Mister, That’s The Biggest Nickel I’ve Ever Seen

Nat Geo 7/36

I love how early ads doled out the facts. The US has 13 phones for every 100 people, and Europe has less than three. You better recognize that Bell Telephone worked its hiney off to get that done. You’re welcome, America.

Mad props to Bell.

Per http://www.elon.edu,

While Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854, Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the device in 1876.

And while this Bell ad states there were 34 million phones in the world in the summer of 1936, today there are 2.71 billion smartphones in use. Per http://www.bankmycell.com, 35% of the world has a smartphone. And most of us are addicted. Perhaps you are even reading this on your phone now, although I wouldn’t recommend it. You need a big monitor to enjoy these pics. 😉

Last night, my husband and I discussed the large long distance phone bills we used to accrue in the 90s, how I would call my mom collect at Christmas once I arrived at my grandparent’s house, finding a pay phone in the mall to call home, or a phone booth outside, complete with yellow pages (which some folks ripped out). All things our son will never understand. And while we still have a landline, we don’t have a rotary, so he won’t experience that either. And frankly, most of his communication is texting, so rare is the time he even speaks on a phone at all. Remember when we looked forward to hearing each other’s voices?

10 thoughts on “Mister, That’s The Biggest Nickel I’ve Ever Seen”

  1. It’s staggering how much phone technology has evolved in our lifespans. I remember telling my kids an anecdote involving overhearing something (by accident) on a party line. They could not comprehend that multiple households once shared a phone line.

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      3. I did not own a smartphone until we emigrated in October 2013 and the phone I had in Scotland was archaic because I just kept it in the car for emergencies. I seriously had no clue what I was doing when I was given a smartphone. I was like one of those chimpanzees that has learned how to use stone age tools.

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  2. This post is so on point. Young ones don’t understand communication in the “olden days”. Sure it is more efficient but they will never know what it is like to have to walk to a drug store to use a big wooden phone booth to make a special secret call. Or what it was like listening for “your” ring on a party line. Now a phone is taken for granted but when I was a teen it was special.

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