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From: Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Alexander Graham Bell Day (7 March)
Date: Fri, 08 Mar 2024 10:53:10 +0000
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On 2024-03-08, Ross Clark wrote:

> AGB (1847-1922) was the son of Alexander Melville Bell (1819-1905) 
> "teacher and researcher of physiological phonetics...author of numerous 
> works on orthoepy and elocution...creator of Visible Speech" (Wiki).
>
> Well, the telephone certainly changed some things about our use of 
> language.
>
> Apparently it was Thomas Edison who established "Hello" (or "Hello?") as 
> the standard English thing to say when answering the telephone.
>
> And this day? Oh, on 7-3-1876 AGB was granted a US patent for an 
> "Improvement in Telegraphy".
>
> Three days later it was: "Mr.Watson, come here, I want to see you."

Not sure if this is verified, but I've heard that Bell wanted people
to say "Ahoy" when answering the phone. Maybe we could try to get that
restarted?


-- 
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
relations, for nature cannot be fooled.         –--Richard P. Feynman