The History of the Telephone - From Telegraphs to Western Electric

The story of the phone begins in earnest with the invention of the telegraph. This invention signified the dawn of the age of communicating over long distances using electrical wires. Early versions of the telegraph were being invented and experimented on all over the world throughout the late 20s and early 30s.
The first commercial electrical telegraph was patented in 1837 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, and was intended for use solely as warning system. It was successfully demonstrated on 25th July 1837 between Euston Station and Camden town in London England, and was first used commercially by the Great Western Railway over the 13 miles stretch between Paddington Station and West Drayton in 1839.
In the United States a similar story was simultaneously occurring, with the telegraph being independently developed by Samuel Morse (whence Morse Code) and Alfred Vail. By 1844 they had erected an experimental telegraph line extending from Washington DC to Baltimore, and Morse was able to transmit his famous first code: 'What hath God wrought'. By 1861 the telegraph had taken hold to the extent that the Californian network was finally connected to the wider network, and thus the first transcontinental telegraph system was established.
The dawn of modern telecommunications
Towards the end of the 19th Century various inventors around the world were investigating ways improve the existing telegraph network. Now that the infrastructure of all the wires was established, the race was on to find a way of sending multiple messages simultaneously via a single wire. The intention was to do this by using audio frequencies at different modulations simultaneously.
Some of the inventors who were involved are Alexander Graham Bell,Elisha Gray, Thomas Edison, Johann Philipp Reis, Antonio Meucci and. It is important to mention them all, as there was (and remains) immense controversy over who first invented the electric telephone, and thus who should be granted the legal patent to the invention.
The earliest history of the telephone is littered with an unedifying morass of lawsuits, claims and counterclaims, contested patents, and objections. Ultimately the patents (and the credit) were awarded to Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, who used them to great commercial advantage.
Experimentation and the early networks
The earliest telephones were, from a technical point of view, extremely diverse, as there was still a huge element of experimentation going on to determine the optimal technologies. Early phones derived their power from a local battery instead of from the grid. This continued until the 20th Century, when the power began to be delivered over the wires from the telephone exchange.
Many of the earliest phones also only have one wire for both the transmission and reciept of calls. Therefore people were required to alternate between speaking and listening via the same aperture - and to take turns when speaking to one another to avoid drowning each other out.
Initially, the pre-existing telegraph network was not exploited, and people desiring a telephone connection would need to buy two or more telephones, one for each intended, and then arrange for lines to be fixed between them, without the possibility of calling others' lines.
Manual exchanges and consumer phones
The manual switchboard exchange survived long into the twentieth century, as the proliferation of telephone systems rapidly expanded. By 1904 the United States boasted over 3 million telephones, the number increasing speedily despite the fact that competing telephone networks in the US did not connect with each other.
In 1927 the Bell Model 102 was released. This style of telephone proved to have the greatest lifespan of any type - in some cases lasting for decades despite further developments. By the 1930s this design was improved to include the ringer and better electronics. Ultimately the technology of the phone remained essentially the same until the advent of touch-tone dialling in the 1960s began to supplant the rotary dial.
Style and diversification
The late 20th Century saw the dissolution of the major telecommunications monopolies by national governments, and the opening of the industry to an army of smaller private companies. This had a massive impact on the design and style of the phone, creating a huge diversification in their shape and appearance. It's around here that we retire from the picture, preferring the clear elegance and simplicity of the earlier phones, to the technological advancements of later developments.

Article Source: http://www.gamblingarticlessite.net

Discover the best antique rotary phones from Western Electric and GPO and top tips on Collecting retro phones at our website - the best resource on the web for fans of vintage phones and retro styling.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated