Editing Nortel (section)

=== Origins ===
[[Alexander Graham Bell]] conceived the technical aspects of the telephone in July 1874, while residing with his parents at their farm in Tutela Heights, on the outskirts of [[Brantford|Brantford, Ontario]].<ref>Bruce 1990, pp.&nbsp;122–123.</ref><ref name="Patten-Bell">{{Cite book |last=Patten |first=Gulielmus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KzVAAAAMAAJ |title=Pioneering the Telephone in Canada |date=1926 |publisher=Privately printed |language=en}}</ref> He later refined its design at Brantford after producing his first working prototype in Boston.<ref>{{Cite book |last=MacLeod |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyRQIqrMqXQC |title=Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life |date=1999-04-01 |publisher=Kids Can Press |isbn=978-1-55074-458-3 |language=en}}</ref> Canada's first telephone factory, created by James Cowherd of Brantford, was a three-storey brick building that soon started manufacturing telephones for the [[Bell System]], leading to the city's style as ''The Telephone City''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sharpe |first=Roger |title=Soldiers and Warriors: The Early Volunteer Militia of Brant County, 1856–1866, p. 80 |url=https://images.ourontario.ca/brant/images.ourontario.ca/brant/page/ID=82662&po=82&n= |access-date=2024-07-14 |website=images.ourontario.ca |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

* Field, F.A. "The First Telephone Factory", ''Blue Bell'' (magazine), [[Bell Canada|The Bell Telephone Company of Canada]], January 1931. Retrieved April 22, 2012.</ref>{{NoteTag|Alexander Graham Bell had originally asked Boston manufacturer Charles Williams to provide an initial order of 1,000 telephones for use in Canada, but Williams' small shop was only able to produce a fraction of that number. Bell then spoke with a Brantford friend, James Cowherd (1849? – Feb. 1881), who set up Canada's first telephone factory which produced 2,398 telephones to Bell's specifications by 1881. Bell sent Cowherd to Boston in 1878 to study Williams manufacturing processes for a number of months; Cowherd then returned to Brantford to produce Bell's production telephones, and help develop newer models. Among Cowherd's designs was a transmitter fitted with a triple mouthpiece allowing three people to talk, and sing, simultaneously. Cowherd's untimely early death from tuberculosis was noted in major technical journals and led to the closure of the Bell Systems' manufacturing supplier plant in Brantford. Telephone production later resumed in Montreal, eventually leading to the creation of Northern Electric, later renamed Northern Telecom and then Nortel.<ref name="B.H.S.-Reville.c">Reville 1920, p.&nbsp;322.</ref><ref>Prevey, W. Harry (ed.); Collins, Larry. [http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/images/2/23/Electricity_The_Magic_Medium%2C_IEEE_Canadian_Region.pdf Electricity, The Magic Medium] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106011650/http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/images/2/23/Electricity_The_Magic_Medium%2C_IEEE_Canadian_Region.pdf |date=November 6, 2013 }}, Thornhill, ON: IEEE, Canadian Region, 1985, p.&nbsp;4, {{ISBN|0-9692316-0-1}}.</ref><ref name="NortelHistory1874-1900">{{cite web
 |author       = Nortel Networks
 |title        = History of Nortel: 1874 to 1899
 |publisher    = Nortel Networks
 |year         = 2011
 |url          = http://www.nortel-canada.com/about/history/1874-to-1899/
 |access-date   = November 13, 2012
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130619193948/http://www.nortel-canada.com/about/history/1874-to-1899/
 |archive-date = June 19, 2013
}}</ref>

A ''Brantford Expositor'' article later noted of the historic factory building's demise: "[Brantford] City officials and heritage committee members hung their heads in shame in 1992 when it was learned that a building that once housed the first telephone factory in the world had been approved for demolition. The embarrassing oversight came to light too late to stop wrecking crews, who were already tearing down the aged building at 32 Wharfe St... The building, where equipment for Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone was made, had even been pictured and written about in a city-printed brochure about the great inventor. A plaque erected by [the] [[Telephone Pioneers of America]] heralding the building's significance had been stripped from the structure in the mid-1980s and given to the Brant County Museum".<ref>Ibbotson, Heather. [http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/04/05/fires-have-claimed-many-historic-city-buildings City Has Lost Many Historic Buildings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107010952/http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/04/05/fires-have-claimed-many-historic-city-buildings |date=November 7, 2012 }}, ''[[Brantford Expositor]]'', April 5, 2012.</ref>}}

After Cowherd's death in 1881 which resulted in the closure of his Brantford factory, a mechanical production department was created within the [[Bell Canada|Bell Telephone Company of Canada]] and production of Canadian telephone equipment was transferred to Montreal in 1882 to compensate for the restrictions on importing telephone equipment from the United States.<ref name="NortelHistory1874-1900" /><ref>{{cite book
| title = A History of Canadian Accounting Thought and Practice
| last = Murphy
| first = George Joseph
| year = 1993
| isbn = 978-0-8153-1248-2
| page = 82
| publisher = Taylor & Francis
}}</ref> In addition to telephones, four years later, the department started manufacturing switchboards, at first the 50-line Standard Magneto Switchboard.<ref name="NortelHistory1874-1900" />{{sfn|Rens|Roth|2001|p=129}} The small manufacturing department expanded yearly with the growth and popularity of the telephone to 50 employees in 1888.{{sfn|Rens|Roth|2001|p=129-132}} By 1890 it had been transformed into its own branch of operations with 200 employees, and a new factory was under construction.<ref name="NortelHistory1874-1900" />

As the manufacturing branch expanded, its production ability increased beyond the demand for telephones, and it faced closure for several months a year without manufacturing other products.{{sfn|Rens|Roth|2001|p=130}} The Bell Telephone Company of Canada's (later renamed to Bell Canada) charter prohibited the company from building other products. In 1895, Bell Telephone of Canada spun off its manufacturing arm to build telephones for sale to other companies, as well as other products, such as [[fire alarm]] boxes, [[police box|police street call boxes]], and [[firefighter|fire department call equipment]]. This company was incorporated as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company Limited.<ref name="NortelHistory1874-1900"/>