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"Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not."
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H.G. Wells was not the first person to think of a telephone answering machine; however, he was the first one to really get it right.
Shortly after inventing the phonograph in 1878, Thomas Edison thought that a possible use would be as a recorder of telephone conversations. However, the first telephone answering machine was probably created by Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen; he modified his Telegraphone (first patented in 1898) to answer the phone automatically and record a message. The Telegraphone was eventually advertised as "the phone with a memory."
Thomas Edison created the Telescribe in 1914 and marketed the device the following year; the Telescribe could be used to record phone conversations. It was not an automated phone answering machine. Thanks to the magic of sensible copyright laws, you can read the text of this novel on the Internet for free - see Men Like Gods. Thanks also to S. Jones for pointing out this item and supplying a quote. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
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'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
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'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
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'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
Elon Musk Says Robotaxis Will Be Ready This August, 2024
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
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