The first telephone exchange

 

You can have my phone but not my cat

At university one of the lectures in final year engineering was on telecommunications, which was not formally covered by a course. It was presented by an engineer from Telecom Malaysia, the national phone company. He explained that the first automatic telephone exchange switch was invented by Strowger, an undertaker, allegedly because he suspected that the town switchboard operator was diverting calls to her husband, his business rival.

One of my classmates was very susceptible to jokes. If you told him a joke, he would start laughing and keep laughing for a minute or two. After that even a reminder of the joke would set him off again.

Anyway when I heard the phrase first telephone exchange, my mischievous mind caused me to say to him: First telephone exchange; you give me your phone, I'll give you mine. That set him off.

We got told off by the lecturer for the disruption.