[lit-ideas] Re: SUNDAY POEM
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 13:11:49 -0700 (PDT)
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Paul <Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Jul 17, 2004 9:54 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: SUNDAY POEM
>Didn't Alexander Graham Bell start out looking for, was it a hearing enhancer,
when he accidentally invented the light bulb?<
Bell invented the _telephone_ while working on several things: teaching the deaf
to speak through his 'Visible Speech,' and sending simultaneous telegraph
messages over the same wire. (These were not related.)
A.A. I bet you don't care that you ruined my weekend. I was being humorous.
In fact, I laughed and laughed. Fell right off my chair laughing so hard.
And you didn't even get it. (Rolls eyes back into head)
R.P. Bell patented the telephone in 1876. (Edison and others claimed to have
invented
it earlier, but the courts upheld Bell's patent.)
A.A. A footnote from history: Bell is greatly disliked in the Deaf community
for having done major damage to them by actively using his position to suppress
sign language and promote oralism. I'm not sure if he was hard of hearing
himself.
R.P. Edison is known for inventing the familiar incandescent light bulb that
appears
in cartoon balloons over the heads of characters who are having epiphanies,
these being harder to draw). Neither the telephone nor the light bulb were
invented 'accidentally.'
A.A. I thought the phone was, but maybe not. Still, I don't think Bell got up
one morning and said, I think I'll invent the telephone. Wasn't there the can
with the string and all that? My original point is lost, that some of the most
major discoveries are accidental. (Light bulb goes off over head) Got it:
Columbus discovering America. That was accidental and pretty major.
In the meantime, I'm in between errands. See you all tomorrow.
Andy Amago
Robert Paul
The Reed Institute
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