A young collector friend recently paid us a visit and commented on a replica of a CD 139.9 McLaughlin U.S.L.D. in our "museum."

As is so often the case, it takes some bright, young enthusiast to get you thinking and wishing you had done more homework. So I decided to research the initials U.S.L.D. and share my findings with you fellow collectors.

The initials stand for United States Long Distance. This was a telephone company formed in southern California in 1902 and granted a franchise from the city of Los Angeles the next year to operate in that city. Within two years U.S.L.D. had long distance lines to nearly every city and town of any consequence from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

This company was organized by a group of investors who had interests in the Home Telephone Company which was then organizing to operate in competition with the Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company in several southern California towns.

This latter company, Sunset, was owned by the Bell organization. By 1907, Sunset was but a memory having been replaced by The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company.

In 1911, Pacific Telephone & Telegraph had acquired control of U.S.L.D. and in 1930 disbanded the company.

We read of a U.S.L.D. Company applying for a franchise in Washington, D.C. in 1902, but have no further data.

As to who manufactured the U.S.L.D. glass and/or what dates, I leave to my better informed friends to report.

Editor's Note: Readers may want to refer to the April, 1971 issue, pages 3-10, to Bob Hendricks' article showing two types of U.S.L.D. styles attributed to McLaughlin manufacture. Maybe our McLaughlin experts can add more.