Theodore Newton Vail (July 16, 1845 – April 16, 1920) was president of
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...
between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919. Vail saw telephone service as a public utility and moved to consolidate telephone networks under the Bell system. In 1913 he oversaw the
Kingsbury Commitment The Kingsbury Commitment is a 1913 out-of-court settlement of the United States government's antitrust challenge against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) for AT&T's then-growing vertical monopoly in the telephone industry. In re ...
that led to a more open system for connection.
Biography
Early life and career
Theodore was born on July 16, 1845, in Malvern, Ohio, and he was educated in
Morristown, New Jersey
Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Notable Vail Kin retrieved April 26, 1980
He then joined the staff of a superintendent of United States Telegraph which ultimately became
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...
.
He went west with his father in 1866 to farm. In the fall of 1868, he was made operator and afterward agent at
Pine Bluffs, Wyoming
Pine Bluffs is a town in eastern Laramie County, Wyoming, United States. It is located on the county's border with Nebraska. Pine Bluffs is part of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,129 at the 2010 cens ...
, on the
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
. Pine Bluffs was at that time the principal supply point for wood for The Union Pacific, which had not then been completed.
In the Spring of 1869, Vail was appointed clerk of the railway mail service between
Omaha
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...
and Ogden. His success in getting the mail through during the snow blockage of 1870, came to the attention of upper management.
He was promoted to the Chicago and Iowa City railway post office, an important distribution point at the time. When the railway post office was established on The Union Pacific, Vail was promoted to head clerk.
In March, 1873, Vail was assigned to duty in the office of the General Superintendent of
Railway Mail Service
The Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department was a significant mail transportation service in the US from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the Postal Transportation Service (PTS), ...
, Washington, D.C. There he exercised special oversight of distribution of the mails, and justified to Congress the compensation the railways received for carrying the mail. In June, 1874, he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Railway Mail Service. In 1875, he became Assistant General Superintendent.
In February, 1876, Vail was appointed General Superintendent after his boss retired. He had reached the highest grade attainable in this branch of the Federal government. He was the youngest officer in the Railway Mail Service, both in years and terms of service. When this final appointment was made by the Postmaster General, the latter said that his only objection to Vail was his youth.
As General Superintendent, Vail helped put postal employees under the general civil service laws. He established the system of six months' probationary appointments, which were subsequently adopted by all agencies.
American Bell and AT&T
The American Bell Telephone Co. had been organized by Gardiner G. Hubbard, father in law of
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...
. As a lawyer and lobbyist, Hubbard had opposed the Post Office Department before Congress on various issues.
:Vail became convinced as a result of his association with Hubbard that the telephone would eventually revolutionize world communication, and he became a vigorous, though generally unsuccessful, promoter of Bell stock.
Hubbard was impressed with Vail and offered him the position of general manager of the American Bell Telephone Company in 1878. Vail defended the Bell patents successfully from challenges from
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...
and others. He introduced the use of copper wire in telephone and telegraph lines.
Personal life
Vail was a first cousin to
Alfred Vail
Alfred Lewis Vail (September 25, 1807 – January 18, 1859) was an American machinist and inventor. Along with Samuel Morse, Vail was central in developing and commercializing American telegraphy between 1837 and 1844.
Vail and Morse were the f ...
instrumental in developing the first telegraph.
In August 1869, Vail married Emma Righter (November 6, 1844 – February 3, 1905), of
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...
. They had one son, Davis Righter Vail (July 18, 1870 – December 20, 1906), who died after a 10-day bout with
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over severa ...
in 1906.
He first visited Vermont in 1883. This led to his eventual purchase of a farm in
Lyndon, Vermont
Lyndon is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,491. Lyndon is the home of Lyndon State College. The town contains one incorporated village, Lyndonville, and four unincorporated villages ...
, Speedwell Farms, site of conferences which culminated in the creation of American Telephone & Telegraph.
He was a member of the Union League Club of New York and the
Algonquin Club
The Algonquin Club of Boston, also known as The Quin House, is a private social club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1886. Originally a business-themed gentlemen's club, it is now open to men and women of all races, religions, and national ...
of Boston and the
Jekyll Island Club
The Jekyll Island Club was a private club on Jekyll Island, on Georgia's Atlantic coast. It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 (about $3.1 million in 2017) from John ...
.
Later years and death
In 1888, Vail retired, temporarily as it turned out, and devoted his time to travel and adventure in South America, and promoting the use of the telephone abroad. In 1890 he received a concession from the federal government of Argentina to build a generating station at Cordoba to supply power to a trolley system in Buenos Aires. Vail had purchased a horse-drawn streetcar line serving the city. He later bought out all competing lines and consolidated the system.
Vail died on April 16, 1920, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. He had been brought to Baltimore from Jekyll Island, Ga. in his personal rail car. Jekyll Island was a winter retreat for wealthy northern industrialists.
As a tribute to Vail, telephone service across the United States was halted for one minute on the morning of April 18, 1920, while his funeral was being conducted in Parsippany, New Jersey. From 11:00 to 11:01, Eastern time (8:00 to 8:01 a.m. Pacific Time), A T & T telephone operators disconnected calls. At the time, "This caused temporary silence of about 12,000,000 telephones and 24,000,000 miles of telephone wire."
Legacy
In his historical review of AT&T, John Brooks explained Vail's contribution to enlightened corporate policy:
:Vail’s presidential essays in AT&T annual reports are like nothing else in American business literature, before or since. They are personal, revealing, discursive, and sometimes pontifical. "If we don’t tell the truth about ourselves, someone else will", Vail said in 1911. ... In 1907 he led off with a section entitled "
Public Relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
" – by which, as the context made clear, he meant not advertising and promotion, but the whole scope of relations between the corporation and the public. ... Vail introduced the concept ... that maximum private profit was not necessarily the ''primary'' objective of private enterprise. Profit was necessary to insure financial health...but was only one element in an equation.
Other accomplishments
Vail founded the Vermont School of Agriculture in 1910 in Lyndon, Vermont. This was subsequently merged into a preparatory school, Lyndon Institute.
He acquired the scientific book collection of
George Edward Dering George Edward Dering (1831–1911) was a British inventor and eccentric.
Early life and career
His father was Robert Dering and his mother Leititia was the daughter of Sir George Shee, 1st Baronet (1754–1825). He was educated at Rugby School. He ...
in 1911 and presented it to the
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...
of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
. The Vail Collection covers topics including "electricity, magnetism, lighter-than-air travel, animal magnetism" and others.
Vail co-founded
Junior Achievement
JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide is a global non-profit youth organization founded in 1919 by Horace A. Moses, Theodore Vail, and Winthrop M. Crane. JA works with local businesses, schools, and organizations to deliver experiential lea ...