Talk:Telephone

Prior discussions that are currently archived

The following is a listing of prior discussions for this article that are currently archived (accessible via the Archives 1 link found at the top of this page). Please copy and paste relevant issues as needed from the archives onto this page to avoid endless loops of prior discussions. HarryZilber (talk) 23:47, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

• 1 Russian telephones
• 2 Split page?
• 3 Alexander Graham Bell -centrism
• 4 Chinese telephones
• 5 Antonio Meucci recognized as official inventor of telephone
• 6 Antonio Meucci
• 7 Alexander Graham Bell
• 8 January 2006,
• 9 Thief and Liar
• 10 Terri Pall vs. George H. Sweigert for credit for invention of cordless phone.
• 11 Etymology
• 12 overdue cleanup
• 13 Revert Linkspam???
• 14 Echo
• 15 Photo request
• 16 #Request for clarification
• 17 Redirect
• 18 Handset/headset jack? =
• 19 Is there a calling/communication by telephone article?
• 20 Sharing telephone lines
• 21 contradiction timewarp
• 22 Micky Mouse phones
• 23 Salutation
• 24 sorry
• 25 Edison's telephone patents
• 26 History
• 27 Vandalism?
• 28 Power
• 29 Two "See also" sections
• 30 External Links
• 31 What's a handset?
• 32 2, 3 or 4 elementary elements?
• 33 Chopping out history
• 34 Early commercial instruments
• 35 Civil War
• 36 Courtesy phones
• 37 How a Telephone Works
• 38 Inside the telephone
• 39 Forensically Victorious ?
• 40 Images? too much?
• 41 how o generate phone sounds?
• 42 History
• 43 Trivia section
• 44 *Telephone newspaper
• 45 why is there no mention of granville t. woods ?
• 46 Requested move
• 47 Modern Day phone
• 48 "Basic principle" needs work
• 49 Induction coil
• 50 Uhh
• 51 Pulse dial
• 52 Inside the telephone
• 53 is this article semi-protected?
• 54 Philipp Reiss

(55) Unprotecting the page?

Is there a chance the page could be unprotected? I have a few things I wanted to correct (mostly grammar) such as "or the central office (CO) ) are typically". --Zor (talk) 08:05, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

(56) Meucci was the inventor, not Bell - or was it Reis? or Bourseul? or Gray? Maybe Edison?

The very word "priority" cheats all but one person of credit.-. For great inventions are always the gift of many people, not just one.

Meucci was the inventor, not Bell. This fact has even been recognized by the US Congress [by 81.32.234.155]

Prove it. All of the published evidence were reconstructions in the 1880s by lawyers for use in trials. Show us evidence prior to 1775. Meucci filed a caveat in December of 1871 describing his invention. This caveat is transcribed in the article Antonio Meucci. Nowhere does his caveat mention devices for converting sound to electrical waves and electrical waves to sound. There is no mention of an electromagnet, even though morse telegraphs use electromagnets. There is no mention of coils of wire or permanent magnets or magnetism. Nowhere does he mention a battery or other source of electrical power. There is no mention of a diaphragm. Meucci did not describe an electromagnetic telephone in his caveat. Greensburger (talk) 04:08, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

"This fact has even been recognized by the US Congress [by 81.32.234.155]". Absolutely wrong, as has been pointed out in numerous past discussions (please read them in archived discussion #5 and in several discussions on the Talk:Alexander Graham Bell webpage) —the U.S. Congress did no such thing. Read the exact wording of the congressional resolution, and criticisms of it, in Canadian Parliamentary Motion on Alexander Graham Bell. HarryZilber (talk) 20:56, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Guys please do check this "http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1098.htm" Ask who really invented the telephone, and you may get the name of a German, Philipp Reis, not Alexander Graham Bell. The common wisdom is that Reis's telephone was only marginal, while Bell's phone really worked

Reis was a 26-year-old science teacher when he began work on the telephone in 1860. His essential idea came from a paper by a French investigator named Bourseul. In 1854 In 1854 Bourseul had explained how to transmit speech electrically. He wrote: Speak against one diaphragm and let each vibration "make or break" the electric contact. The electric pulsations thereby produced will set the other diaphragm working, and [it then reproduces] the transmitted sound.

