The Invention of the

Telephone
• ‘In 1861 Johann Phillip Reis completed
the first non-working telephone.
Tantalizingly close to reproducing
speech, Reis's instrument conveyed
certain sounds, poorly, but no more
than that’. (Farley, 2006)
•Essentially Reis’ telephone worked on the
same principle as the telegraph by making a
series of ‘on and off’ connections. This is fine
for transmitting a single sound, as employed
in Morse code which is either a short pulse (a
dot) or a long pulse (a dash). However;
‘Turning the current off and on like a
telegraph cannot begin to duplicate speech
since speech, once flowing, is a fluctuating
wave of continuous character; it is not a
collection of off and on again pulses’ (Farley, 2006)
• ‘Reproducing speech practically relies
on the transmitter making continuous
contact with the electrical circuit. A
transmitter varies the electrical current
depending on how much acoustic
pressure it gets.’ (Farley, 2006)
• In the early 1870s there was still no working telephone.
Most inventors were working on improving the telegraph
for which there was already a growing market.
• Elisha Grey and Alexander Graham Bell were two
inventors who were trying to increase the number of
telegraphs it was possible to send along a telegraph line,
a patent for such an invention could earn the inventor
millions

• Elisha Grey was a successful inventor and master

electrician who viewed the telephone an interesting goal.
• Bell had trained to become a professor of vocal
physiology and taught the deaf, his entire upbringing had
revolved around speech, sound and their mechanics.
• The race was on to produce a
multiplexing telegraph device.
Alexander Graham Bell put forward
the idea of the harmonic telegraph
which would use tones of different
pitches to send independent
telegraphs. After receiving funding
from several people he began his
experiments in 1874
• In early 1875, Bell, with the help of a young
machinist named Thomas Watson increased the
pace of his experiments on the harmonic
telegraph for his investors. He also worked hard
on the telephone which had become his real
focus.
• He visited Joseph Henry, a great inventor and
scientist in Washington D.C., Henry was the
pioneer of electromagnetism and helped Samuel
Morse develop the telegraph

• Henry said that Bell’s ideas of transmitting

speech electronically held "the germ of a great
invention.“ and advised him to drop all other
work in order to concentrate on the telephone
• Whilst working in earnest to invent a working
telephone, Bell told Watson "If I can get a
mechanism which will make a current of
electricity vary in its intensity as the air varies in
density when a sound is passing through it, I can
telegraph any sound, even the sound of speech."
(Fagan, 1975)

• Although he made no immediate breakthrough in

his inventions, Bell had finally cracked the secret
to transmitting speech; variable current as
opposed to on/off transmission
• On June 2nd 1875 whilst testing a harmonic
telegraph which refused to work it transmitted
the sound of Watson plucking a tuned spring.
Ordinarily the harmonic telegraph transmitted
on and off, however on this fateful day a screw
was done up too tight keeping a constant,
varying current
• Recognising the happy accident that had
occurred, Bell had Watson build a telephone
based on what he had found. It was named the
‘Gallows Telephone’ but unfortunately it didn’t
work. Disheartened and running out of funds,
Bell did few experiments for the remainder of
1875.
 The Patent War
• In February 1876 Bell’s patent for
the telephone was received and
approved only hours before Elisha
Gray filed a Notice of Invention
thus undermining it. This one
patent has arguably become the
most litigated patent with some
600 cases brought against it. (Farley,
2006)
• “Finally, on March 10, 1876, one week
after his patent was allowed, in Boston,
Massachusetts, at his lab at 5 Exeter
Place, Bell succeeded in transmitting
speech. He was not yet 30. Bell used a
liquid transmitter, something he hadn't
outlined in his patent or even tried
before, but something that was
described in Gray's Notice.” (Farley, 2006)
The first working telephone using the liquid
transmitter was not largely practical as
the user had to bellow into the
transmitter to get it to do anything.
However, with a working prototype Bell
was able to develop and improve on his
design using better materials and
techniques.
The telephone slowly evolved from the
liquid transmitter to the electromagnetic
transmitter, but there was little to turn it
from a curiosity item to a necessity as
the technology was initially crude and
the transmission quality was poor.
• Itimproved
was not until Thomas Edison invented an
transmitter that the telephone
became practical. Bell and his trustees
formed the first Bell Telephone company and
began leasing telephones as Western Union,
the largest telegraph company also
incorporated the telephone.

• With Western Union’s use of the telephone,

exchanges were built and the telephone as
we know it today took its first tentative steps
from a curiosity item to a viable, useful
invention in long distance communication
 The rise of the
modern telephone
• The Rotary Telephone first came
into use in 1916 despite its
invention in 1904.

