How telegraph wires in London were put through small pipes...
A large rat, with a fine steel wire, was put in the pipe. Behind there
was thrust a ferret. The rat ran from the ferret a short distance and stopped. It was feared that he would show fright and be killed. But he started on again. He ran through the whole length of the pipe and brought out the wire in good style, though closely pushed by the ferret.
The Electrician, 17 May 1884

An artificial satellite at the correct distance from the earth could
make one revolution every 24 hours, i.e., it would remain stationary above the same spot and would be within optical range of nearly half of the earth's surface. Three repeater stations, 120 degrees apart in the correct orbit could give television and microwave coverage to the entire
planet.
Arthur C. Clarke, July 1945.

Subscribers are invited not to have their telephone numbers printed on their stationery, as in the event of their number having unavoidably to be changed, considerable inconvenience is caused. Preface to Provincial Section and General Instructions, North-Western Section telephone directory (UK). July, 1906.

The whole of the public telephone service between this country and countries abroad has been suspended until further notice. Telephone communication is however being maintained with Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland for Government Services only and is strictly confined to fully accredited and officially authorised persons.
Post Office Circular, 6 September 1939.

There are a whole family of sounds that are inappropriate, particularly in restaurants. The unwilling belch or flatulence are only the tip of the iceberg. Any parent or member of a fraternity knows the variety and imaginativeness with which diners can willingly create 'inappropriate' noises. The ringing of a mobile telephone fits into this family of inappropriate sounds, almost regardless of its volume.
Rich Ling, a sociologist working at Telenor R&D, in Telectronikk (a Telenor publication), Volume 94 No.2 – 1998

Probably many places in the United States never will have the dial system. It is most needed in large cities where many calls are crowded into small areas.
National Geographic magazine, October 1937.

Of course it looks messy. I have learnt over my four years in this job that numbering is much more complex than I thought it was.
Don Cruickshank, Director General of OFTEL, quoted in The Daily Telegraph, Jan 22 1997

Transmission of documents via telephone wires is possible in principle, but the apparatus required is so expensive that it will never become a practical proposition.
Dennis Gabor, "Inventing the Future", 1962

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates in exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
Albert Einstein

Notwithstanding the clamour in regard to telegraphic monopoly, it is a result of an inevitable law that business shall be mainly conducted under one great organization.
Western Union, 1871 (arguing against the introduction of competition in telecommunications)

Wonderful to relate, the far-distant friend sees the voluble iron tremble without the touch of any  person, and run now hither, now thither: he bends over it, and marks the teaching of the rod.
Famianus Strada, in 'Prolusiones Academicae', 1617.

The system of communication being described was a fraud, but foresaw the possibilities of the telegraph.

Mr W E Irish of Sunderland has been trying his hand at an invention to automatically record the telephonic sounds as ordinarily transmitted by
these instruments. It is doubtful if such a record is of much value.
The Electrician, 30 August 1884

It unites distant nations, making them feel that they are members of one great family.
Henry Field (referring to the telegraph)

The opportunity for fraud has been the chief obstacle.
Journal of the Telegraph, 1872

Means should be taken to obviate one great objection - at present felt with respect to sending private communications by telegraph - the violation of all secrecy.
Quarterly Review, 1853

The telegraph wire, the nerve of international life, transmitting
knowledge of events, removing causes of misunderstanding, and promoting peace and harmony throughout the world.
Toast given at a banquet to honour Samuel Morse, 1868

Consider that a conversation by telephone - when you are simply sitting by and not taking any part in that conversation - is one of the solemnests curiosities of this modern life.
A Telephonic Conversation, 1880

Great science nobly laboured to increase the people's joys, 
But every new invention seemed to add another noise; One was always on the telephone or answering the bell, And everyone wondered why the population fell. 
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert [1890- 1971] Former House of Commons Member, one of two representing Oxford University. (Read as part of a longer poem in the House of Commons, November 1938) 

The capitals of distant nations might be united by chains of posts, and the settling of those disputes which at present take up months or years might then be accomplished in as many hours.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1797

My department is in possession of knowledge of the details of [the telephone], and the possible use of the telephone is limited.
Engineer-in-Chief, British Post Office, 1887  

Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence.
Last message in Morse Code by the French Maritime service, Jan 31 1997

What hath God wrought?
Samual Morse, 1 January 1845 (first telegraphic message from Washington to Baltimore)

Have I done the world good, or have I added a menace?
Guglielmo Marconi

To each subscriber's telephone is affixed a calling dial with two discs, one about an inch above the other. The lower, a fixed one, bears figures, and the upper, a movable one, has holes. A finger inserted in one of these holes will be over, a figure on the lower disc, and the finger has to be inserted in the hole corresponding to the digit to be
signalled. The movable disc has then to be turned round as far as
possible for each digit to be signalled, the subscriber having to allow the disc to come to rest before signalling a fresh digit.
The Times, describing (badly!) how to use an automatic telephone. 17th May 1912

Probably many places in the United States never will have the dial system. It is most needed in large cities where many calls are crowded into small areas.
National Geographic magazine, October 1937.   

