History of the telephone and its evolution: short summary

Image: meaning of culture and design

One of the great inventions in the history of mankind, without which we would currently be unable to live, is the telephone. The telephone is a telecommunication device that makes it possible to transmit acoustic signals over long distances. His origin has always been surrounded by conflicts, since there are several who have taken credit for his invention. To resolve this conflict, and to explain one of the most important instruments of our day to day life, today in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about the history of the telephone and its evolution.

Antonio Meucci was an Italian inventor expert in the field of electrodynamics. In 1854 Meucci created his greatest creation, the telephony, later called the telephone. An instrument never seen before that allowed to send acoustic signals to a great distance. The main reason for creating this instrument was Meucci's wife, who suffered from rheumatism, and could not move. Meucci created the invention to connect his office, located on the ground floor, with his bedroom, located on the second floor.

But Meucci he did not patent his invention For two reasons. The first was that the Italian inventor did not have much money to pay for the patent, and he was not sure of the benefits that the telephone could give him. The second reason is that Meucci preferred to patent other inventions that he thought were more economically beneficial, spending the phone to the background, some of these inventions were a filter for water purification or a new way of manufacturing candles.

6 years later, in 1860, Meucci presented his invention to the public, calling it a telephone, which was not yet patented. In the demo the Italian inventor transmitted the voice of an Italian singer at a great distance, unfortunately no one gave Meucci a good offer for the invention.

The inventor was afraid that someone would buy the patent for his invention, since he was unable to pay the price to patent it permanently. Meucci looked for a non-definitive way, patenting the invention annually, something that he could afford to pay for. He registered the invention in 1871, and renewed it in both 1872 and 1873.

Image: The Tocororo pen

In 1876, a British inventor named Alexander Graham Bell registered the patent for the telephone. Meucci did not take long to find out, and asked his lawyer to file a complaint with the Patent Office, since the Italian inventor had already patented his invention even if it was on an annual basis. A little later Meucci discovered, thanks to a friend who worked in Washington, that all the documentation referring to the patent of Meucci had been lost, so there was no evidence that the patent on the phone was owned by Meucci before it was registered by Graham Bell.

The following years turned into hell for Meucci, with a large number of lawsuits. Bell's company was very powerful and it was found that he had bribed both the Patent Office and Meucci's own attorney. But Bell's power did not reach the courts and the judge was able to see that the true author of the invention was without a doubt Meucci. All this led the United States Government to accuse Graham Bell of fraud, which thanks to his resources was able to delay the process as much as possible. It all ended with the death of Meucci in 1889, who died without seeing his great talent recognized.

In the popular imagination, Graham Bell has always been the inventor of the telephone, but in recent years the trend is changing, giving that recognition to Meucci. A clear example was that in 2002, in an issue of the Official Gazette of the United States House of Representatives, Meucci was recognized as the true inventor of the telephone.

Image: TopHistorias

To continue with this lesson on the history of the telephone and its evolution we must talk about the different phases the phone has gone through and how it has evolved. Throughout all the years since the creation of the telephone, there have been many advances, many of them to improve the exploitation of telephone networks. Some of these advances are the following:

• The landline, that is, one that is based on the communication of lines between non-portable telephone lines, which are connected thanks to a central system.
• Creating a telephone exchange that allows interconnection. This was the first network, which was carried out manually thanks to the intervention of an operator.
• Telephone exchanges that allow interconnection, but automatically instead of manually.
• Digital centrals automatic switching devices that work by controlling a computer.
• New means that increase the speed of data exchange, such as the ISDN or broadband.
• The creation of mobile phones, which allow the exchange of voice and data completely wirelessly.

Image: Slideshare