The peach state - part 3

Georgia - part 3

(Sightseeing)

January 26, 2108 - January 29, 2018

From Warm Springs we drove south to Americas, Georgia a nice centralized location for three places we wanted to see.  The first one was the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum in nearby Leslie, GA.  Having both worked for "Ma Bell" we thought we'd enjoy seeing it.  We got settled into our campground early enough to allow us to go straight to see the museum.

The museum is housed in an old 1919 cotton warehouse right across the street from the headquarters of the Citizen's Telephone Company, the local phone company.  It's advertised as having "the world's largest collection of antique telephones." The collection was created by Tommy Smith, who bought the local telephone exchange after WWII, then went on to buy three additional exchanges, including the one in Plains, GA, home of Jimmy Carter.

Clint Ledger, Smith's grandson, who works for Citizen's Telephone personally showed us some of the collection.

It took 5 years from the time they bought the building to the time the museum was open.  It is nothing short of AMAZING.  I don't see how even non-telephone people could fail to be impressed.

A mock-up of William Alexander Bell in his laboratory.

The first telephones!

Alexander Graham Bell's first Telephone (1875)!!!  We've come a long, long way since then.

Bell's second telephone!  It used liquid acid as it's conductor.

1877 telephone invented by Emile Berliner. It was the first transmitter to use a battery to supply the electrical current.

Early Telephones

Phones undergo a transformation

Switchboards also undergo a transformation as more and more people get phones.

I think this poor woman is just finishing a double shift.

She was probably expected to cook dinner at the same time - hence the "portable" headset!

Pay Phones have undergone radical changes too - and now they're all but extinct!

Central Office Equipment Evolved As Well

I don't know how they made sense of all those wires!

And some special telephone items to end the show

Bell shaped paper weights.

Insulators in many shapes, sizes and colors.

This one amazed me! 
I knew Bell Labs was one of the most innovative labs in the world but I had no idea they invented the solar battery.

Thanks for indulging us in our look back through telephone history.




Our next stop was Andersonville, home of the National Prisoners of War Museum and Andersonville National Cemetery but once the location of one of the worst Confederate Prisoner of War Camps in the South during the Civil War.

The Andersonville prison was built late in the civil war in early 1864.
After it was finished about 400 prisoners arrived a day.
It was built to "house" 10,000 prisoners but by August 1864 it held 33,000 prisoners.
The Confederate Government could barely feed it's own troops much less provide housing, clothing, food and medical care for Union soldiers.  As a result the mortality rate was exceedingly high.

The prison site sloped on each end toward the Sweetwater creek which ran through the camp. 
The creek was the main source of water for prisoners.   

Picture of the shelters made by the prisoners.

North gate - rebuilt for purposes of illustration.  It featured a gate at each end so that prisoners could be controlled as they were brought into the camp.  It would bounded by sentry boxes on either side.

Andersonville National Cemetery came into being at the end of the Civil War.  A former prisoner, Dorence Atwater had been assigned to record the names of the deceased Union soldiers.  At the end of the war he made a copy of his records hoping to notify the relatives of the over 12,000 dead buried there.  Thanks to his list and the Confederate records confiscated at the end of the war, all but about 460 graves were able to be marked with a soldiers name.  Burials continue at Andersonville National Cemetery to this day.

The National Prisoner of War Museum is the third historic site at the Andersonville complex.  It tells the story of POW's throughout U.S. history.

There were many exhibits in the visitor center depicting what the living conditions were like in POW camps.  Solitary confinement, deprivation and torture were common.

One can only imagine!

I can't say Andersonville was an uplifting place to visit but it was educational and very sobering.