“电话”溯源 / The Origins of "Electric Speech"

“电话”溯源

今年年初，《时代》杂志和高通公司在全球八个国家对5,000名不同年龄、不同收入的消费者进行了调查，核心内容是他们对移动技术的用途和看法。

这项调查十分有趣，但原因倒不是它充分证明了移动通讯依赖症已经发展为一种全球现象，而是由于调查揭示出了不同国家的消费者对移动设备的不同看法和使用方式。

接受调查的八个国家包括中国、印度、巴西、朝鲜、美国、英国、南非和韩国，它们在很多方面都表现出相同之处。

例如，在25岁到29岁的年轻人中，有四分之三的人都会拥着手机入眠。（很显然，他们太年轻了，没见过早期的砖头“大哥大”，那种尺寸的手机抱着睡觉可不怎么舒服）。

另外一个八国看法一致的例证是：三分之一的受访者都表示，哪怕手机只是离身片刻，也会让他们感到焦虑。

当然，各国也存在着一定的差异。八国中，中国消费者最同意移动技术提高了国民生活水平、让他们接触到更多的潜在客户、更容易地获取到家庭保健信息，但也令他们不能集中精力陪孩子玩耍。

在使用移动设备上网、浏览新闻、搜寻网站和查询天气的频率上，中国受访者也名列前茅。

《时代》杂志对整个调查结果评论如下：

“谈到无线移动技术如何改变生活，最常见的答案就是它拉近了人们与家人及朋友的距离，帮助人们更好地了解时事。”

有趣的是，当1876年贝尔发明电话，获得美国第174465号专利时，人们对这种设备的使用价值还普遍存疑。（*见尾注）

当时美国正在庆祝建国100周年，首次举办了“1876年艺术、工农业和矿物产品百年庆典展览”（后更名为“万国博览会”，即“世博会”）。那会儿，人们对美国内战仍记忆犹新，美国正处于向电气时代过渡的阶段。

贝尔纠结于到底要不要在展会上展出自己的新发明，后来他还是决定参与，并获得了一个位于楼梯间底部的小展台，用来展示他的新设备。后来大会又分配给他一个更好的展位。

最初，美国和海外媒体对他的发明持怀疑和嘲笑论调。《泰晤士报》对此不屑一顾，还发表了一通科学论断，力证语音是不能通过电线传输的。

尽管如此，到1880年初，美国的电话用户数量已达3万，而当时的总人口数为4,600万。到了1888年，电话用户的总数已稳步增长至16万。

也就是说，在贝尔发明电话后不到5年，越来越多的观察人士开始赞美这个设备的伟大应用前景。怀疑论者和反对声依然存在，但已沦为极少数。

第一位在办公桌上装电话的美国总统是胡佛，时间为1929年。这部电话在华盛顿电话本上登记的号码是“1”。

如今10位美国人中就有9位有手机，而香港的手机拥有率更是超过了人手一部。

正如《时代》杂志在在调查结果的评论中所述，如今一部标准智能手机的计算能力已经超过当年载人登月的阿波罗11号飞船。

这听起来令人难以置信，但事实却有过之而无不及，因为计算能力已被用于越来越多的应用程序，包括智能支付、社交网络、自助登机、投票注册、慈善捐款、手机游戏、定位导航、拍照摄影、定位广告、视频聊天等等。

在人类历史的长河中，贝尔获得电话发明专利之后的136年只是弹指一挥间。就像贝尔无法想象他的发明会给社会带来如此全面的影响一样，我们也无法想象如果没有电话我们的生活将会怎样。

我有幸经历过借助一位或多位话务员转接电话的年代，也使用过老式的转盘电话机，收发过电报、电传和传真，所以我真心感谢时代的进步。

但我要赶紧补充一点：我绝不会——过去没有现在也没有——一星半点儿要抱着电话睡觉的念头。

*注：有关美国电话的历史和数据，我要感谢Ammon Shea所著的《电话簿》一书。这本书非常有趣，也很具有观赏性，是由企鹅出版集团Perigree Book出版社于2010年出版的。

The Origins of "Electric Speech"

TIME Magazine and Qualcomm conducted an international survey of 5,000 mixed age and income consumers in eight countries earlier this year, focusing on mobile technology usage and attitudes.

