Tuesday, March 10, 2009

And So It Began

"It was on this day in 1876 that the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, made the first successful phone call. He picked up the receiver and spoke to his assistant, Thomas Watson, who was in the next room. He said, 'Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.' To his shock, Watson heard him. Later that day, Bell wrote an excited letter to his father. He wrote, 'The day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas — and friends converse with each other without leaving home.' In 1915, transcontinental telephone lines were finally completed. Alexander Graham Bell was part of the dedication of the lines in New York, and he called up Thomas Watson, who was now living in San Francisco. Bell said the same thing he had said almost 40 years earlier: 'Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.' Watson said that it would take him a week to get there."

2 comments:

Paul D Brazill said...

And because of that 'Hello' became used as a greeting for the first time. Which is weird, I think.

Cap'n Bob said...

Odd. In every other report of that moment Bell is quoted as saying, "I need you" at the end. He'd spilled some acid on himself and needed help, lest you think it was a romantic need.
Also intreesting to note that the same year the phone was being invented Custer was having his Last Stand in Montana Territory.