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Thomas A. Watson

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Craftsman

The Resume

    (January 18, 1854-December 13, 1934)
    Born in Salem, Massachusetts
    Carpenter and machinist
    Assistant to telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell

Why he might be annoying:

    Despite a long and varied career, he is remembered mainly for being on the receiving end of the first phone call: 'Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.' (March 10, 1876)
    After leaving the Bell Telephone Company (1881), he decided to become a farmer, but gave it up after two years.
    He became a geologist and searched for gold unsuccessfully in Canada and Alaska.
    He predicted that eventually 'man will speak to man by mental telepathy.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    A year after the first telephone conversation, Bell got married and went off on his honeymoon, leaving Watson to work out the technical problems in making the first phones commercially viable.
    He started a machine shop that developed into one of the nation's largest shipyards.
    Although he never found gold as a geologist, he did find a fossil gastropod that was named after him.
    He became an actor, appeared on stage in Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, founded his own acting company, and wrote several plays for them (mostly stage adaptations of Charles Dickens' novels).
    He and Bell recreated their first phone call to celebrate the completion of the first transcontinental phone line, with Bell calling from New York and Watson answering in San Francisco (January 25, 1915).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 8 Votes: 12.50% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 24 Votes: 37.50% Annoying