Telephone Trivia:

Jane Barbie was the woman who did the voice recordings for the
Bell System.

The first telephone exchange opened on January 28, 1878, in New
Haven, Connecticut.
- from The History of the Telephone by Herbert N. Casson

Month after month, the little Bell Company lived from hand to
mouth. No salaries were paid in full. Often, for weeks, they were
not paid at all. In Watson's notebook there are such entries
during this period as "Lent Bell fifty cents," "Lent Hubbard
twenty cents," "Bought one bottle beer--too bad can't have beer
every day."
- from The History of the Telephone by Herbert N. Casson

When Bell's patent was sixteen months old, there were 778
telephones in use.
- from The History of the Telephone by Herbert N. Casson

The first "Hello" badge used to identify guests and hosts at
conventions, parties, etc. was traced back to September 1880. It
was on that date that the first Telephone Operators Convention
was held at Niagra Falls and the "Hello" badge was created for
that event.

Western Electric invented the loudspeaker which was initially
called "loud-speaking telephone."

Western Electric successfully brought sound to motion pictures
and introduced systems of mobile communications which culminated
in the cellular telephone.

During the depths of the Depression, telephones in use fell from
16 to 13 per 100 population and by the late 1970's the number had
surpassed 75 per 100 population.

Western Electric mass-produced color telephones for the first
time in 1954.

In Japan, Western Electric first sold equipment in 1890, then in
1899 helped form the Nippon Electric Company (NEC). This was
Japan's first joint venture with an American firm.

Northern Telecom, Alcatel N.V. and NEC all had roots in Western
Electric.

The use of telephone answering machines became popular in 1974.

In the first month of the Bell Telephone Company's existence in
1877, only six telephones were sold!

On December 23, 1947, Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill,
N.J., held a secret demonstration of the transistor which marked
the foundation of modern electronics.

In 1953, Sony Corporation obtained a transistor license from
Western Electric Co. that led to its development of the world's
first commercially successful transistor radio.

In the early days of the telephone, operators would pick up a
call and use the phrase, "Well, are you there?". It wasn't until
1895 that someone suggested answering the phone with the phrase
"number please?"

Sometimes, early telephone operators would get to know their
customers so well, the customers would ask for a reminder call
when it was time to remove a cake from the oven, leave the phone
off the hook near their sleeping child when they left the house,
hoping the operator would hear any cries of distress, request a
wake up call before taking a long nap.

Telephone is derived from two Greek words, tele + phone, meaning
far off voice or sound.(Tele, far off + phone, voice or sound).

In Milan, Italy, when an operator dialed a wrong number, the
phone company fined the operator.

Just like today's computers, early telephones were very confusing
to new users. Some became so frustrated with the new technology,
they attacked the phone with an ax or ripped it out of the wall.

In the U.S., 54% of wireless phone users are men and 46% are
women.

The number one reason people choose to buy a wireless phone is
for safety (nearly 50% of those who own wireless phones purchased
it for safety).

The first prototype of the sound-proof phone booth was built in
1877. Mr. Watson, Alexander Graham Bell's trusty assistant, used
a bunch of bed blankets around a box. He created the booth to
prevent his landlady from listening in on his conversations.

Some callers didn't like using the early phone booths because the
doors would get stuck, forcing users to fight their way out.

In the early 1880's some well-to-do telephone owners started the
unusual trend of paying to have a theatre employee hold a
telephone receiver backstage, transmitting live plays and operas
into their living rooms.

The commercial wireless phone was first introduced in Chicago in
1982 by Ameritech.

The first mobile car phones were located in the car's trunk,
taking up nearly half of the space!

Phone service was established at the White House one year after
its invention. President Rutherford B. Hayes was the first to
have phone service (1877-81).

Fifteen years after its invention in 1876, there were five
million phones in America. Fifteen years after its invention,
more than 33 million wireless phones were in the U.S.

Being rude to a telephone operator in Prussia was once a crime.
In 1908, a respected citizen was reprimanded by the government
after becoming exasperated with an operator and saying "My dear
girl!"

When Alexander Graham Bell died on August 4, 1922, millions of
phones went dead. In Bell's honor, all phones served by the Bell
System in the USA and Canada went silent for one minute.

The first transatlantic wedding took place on December 2, 1933.
The groom was in Michigan. The bride, in Sweden. The ceremony
took seven minutes and cost $47.50. Cheap wedding!

In the late 30's, a man named Abe Pickens of Cleveland, Ohio,
attempted to promote world peace by placing personal calls to
various country leaders. He managed to contact Mussolini,
Hirohito, Franco and Hitler (Hitler, who didn't understand
English, transferred him to an aide). He spent$10,000 to "give
peace a chance."

In the Catholic church, St. Gabriel, an archangel, is the patron
saint of telecommunications.

One of the first telephone answering machines was developed in
Switzerland during the 1950's. It took three days to install.

The famous emergency hotline, whereby the President could have
immediate contact with the Kremlin wasn't established until 1984.
Prior to 1984, the only direct contact to the Kremlin was a
cumbersome teleprinter link, supplying text messages that then
had to be translated, responses drafted and sent back.

During President Lyndon Johnson's term, many people misdialed the
White House number and instead reached the home of a New York
housewife. Rose Brown had a near identical phone number. He wrote
and thanked her for her diplomacy in receiving his highly
sensitive calls and promised to return the favor when her friends
and family accidentally dialed the White House.

Two days before Alexander Graham Bell married Mabel Hubbard in
1877, he gave her 99 percent of his company shares as a wedding
gift. He kept a mere ten for himself.