• Rotary telephones were worked

manually by dialling a number
they replaced the old operator
system, whereby an operator
would have to connect you to
whoever you wished to speak
with.
(R.S Kimball 1946)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIDw75mUl6c&

Rotary Telephone
 The Red Telephone Box
• The K2 design originated in a Post Office
competition in 1924 requiring designers to
come up with plans for a new standard
kiosk to succeed the various designs
proliferating across the country.
• Previously kiosk design had been
determined by the individual telephone
companies.
• The winning design, which arrived on the
streets of Britain in 1926, was a design by
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect
responsible for Liverpool's Anglican
Cathedral.
(
http://heritage.elettra.co.uk/phonebox/k2.html 24/2/2011
)

Contemporary context
• They are now a British icon.
• Although not many people use these icons today it bought using the
telephone on the go in to the forefront of the mind.

• This need for communication on the go must have been inspiration for
phone developers around the world.
• After the II world war
phones became a
design feature of the
home.

Telephone
• The design industry

Design
boomed after the war,
this period was known
as ‘mid century modern’
it included architecture,
interior and product
design.
• Looks and colour
played a part in the
design of phones:
 The swap from switch board
jobs....

... To customer services

and sales.
 The Internet!
• ‘The internet is a global network of computers linked together by the
telephone system’ (Parson J, 2004)
A very brief timeline.
• 1960 The US military links up all its large computers, forming a network
known as ARPANET
• Late 1970s - Users can now interact with computer data by clicking on icons
and windows on the screen with a screen and a mouse.
• 1980 - ARPANET becomes the internet, as US military withdraw from the
network and it is used increasingly by universities and colleges.
• 1981 - The first IBM personal computers using MS-DOS became available.
•1990 - Use of the Internet and email become widespread.
• 2001 - A web server the size of a match head is produced.
(Parson J, 2004)
• 2001 - Broadband internet becomes widely available.
• 2010 - Fibre optic broadband becomes available.
The effects of the internet
• Increase in email, and therefore improved communication across large
distances.
• Improvements in business links.
• Improvements in education possibilities.
• E-commerce.
1G - 1st generation wireless

Wireless Phone Technology

technology.
• The first cellular mobile Motorola DynaT
phones released used 1G 8000X
technology. 1G technology
uses analog radio signal.

2G - 2nd generation wireless

technology.
• 2G was the first digital
wireless service, all
conversations were digitally
encrypted. 2G also saw the
introduction of text
messaging and was first
introduced in finland in 1991

Nokia 3310
3G - 3rd generation wireless
technology.
• Saw the increase in possible data
transfer
• This also allowed for mobile
broadband for the use in laptops.
• First released in Japan in 2001 but
with limited area. It became more
widespread in 2002

4G - 4th generation wireless

technology.
• Technically in two forms, of Samsung
Phone F480 Tocco 3G
‘advanced’ 3G which allows for further
increase in data transfer and a wider
range.

Iphone 4
 The Smartphone Generation

‘Mobile is the future’ (Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor at Mobile World Congress)
The phone is no longer just a device - "it's your alter ego - it's fundamental to everything
you do."
‘Google is now a "mobile first" business, with programmers and developers building mobile
versions of applications and software before they built the desktop versions.’
(Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and chief executive, 2010)
 Social networking
We all know what it is right?...
... Just incase..

‘Any website designed to allow multiple users to publish content themselves. The
information may be on any subject and may be for consumption by (potential) friends,
mates, employers, employees, etc. The sites typically allow users to create a "profile"
describing themselves and to exchange public or private messages and list other users or
groups they are connected to in some way.’ (The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, Denis Howe 2010
http://foldoc.org)

A regional head of security has been removed from his post following clashes with
protesters in the Libyan town of al-Bayda on Wednesday which left several people dead,
local media say.
The move came as anti-government activists called for a "day of anger" via social
networking sites.
• http://www.myinsulators.com/commokid/telephones/1950s

• Parson, Jane, Illustrated Family Encyclopaedia, 2004,

Dorling Kindersley Ltd 2004

• R.S Kimball, Popular Science Monthly, August 1946

• Ericsson, Samsung Make LTE Connection OCTOBER

23, 2009 | Ray Le Maistre
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=18352
Accessed (27/02/2011)
 Illustrations

http://www.myinsulators.com/commokid/telephones/1950s_
phone_ads_cont.htm
 Bibliography
Ericsson, Samsung Make LTE Connection OCTOBER 23, 2009 |
Ray Le Maistre http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?
doc_id=183528& Accessed (27/02/2011)
Fagen, M.D., ed. A History of Engineering and Science in the
Bell System. Volume 1 The Early Years, 1875 -1925. New
York: Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1975

R.S Kimball, Popular Science Monthly, August 1946

Parson, Jane, Illustrated Family Encyclopaedia, 2004, Dorling

Kindersley Ltd 2004