Greg Jenner

From 1878, this is a brand new invention, the switchboard.

Why is this important?

They're trusted, which is quite a rare thing in the 19th century for women to be given this level of trust in a commercial operation, actually.

And they get a charming nickname.

Do you know what the nickname is?

You're not far off.

That's slightly inappropriate, probably.

The Hello Girls.

That's from the 1880s.

They're the hello girls because they greet you and then they plug you in to whoever you want to talk to.

And initially you just say, can you just put my friend Jim on?

And they'd be like, sure.

And then obviously after a while there's too many Jims and then they have to start asking you for actual details of the number.

It's more a connection to a number, I suppose, isn't it?

And the spread of the phone is really interesting.

It spreads very quickly in America.

So you get a very quick uptake in the States.

It's really sort of popular in the cities.

By 1882, there's a telephone for every 200 people in Chicago, which is amazing.

In London, it's every 3,000 people.