 totalled $381,755. Capital expen diture in Oakville for last year" explained Mr. Blachford, " was about $700 000." Service in those days was on ly available from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. during the week, from 2 to 4 P.M. on Sunday, and from 10 A.M . to n o o n and 2 to 4 P.M. on holidays. The 1887 directory listed only e i g h t telephone subscribers. In tlie sam e year, a long dis tance line connecting Toronto and Hamilton through Oakville was buiilt, but it was not until 1899 that 20 more telephones were installed and telephone numbers assigned. Oakville and the teleplione sys tem grew together and in 1911 the population of 2,372 had the use of 200 telephones. An other milestone was reached in 1816 with the installation of tlie D IAL SYSTEM Meanwhile plans were being 500th phone. . In 1923, on land purchased by made for the biggest forward the Bell Telephone Company at step in Oakville's telephone his the com er of Dundas and Ran dall Streets, a new' building wras erected, and equipment install ed. In that year the switch was made from the old magneto sy stem, when callers had to crank bells to reach the operator, to a .common battery system. In 1926, the Oakville exchange counted it's first 1,000th -tele phone, the 1921 census showed a population of 3,857 for Oak ville, served by 1,227 telephones. W AR CUT GROWTH Although shortage of manpow er and m aterial curtailed tele phone growth during the war by 1936 tlie 2,000th telephone went into service while tlie 3,000th came to OaikviLle a rela tively short tim e later in 1949. An extension was added t o the re a r of the Oakville m an ual exchange building in 1949 and the folkrviing year f o u r operating positions w ere added to the switchboard to allow for the increased number of tele phones. To meet the continui n g I y higher demand, 14 more switch board positions were added jo the Oakville exchange in 1952 the year the 4,000th telephone went into service. tory, the establishment of the dial excliange. A site was purchased, and in 1352 work began on the erect ion of a new exchange building, placed millions of feet of wire under ground and on polos to extend the Oakville Wire a n d Cable network and adapt it for use with the dial system. By the fall of 1953 the insta llation of complex dial switch ing equipment in the n^v build ing w as underway, and the new system went into service Feb., 14, 1954, when 5,400 telephones were in service here. The latest innovation installed bv Bell Company w as the Auto m atic N u m b e r Identification system which cam e into being last April for Direct Distance Dialled calls, and under which the caller's num ber is autom a tically recorded. At present this is only applicable to the 8 4 4 and 845 exchanges and will be extended to 827 in a year o r Announce Substantially rising business volume during 1964 and contin uing well ahead in 1965 h a s brought expansion in equipment and production machinery a t the South Service Road p l a n t of Schlegel Company Canada Ltd. There Is nothing basically new in the situation, says D. E. Paton, general manager, for the reason that the history of t h e plant ever since it started op erations about 14 years in Oak ville, is one of steady expan sion and growth in business vo lume. SPACE ..It was two years ago th a t the company added another unit to its factory, obtaining an additional 27,000 square feet of production space for a widely diversified line of goods, many| of which are basic essentials in' the automotive industry. Founded in 1855 the company's operations are international i n scope and the Oakville p 1 a nt does a substantial amount o f export business in products made here. The fin n manufac tures industrial a"d specialt y textiles; woven pile weather seals of all types w r prime and storm windows, glass panels and doors; specialty automotive trim plastic woven materials, and web bing for lawn furniture. ADDED Drive No. 2 Highway West to Oakville Town Line, North to New Street -- West to Property 4 Bedroom Split Level 4 Bedroom Bungalow ft* IS M M M K ft mmMMM .. m 3 Bedroom Split Level 3 Bedroom Split Level w ith G arage HALTON OIL WELL -- First producing oil well In Halton was announced by Anthony Seynuck, president of Anthony Gas and Oil Exploration Co. of Acton. Here Mr. Seynuck dis plays a jar of the crude, taken FEATURING · Paved streets and services installed and paid for · 3 and 4 bed* rooms · Immediate possession on some models · Treed and fully sodded lots · A ll clay face brick, superb workmanship · Fully stormed above basement level · Handy to all schools and Sky-way Plaza, one stoo shoooinq · Ten mifiutes from downtown Oakville 3 Bedroom B ungalow 3 Bedroom Split Level TRUCK RENTA CAR 6 Colborne West 845-3511