Signs for TELEPHONE

Meaning: A telecommunications device that coverts sound and electrical waves into audible relays, and is used for communication.

Related signs: mobile phone, SMARTPHONE, TTY/TDD, TELEGRAM, Alexander G. Bell.

Usage/Grammar

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Deaf Culture and tidbits

Did you know that...? Deaf history

"Canadian-born American Deaf inventor William E. Shaw (1869-1949) had invented several things, including clocks, alarms, phones, etc. He had worked for Thomas Edison for half a decade.

Talkless telephone invented by William Shaw
Source: Popular Science Monthly, November 1924.

Headline: 'Talkless Phone' Invented by Deaf Mute. Story: "One of the most recent devices for use in communication between deaf mutes is a 'talkless phone' that conveys messages by means of an alphabet printed on electric-light bulbs. As the operator presses the keys of a special typewriter wired electrically, the corresponding letters are lighted, spelling out the message." Source

Deaf Humor

"A group of Deaf people was at a restaurant, chatting away when a group of non-Deaf people at the next table began to rudely mimic their signs. One of the Deaf women decided she'd had enough. She walked to the public telephone, inserted a coin, and making sure she was being observed by the hearing group, signed a complete conversation into the handset, including pauses for the person on the other end to respond. When the Deaf group left the restaurant, they were amused to see the hearing people run over to inspect the phone." (Bienvenue, 1989)

More zap stories.

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