The survey is interesting, not so much because it emphatically confirms that dependency on mobile communications is now a global phenomenon, but in the way it profiles the different ways in which consumers in various countries value and use their mobile devices.

There are some broad similarities cutting across all 8 countries surveyed: China, India, Brazil, Korea, the U.S., the U.K., South Africa and South Korea.

One example: three-quarters of all 25-to-29-year-olds sleep with their phones. (Obviously none of these folks are old enough to have seen the early brick-sized models of mobile phones, which would have made a very uncomfortable sleeping partner.)

Another example of common attitudes in all 8 countries: one third of all respondents report feelings of anxiety if separated from their mobile for even a short period of time.

There are of course differences from one country to another. Chinese consumers came in strongest of all 8 nations in agreeing that mobile technology has improved life in their country in general; given them access to a larger group of potential customers; made it easier for them to access information to maintain their family's health; and also distracted them at times when their children were ready to play.

Chinese respondents also topped the response rates in frequency of using their mobile device to browse the internet, read news, search the web, and check the weather.

TIME's comment on the overall findings:

"When asked how wireless mobile technology had changed their lives, people most often said it had brought them into closer contact with friends or family and had helped them be better informed about current events."

It's interesting to reflect on the fact that in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell received U.S. Patent #174465 on the telephone he had invented, there was widespread doubt and skepticism about the device's usefulness. *

The United States was celebrating its 100th birthday, and the 1876 Centennial Exhibition (later renamed the World's Fair) was held in the U.S. for the first time that year. The memory of the U.S. Civil war was still fresh in peoples' minds, and America was beginning the transition into the age of electricity.

Bell debated whether or not to exhibit his new telephone at the Centennial Exhibition. Finally he decided to join, and obtained a small display table under a stairwell to show off his newfangled device. Eventually he was granted a better location.

Press reports in the U.S. and overseas were initially skeptical and even scornful. The London Times was dismissive and gave scientific arguments for why speech could not be transmitted over a wire.

Nonetheless, by early 1880, there were 30,000 telephone subscribers in the U.S., which had a population of about 46 million at the time. Subscriber numbers grew steadily to reach 160,000 by 1888.

In other words, within about 5 years of Bell's launch of the telephone, more and more observers began waxing eloquent on the great new potential uses of this device. Skeptics and doubters remained, but as a vocal minority.

The first American President to have a telephone on his desk was Herbert Hoover, in 1929. This presidential telephone number was listed in the Washington directory as: # 1.

Today nearly 9 out of 10 Americans have a mobile phone. In Hong Kong, mobile penetration is higher than 1 device per person.

As TIME points out in its article on the survey results, a typical smart phone today is packed with more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon.

This is mind-boggling in itself, but all the more so now as that computing power is put to work on an ever-growing array of applications including smart payments, social networking, airline check-in, voter registration, texting charity donations, mobile games, GPS apps, cameras, location-based ads, video chat, etc.

In the greater span of human history, the 136 years since Bell got his patent on the telephone isn't a very long stretch of time. Just as it wasn't humanly possible for Bell to imagine the full impact of his invention on society, it's nearly impossible for us now to imagine what life would be like without it.

I, for one, am grateful to have had the experience of making many telephone calls involving one or more human telephone operators, in one case involving an old rotary crank telephone handset. I have sent and received telegrams and telexes, as well as faxes; so I fully appreciate the progress we've made.

I hasten to add that at no time, past or present, have I ever had even the slightest desire to sleep with a telephone.

*for facts and figures on the history of the telephone in the U.S., I am indebted to Ammon Shea's "The Phone Book", a very interesting and entertaining volume. A Perigree Book, published by Penguin Group in 2010.