science : telephones - I Used To Believe

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i used to think that any time i pressed the 0 on the phone it would dial the operator. so even in the middle of the phone number i would press the 0 as fast as i could so that it wouldnt dial the operator instead.

becca

When I was young I used to think that our phone only worked for English speaking people. And that if you wanted to speak another language on the phone you'd have to buy that specific phone.

(ahem) still rather not say

Car phones were just coming out when I was kid...I used to think that your lisence plate number was you car phone number so the people you met on th eroad could call you to chat.

Jenni

When I was small (5?), I thought I figured out how to use the telephone on my own. My best friend's name was Jennifer, so I decided to call her one day. I picked up the receiver and was delighted to discover that there were letters corresponding to the numbers. I simply dialed her name (it was the same as mine, I knew how to spell it): j-e-n-n-i, etc. By the second "e," it began to ring, and a man I didn't know answered. I dutifully gave the phone to my mom.

Jenny USA

I thought that when only 'life and death' telegrams could be sent, that it meant that new-born babies were in this category. This wasn't helped by the fact that I actually worked on the Post Office counter.

Grahame

Because I could never figure out how telephones worked, I thought they used wires to connect everyone's house up with everyone else's in the world.

Rachel

I used to think that you could show something to the person on the other end o the phone line by holding the receiver up to the object. I still remember trying to show my grandmother a present I got for Christmas. I held the receiver to the present and said "See, Gramma?"

Kdees

When I first phoned a call centre, they told me that I was put on hold. Then some music like Greensleeves was played into my ear. I thought that the person on the other end got out her recorder and played it to me down the phone!

Helen

In my childhood, to make a phone call, you picked up the receiver and waited for a live operator to say, "Number, please?" She would make the call for you.

I believed that if the telephone operator could tell you when a line was busy, they should also be able to tell you when no one was home.

Melinda

I used to believe that written messages could be passed through the phoneline. I spent ages trying to send cards through the reciever! I even tried to send my grandmother some icecream...

Anon

I used to believe that each U.S. state's local phone company was named after the state the company was located. (This was in the late 1980s, after AT&T was split up.) I believed this because I knew that Indiana's phone company was "Indiana Bell" and Illinois had "Illinois Bell," so naturally I thought there was a "Florida Bell," a "New York Bell," and a "California Bell."

Matt Thiel

When I was little I called a radio show to request a record for my mum. I got the busy signal but I thought that if I stayed on the line, listening to the busy signal, that when the line was free, I would be put straight through....I was on the phone for HOURS!!

mairin

When I was about 4 and 5, I believed that the voices heard on the telephone handset travelled in the space made by the coils in the cord, and that I could interrupt the conversation by putting a finger into that space.

John

For years when I was a child, I believed that telephone cable was curly because curly cable was cheaper to make than straight cable. My dad told me that so it must be true, musn't it?

Andrea Storey

When I was little, my older sister told me that If I picked up the telephone and dialled the number for that telephone it would automatically trip a self destruct devise and blow up the whole house. I believed this for a very long time.

Pauline

I used to think that all telephones were wireless, but you had to plug them into the wall because they needed a special sort of electricity (that's why the cable port was different). And I thought cell phones were special only because they had batteries.

Alfie

My older brother told me that when you diled '0' for operator on the telephone, that a doctor performing an operation on someon (an 'operator') would have to leave the operating room to answer your call, and his patient could die from being unattended while the doctor was talking to you. He explained that is why you should never dial '0' on the phone - you could kill someone. He would then pick up the phone, dial '0', and make me scream.

Tikifish

When i was younger and i would talk on the phone, i always thought that there was a little person inside it, and i could never understand how he got in there, or how they could live in the phone...Elayna

ImAqtpie013181

When my mother called someone, then hung up the phone within a couple of seconds saying "busy signal," I thought that meant the phone company knew the other person was too busy to anwer the phone and was letting my mother know.

Anon

when i was young, i used to believe that u could send money to people by rolling the money up and sticking it through the speaker holes!

alexandria

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