Theodore Newton Vail (July 16, 1845 – April 16, 1920) was a U.S. telephone industrialist. His philosophy of using closed systems, centralized power, and as much network control as possible, in order to maintain monopoly power, has been called Vailism. He served as the president of American Telephone & Telegraph between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919 (the company was named American Telephone & Telegraph before 1894). He convinced President Woodrow Wilson that the telephone as a medium of communication would spread more rapidly if brought under one monopoly so as to ensure uniform provision of services throughout the country. He called this "one system, one policy, universal service". This was formalised in the form of the Kingsbury Commitment of 1913.
Biography
He was born on July 16, 1845 in Malvern, Ohio, and he was educated in Morristown, New Jersey. At first he studied medicine with his uncle. He also studied telegraphy. Success in the latter led him to go to New York, where he became manager of a local telegraphy office.
He then joined the staff of a superintendent of The United States Telegraph Co. which ultimately became Western Union.
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, on the Union Pacific Railroad. 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 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, 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.
Career with telephones
The American Bell Telephone Co. had been organized by Gardiner G. Hubbard, father in law of Alexander Graham Bell. As a lawyer and lobbyist, Hubbard had opposed the Post Office Department before Congress on various issues. He was impressed with Vail and offered him the position of general manager of the American Bell Telephone Company in 1878. Vail believed in the future of the telephone though it was then considered a mere novelty by some.
Vail defended the Bell patents successfully from challenges from Western Union and others. He introduced the use of copper wire in telephone and telegraph lines.
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.
Personal life
He was a first cousin to Alfred Vail instrumental in developing the first telegraph.
In August 1869, Vail married Emma Righter, of Newark, New Jersey. They had one son, Davis R. Vail,who died after a 10 day bout with typhoid fever in 1906.
He first visited Vermont in 1883. This led to his eventual purchase of a 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) farm in Lyndon, Vermont, "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 of Boston and the Jekyll Island Club.
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 in 1911 and presented it to the library of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
考虑第一个阶段：垄断（1876—1894年）。同年的同一日提出两项电话专利在经济史上是独一无二的事情。现在看来，亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔(Alexander Graham Bell)的专利战胜了伊莱沙·格雷(Elisha Gray)的。拥有这项有价值的专利产权的波士顿贝尔专利协会表示愿意将这项专利卖给国内最大的通讯公司——西部联盟电报公司(Western Union Telegraph Company)。但西部联盟的管理层认为索取的100 000美元价格太高，从而拒绝了这项专利。今天，公司史学者几乎一致认为西部联盟电报公司犯了一个决策错误。
在接着的6年中，韦尔为贝尔系统奠定了基础。他将经销专卖权分发给了求之若渴的电话公司。贝尔在每个电话公司中持有股份，而每个公司都盈利了。在1881年，韦尔收购了一家向西部联盟提供电报设备的制造商——西部电气公司（Western Electric Company），并授予其在贝尔专利下制造电话设备的许可证。然后在1885年，韦尔建立了一家将长途电话与贝尔的本地电话连接起来的公司——新美国贝尔电话公司（New American Bell Telephone Company），它将本地电话和长途电话服务提供给顾客，或用电话专业术语说，它的用户。
到了20世纪早期，J P摩根公司（J P Morgan）持有 AT&T的股份超过了在多特蒙特别墅享受天伦之乐的西奥多·韦尔的股份，从而取得了AT&T的领导权。但是，韦尔的功绩再次被证实是不可磨灭的。他制定了一套任人唯贤的人事制度，削减成本，提高服务质量，将长途电话设备推广到西部海岸，并收购了他的老对手——西部联盟电报公司。事实上，韦尔将西部联盟变成了一个有活力的盈利机构。
事实上需要指出的是，受欢迎的政府管制在20世纪初期被公司完全视为异端。不过，韦尔坚持认为，政府委员会同评判委员会一样，将监控AT&T的服务、价格、投资和收入。韦尔说他的公司必须说出自身的真实情况，否则其他某个公司会这样做。John Brooks,Telephone:The First Hundred Years,(NY：Harper and Row，1975），p?143.但是政府的管制带来了意外的收获，它使得电话垄断公司免于反托拉斯的威胁，结果是AT&T日后成为美国历史上最大的公司。
