James Gleick — The Telephone: A New History — at Conn Ave

About this Event

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke the words “Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you” into a contraption he called the telephone, and for the first time a voice was carried along a wire. This feat has long been celebrated as a triumph of individual ingenuity and vision. In fact, the invention was a contest replete with bribery, fraud, and speculation, and no one, not even its inventors, realized what it was good for or how ubiquitous it would become. Over the next century, the phone would prove less an invention than a continuous revolution. It would teach us new words starting with the once unfamiliar “hello” and “goodbye” and a new way to speak, with instant reaction, instant feeling, instant possibilities. It would create an all female profession—the operator—that…

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