gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener) (09/28/89)
For your information....and amusement: - When the first public telephone exchanges opened, the operators stood during their shifts. It wasn't until years later that someone thought to provide them with chairs. - It was customary for a long while to answer the telephone with the word "Ahoy!" or with the phrase "Are you there?". The person who started the trend of answering the phone with the word "Hello" was Thomas Edison. - Speaking of Edison, the phone Edison designed for Western Union had a small magneto that wasn't used to signal the exchange. Rather, it was used to provide talk power, and thus it had to be wound continually while the phone was in operation. - The first telephones for private conversation in a public place were released by the GPO in England in the late 19th century. To use one, you would place the receiver up to your ear, and press your face into an oblong inner-tube that contained the transmitter. They didn't last long, however, as they were considered unsanitary and quite ridiculous. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings gabe@ctr.columbia.edu to be seriously considered as a means of gmw1@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu communication. The device is inherently of 72355.1226@compuserve.com no value to us."