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The humble telephone invented by Thomas Edison has morphed into a device that you can keep in your pocket.
Western Union had installed the first telephone exchange in St. Stephen. Picture: iStock
The world became a smaller place 144 years ago today with the world’s first international phone call.
The first international phone call was made on 1 July 1881, between Calais, Maine, in the United States, and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, in Canada.
First international phone call
Western Union had installed the first telephone exchange in St. Stephen two years before, using inventor Thomas Edison’s systems.
A few days later, Dominion Telegraph installed a competing, but incompatible exchange. Both of those merged into the Bell Telephone Company several years later, and the first international phone lines were set up.
Technology
Since that historic day, the humble phone invented by Edison has morphed into a device that you can keep in your pocket and talk to someone at the other end of the world.
The journey of making international phone calls has been an exciting one as family and friends racked up massive phone bills while having conversations, wishing each other happy birthdays or a happy new year.
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Massive phone bills
Many still remember being scolded for the exorbitant calls, but the world has changed and technology has everything to do with it.
Now that you have internet connectivity, you can access data and social media apps that allow you to chat with anyone, anywhere in the world, from South Africa to China and even the North Pole.
Technology has evolved at such a rapid pace that voice calls have now been complemented by video calls, which allow people to see each other in real-time.
However, technology has also filtered into a disconnect, where people don’t talk to each other but rather furiously send messages or chat on the plethora of social media apps.
Make that call
Almost gone is the day when picking up the phone generated excitement to talk to someone you have not seen for a long time or butterflies in the stomachs of a boy and girl who sit for hours on the phone. Now it’s all about texting.
So, as the world marks the historic day of the world’s first international phone call, it is a perfect time and reason to give your texting fingers a rest and call someone you love.
There is nothing better than hearing the voice of a loved one!
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