History of telephone(section1)

The ability to communicate over distance has long been part of human history. Ancient people used different methods of communication. The most primitive techniques involved beating drums which led to optical telegraphy using smoke signals, beacons of light and flags. (Wikipedia.2012)

In 1831, Michael Faraday proved that vibrations of metal could be converted to electrical impulses. This was the technological basis of the telephone; however nobody used this system to transmit sound until 1861. In addition in Germany, Johann Philip Reis demonstrated a working electrical voice-transmission system. He had built a simple device that changed sound to electricity and vice versa. However, the crude device was incapable of transmitting most frequencies, and it wasn’t fully developed at that time. (Wikipedia.2011)

While Reis only used his machine to demonstrate the nature of sound, other inventors tried to find more practical applications of this technology. In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. Both entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won. In 1876, Bell was given a patent for the first operational telephone. According to the story, the first fully intelligible telephone call occurred on March 6, 1876, when Bell, in one room, called to his assistant in another room. "Come here, I want you." (Wikipedia.2011)

a)      Wikipedia. (2011).History of telephone. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone

b)        Wikipedia. (2012).telephone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone