The current Education Minister, Mike Russell, will be writing to the Oxford English Dictionary’s publisher to demand a reprint after it wrongly described Alexander Graham Bell as an American.
Bell, the Scottish scientist who invented the telephone, studied at Edinburgh University and patented the telephone in 1876. Although he later moved to America and gained citizenship in 1882, at the time of his invention he was staunchly Scottish, having been born and educated in the country.
The error appears under the entry for ‘decibel’; the latter part of the word coming from the inventor’s surname.
A spokesperson for Oxford University Press, the dictionary’s publisher, said the company would consider Russell’s request for an amendment.
