Despite the fact that practically every British teenager has one in their pocket, nearly a quarter of them don’t know who invented the telephone, according to new research from phone and broadband firm TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk).*
22% of those aged 16-24 do not know Alexander Graham Bell’s greatest technological contribution. When asked what he is most famous for, 7% of young adults believe that it was Bell – and not fellow Scot John Logie Baird – who invented the television, whilst 6% believe that he recently helped England retain the Ashes in his guise as a professional English cricketer. Other suggestions linked him to the invention of the helicopter, the discovery of penicillin, and discovering the source of the Nile. A few even said he was the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
The research, carried out to mark the 135th anniversary of the first telephone call on 10th March 1876, also revealed that 15% of Brits knew the first words uttered by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas A. Watson on the now-ubiquitous device.
However, over half (55%) of respondents thought that Bell’s first words on the telephone were “Can you hear me?” instead of his line “Mr Watson, come here – I want to see you” spoken 135 years ago today. And one per cent of people thought the first call set the tone for many of today’s conversations by starting “Hello? I’m on the train.”
Mark Schmid from TalkTalk said: “Alexander Graham Bell was one of the foremost inventors of his time and on that historic day changed the shape of communications forever. Last Thursday alone saw 17.2 million calls being made and received on our network, reaffirming the telephone’s place as the primary source of contact in the UK.”
To celebrate this anniversary, TalkTalk will be holding hourly competitions via its @talktalktips Twitter feed today**, testing the nation’s knowledge on Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone, with plenty of phone-related prizes – such as TalkTalk landline handsets and a variety of mobile phones – on offer.