Only one part of Bourseul's idea was shaky. To send sound, the first diaphragm shouldn't make or break contact. It should vary the flow of electricity to the second diaphragm continuously. Reis used Bourseul's term, "make or break," but his diaphragm actually drove a thin rod to varying depths in an electric coil. He didn't make and or break the current. He varied it continuously. Bell faced the same problem when he began work on his telephone a decade later. First, he used a diaphragm-driven needle, entering a water/acid solution, to create a continuously variable resistance and a smoothly varying electrical current. Bell got that idea from another American inventor, Elisha Gray. [by Ss123321ss]

Reis used a rod in an electric coil as a receiver, not a transmitter. Reis' transmitter (microphone) was a diaphragm-driven needle pressing on an electric contact at varying pressures.

When Bell tested Elisha Gray's water transmitter invention using a needle in water/acid solution, Bell was testing Gray's invention not developing a product. Bell never used the water transmitter idea again. Inventors often test each other's inventions. That is quite different than making and selling products containing such inventions. Greensburger (talk) 04:46, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Idiots, bell stole Meuccis patent, therefore he is no more than a common thief. Meucci was the true inventor of the telephone. My reference is the BBC television show Qi season 1 episode 11, time code: 25 min 10 sec - 25 min 47 sec. [by 85.226.5.137]

Meucci never applied for a patent for the telephone and therefore there was no patent for Bell to steal. Meucci's caveat does not describe an electromagnetic telephone and most importantly Meucci abandoned his caveat. He therefore gave up any rights he may have had to any non-electromagnetic telephone invention. If you abandon your TV by putting it out for the garbage collector and John puts it in his truck and takes it to his home, he did not steal the TV - you gave it to him or anybody who happens to drive by. But since Meucci's caveat shows he did not invent the electromagnetic telephone, the issue of stealing something Meucci did not invent is moot. Greensburger (talk) 04:32, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

KISS MY ASS NERDS!

(58) Unicode

I think that the unicode numbers for the symbols ℡(U+2121)☎(U+260E)☏(U+260F)✆(U+2706) should be included. I can't add them due to the lock, could someone add them for me? The Sanest Mad Hatter (talk) 23:18, 3 August 2009 (UTC) The Sanest Mad Hatter (talk) 22:40, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

[ed note: user:the sanest mad hatter inserted the the unicodes adjacent to the telephone symbols in the last line of the lede on 14 August 2009, and also struck out his discussion point above, to signify it is no longer an active item. The strikeout tags have been removed for legibility in order to continue the discussion, below.-HarryZilber (talk) 20:56, 15 August 2009 (UTC) ]

While the telephone symbols themselves are significant and should remain in the article, they're not notable enough to be part of the lede, i.m.h.o. I propose to start a new subsection such as International identification symbols and move them there. Comments? -HarryZilber (talk) 20:56, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't know if the current list of 4 symbols is enough for it's own section.The Sanest Mad Hatter (talk) 15:15, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Agreed -four symbols and their codes are way too little! I should have suggested a section with broader scope, such as 'International identification and markings....' etc.... Perhaps it can be combined with telephone company logos, which would be tricky due to the copyright issues involved. -HarryZilber (talk) 16:49, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

IP Telephones

I'm a VoIP technician and IP telephones have more than just two main disadvantages. Other major disadvantages that I encounter regularly are 1) drop outs due to loss of Internet connectivity, 2) lower reliability due to greater complexity, 3) loss of connectivity even when the Internet connection is active due to a residential grade router not performing NAT properly, or otherwise blocking ports/not maintaining the VoIP connection even when the firewall is bypassed, 4) packet loss or packet delays (which causes discarded packets), which causes dropped or distorted audio (depending on the codec). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.27.67.199 (talk) 12:08, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

I would point out that I am also a VOIP engineer, and have work as a telco technician as well. All of the limitations of VOIP service listed in this article apply equally to traditional service as well (note the suspicious mention of emergency service being powered by the phone companies "Battery" immediately after mentioning that VOIP systems fail without battery backup). I would also note that all of the problems listed for VOIP systems by the poster above are also experienced by telco customers. Using bad/worn cable and cheap phones on telco will cause service outages, call quality/reliability problems, and a host of other issues. The quality of service depends on the quality of the technical staff behind the service regardless of the technology. This article, unfortunately, borders on biased. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.10.34.137 (talk) 05:10, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

What is a telephone number to a telephone?

