Advertisement

Graham Bell phone instructions (to his parents) go for $92,000

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

As many a teenager or young adult knows, trying to teach technology-inept parents how to use a phone can seem an exercise in futility. It appears Alexander Graham Bell might have thought so, too -- and his phone couldn’t even post to Facebook.

Bell wrote a seven-page letter in 1878 attempting to explain to his parents precisely how to use his new invention. That letter sold for more than $92,000 in a New Hampshire auction this week.

Advertisement

The instructions, complete with elaborate drawings and warnings on the dangers of thunderstorms, were written two years after Bell patented his revolutionary invention.

The device -- absolutely rudimentary by today’s smartphone standards -- needed to be grounded so it wouldn’t be fried by a lightning strike.

“Don’t forget to put a metallic plug in the hole marked A if there is danger of a thunderstorm,” Bell warned. “This is not necessary for safety but advisable as a protection for the telephone.”

Bidding on the letter by New Hampshire-based RRAuction began last month and ended Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

ALSO:

Highly organized drug ring relied on 8-year-old as a lookout

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar named U.S. global cultural ambassador

Advertisement

Sorrow for the lost ‘Poe Toaster’: No cognac, roses left at grave

-- Ricardo Lopez

Advertisement