An ideal telephone wire, they found, must be made of either silver or copper.

Silver was out of the question, and copper wire was too soft and weak.

It would not carry its own weight.
The problem, therefore, was either to make steel wire a better conductor, or to produce a copper wire that would be strong enough.

Vail chose the latter, and forthwith gave orders to a Bridgeport manufacturer to begin experiments.

A young expert named Thomas B.Doolittle was at once set to work, and presently appeared the first hard-drawn copper wire, made tough-skinned by a fairly simple process.