Breakthrough Inventions. The Telephone

INTRODUCTION

    My motive for choosing the tank as a subject for the topic at hand is because it is among the most important inventions of the 20th century, playing a decisive role in our evolution as a society.

    But you might be wondering, why the telephone was invented in the first place? The telephone was invented to improve the capabilities of the already existing telegraph.

    The telegraph allowed people to send messages from one place to another but was limited by the fact that to send and receive messages they had to use Samuel Morse code, which was impractical for transmitting many non-English texts because there were no codes for letters with diacritical marks.

    The telephone improved on this idea by allowing people to talk directly to each other over a long distance via the telephone line.

    Since its inception 140 years ago, telephonic technology has revamped human civilisation again and again. It was the promise of fortune and fame that saw inventors in the 1870s racing to be the first to patent voice-transmission tech, but it's the power to instantly communicate with any person on Earth that has sustained the telephone's popularity, turning it from a luxury item to a necessary part of modern life.

What is a Telephone?

    A telephone is an instrument designed for the simultaneous transmission and reception of the human voice.

    In 1871,Graham Bell started working on the harmonic telegraph — a device that allowed multiple messages to be transmitted over a wire at the same time. While trying to perfect this technology, which was backed by a group of investors, Bell became preoccupied with finding a way to transmit human voice over wires.

     By 1875, Bell, with the help of his partner Thomas Watson, had come up with a simple receiver that could turn electricity into sound.  

    Bell makes the first coast-to-coast phone call in January 1915. This was the first long-distance call from a land line. Bell's call helped make long-distance calling a reality.

    During WWI, on the Western Front, telephones were used to communicate between the front line Marines and Soldiers and their commanders.

    The telephone made an incredible impact on society. The impact could be seen through the quickness of communication, business, easier communication in wars, and some negative effects too. Although the telephone became a necessity of daily life, it was at first neglected by the public.