At the origins of the French telephone crisis. Abortive beginnings of a state technical policy

Abstract

Summary: Electric telegraphy developed rapidly in France between 1850 and 1880, so that by the end of that period the French had the largest network and most innovative system in the world. The same cannot be said for their telephone system, which at the turn of the century had a second-rate network and was almost totally dependent on foreign patents. In order to explain this contrasting situation the author examines the logic of two principal agents: on the one hand a group of engineers who, by means of what would today be called research and development, played a decisive role in the growth of telegraphy; on the other hand the Post Office, which, with its administrative logic, carried through its project to merge the post and telegraph administrations and to reduce this group of engineers to a minimum. The creation of the Ecole superieure de telegraphie and its transformation into the Ecole professionnelle des P. et T. were milestones in the battle between these two parties.