An 1878 brochure from the New England Telephone company, “How to Make a Telephone Call,” explains, with illustrations, the use of its new instrument. One of the drawings “represents a person calling attention by pressing the knob at the end of Bell Box, and turning the crank, causing the Bell at the other station to ring. When the person at the other end hears the call, he will call back; then both will turn the switches to button marked T.” As the instructions continue, “The Telephone can then be used.” Of course, these early adopters began using” the telephone the minute they pressed that knob and turned that crank. But the writer of this pamphlet understood that he was selling a revolutionary new experience, not the intricacies of a complicated machine. He needed to bracket off the preliminary manipulation of buttons and cranks as something different from this new and seemingly magical phenomenon of talking to another human over a great distance…