Great Calls
Friday sees the anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell being granted the patent for his invention of a device called the ‘telephone’ in 1876. Since then technology has advanced and we give you some of our favourite records in this field:
Largest collection of telephones
Zhang Dafang (China) has collected 600 different telephones as of 20 April 2007, from all eras and from over the world for the past seven years. The collection includes a phone in the shape of a Jim Beam whiskey bottle, and his oldest piece - a 1900-phone which he found in a flea market in Russia.
Largest telephone conference call
On 25 March 2004 ACT Teleconferencing (USA) and Herbalife International (USA) conducted a telephone conference call led by Michael O. Johnson (USA), CEO of Herbalife International . The greatest number of people simultaneously connected for at least ten seconds was 10,424.
Most durable mobile phone number (cellular phone number)
David Contorno, of Lemont, Illinois, USA, has owned and used the same mobile telephone number since 2 August 1985. His first mobile phone was an Ameritech AC140 and his carrier has been Ameritech Mobile Communications ever since.
Largest telephone
The worlds largest operational telephone was exhibited at a festival on 16 Sep 1988 to celebrate the 80th birthday of Centraal Beheer, an insurance company based in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. It was 2.47m 8ft 1in high and 6.06m 19ft 11in long, and weighed 3.5tonnes. The handset, being 7.14m 23ft 5in long, had to be lifted by crane in order to make a call.
Smallest telephone
The smallest operational telephone was created by Jan Piotr Krutewicz, Munster, USA on 16 September 1996. It measured just 47.5mm x 10mm x 21mm 1.8in x 0.3in x 0.8 in.
05 March 2008