Illustration: Rivalry

After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
 
Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed English scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters. Shortly thereafter, headlines in the English newspapers read: "English archaeologists have found traces of 200-year-old copper wire and have concluded their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the Scots."

One week later, The Kerrymen, a southwest Irish newsletter, reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 meters in peat bog near Tralee, Paddy O'Droll, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Paddy has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Ireland had already gone wireless."