"Each telephone in the world has a unique identifying number called its telephone number." Someone tried to oversimplify telephone number addressing and produced an incorrect statement. While I do not know how several other countries handle it, US residential customers have some service endpoint (customer interconnect endpoint? customer network interface?) Obviously numbers are not paired with particular phone units as we can have multiple phone users over the same 2-way call... And this is not to take into consideration premises with multiple phone numbers at their network interface, multiple-pair lines (ex: T1). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.235.91.131 (talk) 09:27, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Ringing Current

Editor DAGwyn changed "90 volts AC to "pulses with about 90 volts amplitude", with the comment: "Current is not measured in volts! Also improved description of ringing pulses; "AC" was misleading."

This is not an amperes versus volts issue. It is common usage to refer to voltage of alternating current (abreviated VAC) as in "110 VAC" or "220 VAC". "Pulses" suggests asymmetric square waves which is misleading. Capacitors in the central exchange building and in the phones would shift any asymmetric pulses to alternate above and below zero just like ordinary symmetrical AC. Greensburger (talk) 18:13, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from Renatoarmandola, 30 May 2010

{{editsemiprotected}}

In the Telephone page, I think it would be appropriate to add, after the first paragraph of the History chapter, "Having said this, it is fair to add that in 2002 the U. S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing Meucci's accomplishment and which stated that "if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell." as stated in the Meucci Wikipedia page.

Sources: ^ House Resolution 269, dated 11 June 2002, written and sponsored by Rep. Vito Fossella. ^ Antonio Meucci and the invention of the telephone, Mary Bellis

Renatoarmandola (talk) 10:15, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

 Not done: Meucci is already mentioned in the article. Including speculative claims by politicians of what might have happened seems like undue weight for this figure. Celestra (talk) 15:05, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Further rejection response: Sorry, but also a further 'no' to Renatoarmando. For more information on the flawed House Of Representatives resolution, please refer to the Canadian Parliamentary Motion on Alexander Graham Bell article, which provides a number of details on the several errors in the document. The above request to revise the historical record of the telephone's development mirrors several previous failed attempts at discrediting or smearing Alexander Graham Bell, and elevating Meucci in priority to the invention of the electrical, not acoustical, telephone. Meucci's documented contributions to electrical telephony are all post-1874, which is exactly why he lost his legal challenge to Bell's patent. The suggester can also review the numerous discussions of priority on the Alexander Graham Bell talk page, as well as earlier discussions on this talk page as well. HarryZilber (talk) 23:52, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Gender Neutral Pronouns

What is the preffered method for gender neutral pronouns? "his/her" just seems awkward. Would it be better to use "his or her", or to reword the sentence. (referring to SJH541's edit on 20:20, 25 July 2010).

The sentence in question is: "In order to initiate a telephone call, a conversation with another telephone, the user enters the other telephone's number into a numeric keypad on his/her phone."

Would "In order to initiate a telephone call, a conversation with another telephone, the user uses the telephone's numeric keypad to enter another's telephone number." be better The Sanest Mad Hatter (talk) 20:52, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Pending changes

This article is one of a small number (about 100) selected for the first week of the trial of the Wikipedia:Pending Changes system on the English language Wikipedia. All the articles listed at Wikipedia:Pending changes/Queue are being considered for level 1 pending changes protection.

The following request appears on that page:

However with only a few hours to go, comments have only been made on two of the pages.

Please update the Queue page as appropriate.

Note that I am not involved in this project any more than any other editor, just posting these notes since it is quite a big change, potentially.

Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 20:34, 15 June 2010 (UTC).