This image was part of a commission to illustrate the history of satellite technology.

The story: 

“Mr Watson, come here!” were the first words to be relayed down the telephone in 1876. Its inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, had spilled battery acid on his trousers and needed his assistant, Thomas Watson, to help him. The pair were in separate rooms – in order to test the telephone device – and Watson heard Bell’s panic through the receiver.

Jubilant at the breakthrough, Watson ran into the next room, told Bell of the news about the successful phone signal and Bell forgot all about his trousers.

Bell filed his telephone patent in March 1876, though the new invention was not without its critics, some claiming that the telephone would ‘never take off’. Bell co-founded the Bell Telephone company, which would later become AT&T, and by 1886 more than 150,000 Americans owned a telephone.

The development of the telephone was also key to satellites, which acted as ‘mirrors’ in space, off which communications signals can bounce. The legacy of the invention that would ‘never take off’ would eventually quite literally, took off into space. In 1957 the Soviet Union came up with the answer: the world’s first satellite, Sputnik.

Rachael Clegg's Limited Edition Art Prints have something of a cult following with collectors across the globe. Limited to edition runs of just 30, each print is signed and numbered by Rachael Clegg and comes with a certificate of authenticity and accompanying story text.

Images are printed on matt Photo Rag 308 gram/m² paper. Each print is carefully hand-rolled in craft paper and shipped in a rigid postal tube. Prices include worldwide shipping. Prints are available in three sizes:

Medium 50x40cm (approximate paper size) 
Large 81x64cm (approximate paper size) 
Extra Large 101x81cm (approximate paper size)