Boston Post (1865):
“Any well-informed person knows that it is impossible to convey voice over wires and that, even if it were possible, it would have no practical value.”
Despite this prediction, the phone entered our lives the way we know it.
Phone numbers were chosen in the USA with the opposite principle as the typewriter; they were chosen to encourage speed dialling.
When the “indicatives” were introduced, the largest cities had lower numbers because they took less time to score. New York was “212” and although New Jersey is logically “213” both numbers could easily be exchanged for what was attributed “213” to Los Angeles and “312” to Chicago.
Note: At this time, “speed” was the speed of dialing the phone! At the time of the “pulse” marking!
A brilliant announcement on the subject:
At this point... It took instructions. 🙂