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History

Before the development of the electric telephone, the term "telephone" was applied to other inventions, and not all early researchers of the electrical device called it "telephone". Perhaps the earliest use of the word for a communications system was the telephon','created by Gottfried Huth in 1796. Huth proposed an alternative to the optical telegraph of Claude Chappe in which the operators in the signalling towers would shout to each other by means of what he called "speaking tubes", but would now be called giant megaphones.[4] A communication device for sailing vessels called a "telephone" was invented by the captain John Taylor in 1844. This instrument used four air horns to communicate with vessels in foggy weather.[5][6]

The term telephone was adopted into the vocabulary of many languages. It is derived from the Greek: τῆλε, tēle, "far" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice", together meaning "distant voice". Johann Philipp Reis used the term in reference to his invention, commonly known as the Reis telephone, in c. 1860. His device appears to be the first device based on conversion of sound into electrical impulses.

Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed. As with other influential inventions such as radio, television, the light bulb, and the computer, several inventors pioneered experimental work on voice transmission over a wire and improved on each other's ideas. New controversies over the issue still arise from time to time. Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell, and Elisha Gray, amongst others, have all been credited with the invention of the telephone.[7][2]

Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent

Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in March 1876.[8] Before Bell's patent, the telephone transmitted sound in a way that was similar to the telegraph. This method used vibrations and circuits to send electrical pulses, but was missing key features. Bell found that this method produced a sound through intermittent currents, but in order for the telephone to work a fluctuating current reproduced sounds the best. The fluctuating currents became the basis for the working telephone, creating Bell's patent. That first patent by Bell was the master patent of the telephone, from which other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed.[9] The Bell patents were forensically victorious and commercially decisive.

In 1876, shortly after Bell's patent application, Hungarian engineer Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switch, which allowed for the formation of telephone exchanges, and eventually networks.[10]

In the United Kingdom the blower is used as a slang term for a telephone. The term came from navy slang for a speaking tube.[11]

Before the development of the electric telephone, the term "telephone" was applied to other inventions, and not all early researchers of the electrical device called it "telephone". Perhaps the earliest use of the word for a communications system was the telephon of Gottfried Huth in 1796. Huth proposed an alternative to the optical telegraph of Claude Chappe in which the operators in the signalling towers would shout to each other by means of what he called "speaking tubes", but would now be called giant megaphones.[4] A communication device for sailing vessels called a "telephone" was invented by the captain John Taylor in 1844. This instrument used four air horns to communicate with vessels in foggy weather.[5][6]

Johann Philipp Reis used the term in reference to his invention, commonly known as the Reis telephone, in c. 1860. His device appears to be the first device based on conversion of sound into electrical impulses. The term telephone was adopted into the vocabulary of many languages. It is derived from the Greek: τῆλε, tēle, "far" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice", together meaning "distant voice".

Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed. As with other influential inventions such as radio, television, the light bulb, and the computer, several inventors pioneered experimental work on voice transmission over a wire and improved on each other's ideas. New controversies over the issue still arise from time to time. Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell, and Elisha Gray, amongst others, have all been credited with the invention of the telephone.[7][2]

Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in March 1876.[8] The Bell patents were forensically victorious and commercially decisive. That first patent by Bell was the master patent of the telephone, from which other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed.[9]

In 1876, shortly after Bell's patent application, Hungarian engineer Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switch, which allowed for the formation of telephone exchanges, and eventually networks.[10]

In the United Kingdom the blower is used as a slang term for a telephone. The term came from navy slang for a speaking tube.[11]

Cultural Impact

When the telephone was invented in the nineteenth century it became the first device to make its way into homes. Telephones in the house unsettled people because they came between the division of home-life and the community. The telephone threatened the separation between privacy and public knowledge and was not received well by citizens at first. People worried that their protected information would become exposed. It was thought that personal secrets would not be able to be kept if the telephone made its way into homes. Information would be spread too easily. In 1876 there were 3,000 telephones and by 1900 there were 1.3 million telephones.