The Telephone: A New Brunswick Invention

While credit must go to Alexander Graham Bell for inventing the telephone in the 1870s, he was not the first to send and receive messages over the wires. William McLeod, an inventor of note who lived in upper Sussex at Penobsquis, had made and used a telephone before 1861. It connected his house and shop and was in use many years. McLeod also generated electricity, made his own camera for daguerreotypes; a clock which recorded the months, days, hours, minutes and seconds; and a large compass for woodsmen. In 1891 the New Brunswick Telephone Company installed the first switchboard in Fairweather’s drug store and later in Coggon’s shoe store. The direct dial service came in 1966. The artist: Barbara is an internationally recognized artist with experience in Public Art in California, Washington and Canada. Originally from the UK she now makes her home in Seattle, WA, and has been inspired by the city to create many paintings. Her aim is to reveal what can be so easily missed in scenes we pass through every day. In highlighting the ordinary world, she hopes to encourage a new perspective. To show the commonplace as worthy of a second look, refreshing and distilling our vision of the urban landscape. http://www.wilsonmurals.com/