On This Day in Telephone History August 15TH 1877 the telephone greeting Hello! became a thing. At the time, telephones were connected between two offices with a permanently open line. To alert one office that the other office wanted to speak, an alarm bell at each end was being considered. Thomas Edison wrote to a friend who was setting up a phone system in Pittsburgh: "I don't think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What do you think?"

On This Day in Telephone History August 15TH 1877

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On This Day in Telephone History August 15TH 1877 the telephone greeting Hello! became a thing. At the time, telephones were connected between two offices with a permanently open line. To alert one office that the other office wanted to speak, an alarm bell at each end was being considered. Thomas Edison wrote to a friend who was setting up a phone system in Pittsburgh: “I don’t think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What do you think?“

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