Wednesday Words: 27 March 2013

Time for Wednesday Words, hosted by Emma at Crazy With Twins…

First of all:

“Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.”

And then:

“Mr. Watson – come here! – I want to see you.”

OK, I know what you’re thinking…

Old Firefly usually gives us something a bit up on this. He’s flipped it. Blogging has turned his mind. It was bound to happen…

But no, gentle reader. I’m not quite ready for the men in white coats yet. Let me explain:

The nursery rhyme is by Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788 – 1879) from the USA. But, quoted by the inventor, Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931) those words became the very first to be recorded on a phonograph, the predecessor of the gramophone, to be followed in turn by the record player and CD player. The second quotation is by Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922) the inventor of the telephone. Bell conceived the idea of producing an electric current that changed in the same way as sound waves produce vibration, then using this to reproduce sound again, using what we now know as a microphone, and an earpiece or loudspeaker. Those words were the first to be successfully transmitted that way, and so could be said to be the first words to be spoken over a telephone.

Whether either, or both, men would have chosen more inspiring words had they realised the long-term significance of their actions, I cannot say. But just to complete the picture, I’ll give you something else from each of them:

“Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”  (Edison.)

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing, that we see too late the one that is open.”  (Bell.)

This post is now also linked to Post Comment Love at Verily, Victoria Vocalises, here…