999 was the world's first number for automatically telephoning the emergency services. It was introduced in London in 1936 following a disaster in 1935 in which five women died in a fire in Wimpole Street while a neighbour was unable to contact the telephoneexchange which was jammed with calls. The General Post Office which ran the telephone network at the time suggested that an easy to remember three digit number, which could be easily located in the dark or in smoke, be introduced which would cause a light to flash at the exchange alerting the operators to the urgency of the call. The number 111 was rejected as it could be accidentally dialled by knocking the receiver - telephones at the time were pulse dialled - 000 could not be used as the first 0 would make it impossible to prioritise and so 999 was adopted. One year after 999 calls were introduced in London they were introduced into Glasgow. Research 999
The British Telecommunications Corporation was formed in 1981 as a public corporation to control the UKtelephone and telecommunications system, which had previously been the responsibility of the Post Office. In 1984 this corporation became British Telecommunications plc, when 51% of the shares were sold to the public.
British Telecom is now licensed to run telecommunications throughout the UK. Research British Telecom
The courier con is a confidence trick which has been successfully played out many times in the United Kingdom. The con takes the form of the con artist establishing a premium-rate telephone line which costs a lot to telephone, with most of the proceeds going to the con artist. The con artist then dons suitable motorcycle or other courier clothing, including a dummy personal-mobile-radio, and calls at an office building purporting to be there to collect a package. Since a courier has not been called for the supposed package to go to the declared destination, the receptionist will inform the 'courier' of the apparent mistake. The 'courier' then asks if they can telephone their office to get instructions, or report the error, or similar. The con artist may even make a pretence of trying to use the dummy radio, claiming the battery is flat or it doesn't work in buildings. Most often the receptionist will allow the 'courier' to make a telephone call, which is of course made not to an office but to the premium-rate telephone line, at the expense of the unsuspecting company occupying the office. The longer the con artist can remain on the telephone, carrying on an imaginary conversation, the more revenue can be generated, before they politely leave with suitable apologies. Research Courier Con
Dr Who is a British BBC science-fiction television series for children, created in part by Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert, and originally starring William Hartnell, in stories about a renegade alien able to travel through space and time, known as a 'Time Lord', battling evil through space and time, equipped with a time machine which looked like a 1960's policetelephone box - the TARDIS - and later a 'sonic screwdriver'. Dr Who ran from 1963 to 1989, before being returned in 2005 following public demand. Dr Who is remarkable for many things, not least making eerily accurate predictions about future life; in the first story, shown in 1963, the British adoption of the decimal money system was correctly predicted and in a later story a British female Prime Minister was predicted. Research Dr Who
Hard selling is aggressive advertising or salesmanship. In sales, a typical hard sell technique, as utilised by among other companies Kirbyvacuum cleaners, Zenith windows and doors, and Craftmatic adjustable beds, is to exhaust a potential customer into agreeing to buy. A standard soft sale might involve simply asking the potential customer if they should like to purchase a product. In a hard sell, often a potential customer will be presented with an arduous demonstration and talk, perhaps lasting for as much as three hours at the end of which the customer is so exhausted by the experience they can no longer rationalise and will sign almost anything to end their ordeal. During a hard sell presentation, if the potential customer tries to terminate the presentation is usual for the salesman to employ guilt as a weapon, asking the customer if he or she might telephone his boss to explain why he has failed to make the sale, often then passing the telephone to the potential to receive more sales pitch from the 'manager'. Hard sells are employed in the second-hand car industry to sell worthless warranties and expensive credit agreements. Customers are deliberately kept waiting for hours while 'the paperwork is arranged' and then hurriedly asked to sign various agreements, the exhausted customer by then is too tired and fed up to carefully check what they are signing. Research Hard Sell
The New Age Posse (NAP) were a phreaking gang operating in Britain during the mid-1990's. The three main members of the gang were 'Rage', 'Raven' and 'Incinerator'. In 1994 the NAP accessed the 'Apple Computers Info Line' (the AppleComputer company's call handling system) and reprogrammed many of the exchange numbers allowing people in the know to dial a British free-call telephone number after six in the evening and by entering one of several three-digit codes, have their call connected to various computer virus, hacking, pirate software bulletin boards or chat-lines around the world, with the cost of the call being billed to the Apple Info Line, and not the person making the call. Research New Age Posse
Viral marketing is a form of marketing, or advertising, that became popular in the late 1990's with the spread of the Internet. Viral marketing involves producing a piece of advertising that is so designed that it will be copied and passed from person to person. For example, a mobile telephone ring tone, a computer screensaver or a cartoon or movie. Research Viral Marketing
The Vesper sparrow or bay-winged bunting (Pooecetes gramineus) is a bird of the family Fringillidae. They have a conical bill; Long, dark tail with white outer feathers; White eye ring; Rusty lesser coverts (which are not always visible); The upper parts are brown with dark streaks; The under parts white with dark streaks. The vesper sparrow is found in open fields where it forages on the ground. The male bird can often be heard as he sings from a high perch (such as a tree or telephone wire). Research Vesper Sparrow
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish inventor. He was born in Edinburgh in 1847 and died in 1922. He was educated at Edinburgh and in Germany, and settled in Canada in 1870. In 1872 he went to the United States and introduced for the education of deaf-mutes the system of visible speech contrived by his father Alexander Melville Bell. He became professor of vocal physiology in Boston University, and exhibited his telephone, designed and partly constructed some years before, at the Philadelphia exhibition in 1876. Research Alexander Graham Bell
Hazard perception is the learned, concious ability of a person to detect potential hazards. It is particularly important for drivers of motor cars. Researchers at Reading University in the late 1990s discovered that novice drivers were more likely to have an accident because of an ignorance of hazards, rather than a low hazard perecption ability. Contrarily, experienced drivers while making use of mobile phones (with a hands free set) were found to have their hazard perception ability greatly reduced to the extent that they were more likely to have an accident than a novice driver. This reduction in hazard perception ability occurring because hazard perception requires a great deal of mental resources, which talking on the telephone (or other distractions) take mental resources away from. Research Hazard Perception
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research 999