The government is unresponsive to the needs of the little man. Under 5'7", it is impossible to get your congressman on the phone.
Woody Allen

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 'Gift From the Sea'

It is not enough to show people how to live better; there is a mandate for any group with enormous powers of communication to show people how to be better. - Anon.

How to Use the Telephone
TO CALL EXCHANGE-Place receiver to ear and listen.
TO ANSWER-Lift receiver and announce name of subscriber.
TO RECALL EXCHANGE-Move receiver rest slowly down and up until an
answer is received.
Do not replace receiver until finished. Speak clearly, deliberately, and close to mouthpiece. Keep earpiece close to ear.
TO CLEAR-When conversation is finished replaced receiver promptly, ear- piece downwards. Unless receiver is on its rest you cannot be called.
Post Office Telephones instruction card (excerpt), 1932.

There is no doubt that the day will come, maybe when you and I are forgotten, when copper wires, gutta-percha coverings, and iron sheathings will be relegated to the Museum of Antiquities. Then, when a
person wants to telegraph to a friend, he knows not where, he will call an electromagnetic voice, which will be heard loud by him who has the electromagnetic ear, but will be silent to everyone else. He will call "Where are you?" and the reply will come, "I am at the bottom of the coal-mine" or "Crossing the Andes" or "In the middle of the Pacific"; or perhaps no reply will come at all, and he may then conclude that his friend is dead.
Professor W.E. Ayrton (member of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers), in a lecture at the Imperial Institute, 1897.

Have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are amongst saloon passengers moustache taken off growing beard accomplice dressed as boy voice manner and build undoubtedly a
girl both travelling as Mr and Master Robinson = Kendall +
Telegram to the Atlantic liner Montrose that led to the hanging of Dr Crippen for the murder of his wife by poisoning, dismembering and
burying her in the cellar. 22nd July 1910

It seems unlikely that TCP/IP will remain in continuous use for anything like as long as the century and a half managed by Morse code, its distant digital ancestor.
The Economist, Jan 23, 1999

There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.
B. Stroustrup, AT&T, (inventor of C++)

It is my heart-warmed and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage (every man and brother of us all throughout the whole earth), may eventually be  gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the inventor of the telephone.
Mark Twain's Christmas greetings, 1890

It is a time-saving, profanity-breeding, useful invention, and in  America to be found in all homes except parsonages. 
"Letters to Satan", Europe and Elsewhere

Consider that a conversation by telephone--when you are simply sitting 
by and not taking any part in that conversation--is one of the solemnest 
curiosities of this modern life.
- "A Telephonic Conversation," 1880

Great science nobly laboured to increase the people's joys, 
But every new invention seemed to add another noise; 
One was always on the telephone or answering the bell, 
And everyone wondered why the population fell. 

Sir Alan Patrick Herbert [1890 -- 1971] Former House of Commons Member, 
one of two representing Oxford University. (Read as part of a longer poem in the House of Commons, November 1938)

Mr W E Irish of Sunderland has been trying his hand at an invention to automatically record the telephonic sounds as ordinarily transmitted by these instruments. It is doubtful if such a record is of much value.
The Electrician, 30 August 1884

It is my heart-warmed and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage (every man and brother of us all throughout the whole earth), may eventually be 
gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the inventor of the telephone.
Mark Twain's Christmas greetings, 1890

Wonderful to relate, the far-distant friend sees the voluble iron tremble without the touch of any person, and run now hither, now thither: he bends over it, and marks the teaching of the rod.
Famianus Strada, in 'Prolusiones Academicae', 1617.
The system of communication being described was a fraud, but foresaw the possibilities of the telegraph.

Have I done the world good, or have I added a menace?
Guglielmo Marconi

There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone.
B. Stroustrup, AT&T, (inventor of C++)

Si vous réussissez, vous serez bientôt couvert de gloire.
(If you succeed, you will soon bask in glory) First message transmitted by Claude and Rene Chappe, using an optical telegraph, over a distance of 10 miles. 2 March 1791.

Mr W E Irish of Sunderland has been trying his hand at an invention to automatically record the telephonic sounds as ordinarily transmitted by these instruments. It is doubtful if such a record is of much value.
The Electrician, 30 August 1884

A common bond reached through electronic proximity may help stave off future flare-ups of ethnic hatred and national break-ups.
Michael Dertouzos, 1997

There are a whole family of sounds that are inappropriate, particularly in restaurants. The unwilling belch or flatulence are only the tip of the iceberg. Any parent or member of a fraternity knows the variety and imaginativeness with which diners can willingly create 'inappropriate' noises. The ringing of a mobile telephone fits into this family of inappropriate sounds, almost regardless of its volume.
Rich Ling, a sociologist working at Telenor R&D, in Telectronikk (a Telenor publication), Volume 94 No.2 - 1998

We have this day, within two years, completed a line of communication two thousand miles long through the very centre of Australia, until a 
few years ago a terra incognita believed to be a desert.
Charles Todd (later Sir Charles), 1872 - first telegram using the 
Australian Overland Telegraph Line

The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.