3 ms·
reminds me of the story (not sure if it is true or not) of how the telephone revolutionised the world - prior to that, you had to be introduced to someone by a
by robbiep 14y ago
reminds me of the story (not sure if it is true or not) of how the telephone revolutionised the world - prior to that, you had to be introduced to someone by a third party before you could speak to them; subsequent to the telephone the word 'hello' was invented.
Or so the story goes
- dredmorbius 14y agoMyth busted: http://www.pitara.com/discover/5wh/online.asp?story=184 http://www.pitara.com/discover/5wh/online.asp?story=184
- robbiep 14y agoThanks for the link. Would have been nifty if 'Ahoy!' had of caught on! This is the reference which backs up my point, however it makes it slightly more eloquently- saying that 'Hello' was a way to cut across Social barriers which were much more rigid before the invention: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=AgLDhOySfMgC&lpg=PA347&ots=t4Xo12tdjD&dq=hello%20dr%20livingstone%20i%20presume%20telephone%20introductions&pg=PA347#v=onepage&q=hello%20dr%20livingstone%20i%20presume%20telephone%20introductions&f=false http://books.google.com.au/books?id=AgLDhOySfMgC&lpg=PA3... Ps apologies for the mess
- mladenkovacevic 14y agoThat's interesting, I never thought about that. It must've taken a great deal of willpower to not want to know everything about every new person you would talk to on other end of the line. I imagine this would've been my first conversation with a random receptionist that's just trying to patch my call through: "Hello! We are speaking on the telephone! How's the weather over there!?" Following that train of thought, I don't really remember my first time using the telephone, although I'm sure I was yelling the whole time.