# Octowhat? #

Ralph Carlsen, a retired employee at Bell Labs has finally revealed the true name of the # symbol and how it came into existance together with data communication more than 40 years ago. Here’s a short teaser:

[...] “DON MACPHERSON went to the Mayo Clinic just before cut-over to train the doctors and staff on how to use the new features on this state of the art switching system. During one of his lectures he felt the need to come up with a word to describe the # symbol. Don also liked to add humour to his work. His thought process which took place while at the Mayo Clinic doing lectures was as follows: There are eight points on the symbol so ‘OCTO’ should be part of the name.” [...]

Get the full story at sigtel.com.