User_4574's lair

It is one of the commonest as well as one of the most amusing human idiosyncrasies to imagine that the louder one shouts into the transmitter of a telephone the more perfectly and comfortably does the sound reach the person at the other end. Great numbers of people who in the ordinary affairs of life are tranquil and soft-toned, will habitually yell into a telephone receiver as if they were rooting for the home team. These are, perhaps the same people who think that he who has not the remotest knowledge of English can grasp it without difficulty if only it is shouted at him loudly enough. The theory that prompts vociferousness in the one case is as false as that which prompts it in the other.

If a person does not understand English, no amount of shouting will make him understand it. If he understands a little English, he can best make out what another is saying to him when the other is calm. If he understands English very well, he will appreciate whatever is said to him all the more if it is not said in the key at which one usually hails a boat 300 yards off shore on a windy day.

It is the same way with a telephone. If it is entirely out of order there is no more sense in yelling into the transmitter than there would be in hallooing at the moon. If it is not working well, this can be best overcome by patience strongly reinforced with clear enunciation. If it is working properly, the person at the other end can hear most distinctly when the tone employed is that used in ordinary conversation among decent people. ― Christian Science Monitor

Bell Telephone News, Volume 2, Number 7, Page 18