On 26 Muscovites could have exclaimed like Korney Chukovsky, “My phone rang!” The first Moscow telephone exchange was built by the International Telephone Society, or the women’s society, and also had a name “Bella,” which was anything but a coincidence. After all, six years earlier, Alexander Bell obtained a patent for a device capable of sending voice over a distance. This very day, 13 July, telephone exchanges were opened in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, Riga and Odesa. The first telephone exchanges hired girls with the strong but pleasant voice, tall and long-armed girls who could have no problem handling with controls. They were also forbidden to marry so that nothing distracted them from their work.