Thanks a lot, Marc! I will follow these links.
The reason for my question is journalistic: Someone from France-Culture wants an interview with me over this fundamental question…
I thought that Loki, the Nordic gods' messager-trickster, would have made also a relevant saint-patron for a communication device, but Nils Rydbeck choose Bluetooth, so be it.
Best,
Pierre
De: "Marc Weber" <marc@webhistory.org>
À: "Pierre Mounier-Kuhn" <mounier@msh-paris.fr>
Cc: "members" <members@sigcis.org>
Envoyé: Jeudi 22 Avril 2021 18:55:07
Objet: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Meaning of "Bluetooth"?
Dear Pierre,
Greetings! Yes. When I interviewed one of the main creators Nils Rydbeck of Ericsson for the mobile gallery in our Revolution exhibition (scroll down on
this page for Bluetooth headset entry), he said they chose it because Harold Bluetooth united warring tribes, and Bluetooth the standard was meant to unite a little galaxy of peripherals, at the time mostly headsets to go with phones. Of course they also thought the name was fun.
Here’s an
interview clip with Nils on an early touchscreen phone, he worked with Jan Uddenfeldt at Ericsson who was a major GSM pioneer, there’s also a bit of GSM history in our
texting gallery. I can try to dig up the full interview with Nils if you like, I also did an oral history with Jan.
Best,
Marc
Curatorial Director, Internet History Program
Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
Dear Friends & Colleagues,
An anecdotical query : does someone know why the inventors of Bluetooth choose this name? I know about the Viking chief Harald Blåtand, but why had the two developers from Intel and Ericsson in mind when they chose that name and the two runic initials?
Thanks if someone can give me some clues about this mystery!Best,
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn
CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne