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