This old video documentary by AT&T tells the early history of the telephone switchboard, and includes bits of colorful tale-telling, including some about the naughty behavior of some switchboard operators. Much of the documentary, though, is reassuringly, seriously dull:
Tag: telephone
Defending Pay Phones and Parking Spots
As pay telephones disappear from our cities, with them vanish opportunities to watch an entertaining, maddening form of behaviour. The behaviour was documented in a study called Waiting For a Phone: Intrusion on Callers Leads to Territorial Defence. The report came out in 1989, before mobile phones nudged public pay phones towards oblivion. Professor R Barry […]
Doggie-phone update
A little over a year has passed since the US patent for a Domestic Animal Telephone was issued. The patent describes : “A phone for pets and pet owners is taught [sic?] which allows the owner to call the house and ‘talk’ to the pet”. Now, (Feb 01, 2011) a new patent has been issued […]
On the anonymity of research subjects
On September 15, 2010 we blogged about a research study published by Dr. Janet Beavin Bavelas and colleagues. Our blog item included an image that was published on page 12 of that study. Dr. Bavelas has just sent us a note saying: In your summary of our research on gesture, you include a photo of […]