IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND THIS BLOG TO A FRIEND GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG AND CLICK ON THE ENVELOPE.
There are over 600 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.
Roaming in the woods, some boys found a nest containing two linnet fledglings, which they managed to capture and take home.
Securing some plain, wooden birdcages, they put one of the linnets in each and hung them on either side of a canary.
They
explained to their mother that they hoped the linnets, being so young,
would learn to imitate the canary, instead of cheeping as linnets
ordinarily do.
The mother smilingly questioned the likelihood of the plan succeeding.
The next day the boys entered the room, and exclaimed, "Mother, come here, our canary is cheeping like a linnet!"
And so it was.
The canary had to be separated from the wild birds of the wood and kept under cover for a time before he regained his song.
What
we say and what we hear makes so much of a difference in this old world
so it behooves us to pay close attention to who we imitate and what
words and thoughts we leave lying around waiting to be imitated.
I still remember my first personal telephone.
It consisted of two tin cans connected by a piece of string. High fidelity was not one of its outstanding qualities but a playmate and myself could talk over a fairly long distance and it was intriguing.
It was but a childish extension of the wondrous invention of Alexander Graham Bell. The year was 1876 and he was granted patent no. 174,465.
It was the natural outgrowth of a family that had long been involved in the transmission of coherent speech. His grandfather invented a device for overcoming stammering and his father perfected a system of visible speech for deaf mutes.
This man, born March 3, 1847 had tutored Helen Keller and worked extensively with the deaf.
Now in his twenty ninth year he invented a way for the human voice to shrink the miles for vocal communication. “Mr. Watson, come here I want you,” and the words traveled no further than from one room to another.
Within a year people in Boston were talking to people in New York. By the end of the 1880’s there were 47,900 telephones installed in America. These first subscribers were a hardy breed who were required to put up their own line to connect with another.
It took until 1915 for the telephone to go Intercontinental. What one inventor had described as a toy was taking over. I am old enough to remember having a party line. The coin operated telephone preceded my birth by five years, 1923. The mobile phone came into being one year later and was of great advantage to the police force. It was a distinct disadvantage to the criminal.
The first touch tone telephones were put to use in Baltimore, Maryland in 1941. The buttons were pushed by operators in a central switching office. It was too expensive for general use. By the early 1960’s low cost transistors made it possible for a private home to have this easier and faster means of dialing.
The first picture phones in 1956 were primitive at best. By the 1964 World’s Fair the picture had improved but not public acceptance. The cell phones we now take for granted actually began in 1983.
It
is fascinating to follow the telephone from its humble beginnings to
what we now take for granted in our twenty first century. I hate to shop but now shop with my wife by cell phone. She sees something in the grocery store and calls me to see if I am interested.
Do we talk too much while saying little?
No more, no less than ever. Are we better off with telephones than without? In answer to the question, consider this. Before the telephone if you wanted to go see someone you hopped on your horse and began perhaps a five or ten mile journey. If
the person you were calling on had had the same idea and started in
your direction by a different road the results were less than pleasing. At the end of each of your journeys you would still be the same distance apart.
With telephones, of course, we simply pick up the phone and say, “Joe/Jane, is it convenient to drop by?”
Thanks Alexander. We love you. And
in loving the instrument that gives wings to our thoughts may we think
often on what we say and that be goodly addition to the world…especially
when we speak of others.
QUOTES FROM THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN BOOK below…
Lincoln once suggested that many politicians and their campaign promises were like pants salesmen. “I’ve got pants for sale that are a perfect fit. Big enough to fit any man
and small enough to fit any boy.” Lincoln went on to concur that it didn’t make any difference because they didn’t keep their promises anyway.
To purchase this book and read other books published by this innovative publisher
CLICK ON THE URL BELOW
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Some recent topic titles are:ONE LOG ON A FIRE, TWO JOLLY GREEN GIANTS; LOVE AND FORGIVENESS, WISDOM IS
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL
To
view his One Man Dramas on film (see by millions, live and on film and
on video)(Martin Luther, Ben Franklin, Charles Wesley, Abraham Lincoln)
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment