The Telephone By: Kati Michelotti

Alexander Graham Bell’s history and who helped  There were two main people involved in the creation of the telephone, their names were Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson. Alexander had a very interesting life as a child and even into adulthood. Alexander was born on March third 1847 in Edinburgh. When Alexander got older he began experimenting with communication. After he invented the telephone he lived a happy life, he died on August second, The 75 years he lives were very productive and they made man-kind what it is today.  As I said before there were two main people involved in the creation of the telephone, Thomas A. Watson and Alexander. But other people assisted him. Bourseul, Mantzetti, Reis, Gray, and Edison also helped from the 1830’s to the 1870’s. Alexander Graham Bell Thomas A. Watson

Identifying the problem  The whole problem that Bell was trying to solve was being able to communicate with people over distances. Bell considered that some people that some people wouldn’t be able to take part in the communication because either they were deaf, or blind. Once he figured out those obstacles that made his job a whole lot easier because then he would only have to worry about the sound of the person’s voice travelling. What they were currently using to communicate was a telegraph, which was pretty nice but it was limited because you could only send one message at a time. The picture below shows a man using a telegraph, he is frustrated because he can only send one message at a time!

Brainstorm  Bell had started brainstorming by thinking of all the possible solutions.  When brainstorming you have to think of the most ideas that are most practical and have the most probability to work..He knew that he couldn’t just create some brand new thing that would allow people all around the world to communicate. So he though about everything that they currently used at that time to communicate.  He knew that the telegraph was pretty effective so he had an idea to base it off of that invention. He thought that it would be easier to first modify another invention and go from there, and he was right. They figured that new tones could change the strength in the old wire.  The first telegraph Modified version

Design  To start, Bell thought about things that would for sure be needed, things such as, electricity, speakers, and wires.  Bell also thought that it would be easier if he first modified the telegraph, then he made the harmonic telegraph.  This step is kind of like the build, test, and evaluate step because Bell and Watson had to do those things to the telegraph in order to make the design step for the telephone. For this invention Graham was considered an electrical engineer because he made the telephone is considered a device or gadget.

Build, Test and Evaluate, Re- Design  On June 2 nd 1875 they had finished all of their building on the harmonic telegraph and they decided to test it. Bell was in a room, Watson in another working on the reeds of the telegraph. Bell heard the sound of plucked reeds, coming through his wire. It was both a success and a failure, the telegraph transferred the sounds of the reeds, but not the exact words of Watson’s voice. With the knowledge they had just gained, they were able to invent the telephone. The next day after many changes were made to the telegraph, (specifically the reeds) they were able to hear voices, not words, but voices was a great start. The rest of the summer they tinkered with it and wrote down all the specifications for the telephone patent. On March 7, 1876 the patent was issued. Three days later the telephone had officially carried it’s first complex sentence on the top floor of a Boston boarding house. The telephone had been invented and it worked!!! They decided that the telephone should have a speaker built on the telephone, and the hearing piece will be hand-held, connected to the base by a wire. That would give it a more high-tech look for that time.

Shared, made, and sold *Bell basically shared his solution to others by selling it, which was a long process since it took so long for him to make the first one which was just a modified harmonic telegraph. The telephone was released for sale in 1877, and later on they combined with AT&T. *The telephone we use today are made of many different materials, glass, metal, wood and more. *We also have different kinds of phones, cell phones, cord phones, and cordless phones. *Since there are so many different types of phones different companies purchase them and sell them which is why some companies are more popular than others, simply because of what they carry.

Bibliography  Click on “Bibliography” to view my Diigo reading list.  Thank you google images for providing me with pictures!  Sound came from Microsoft Powerpoint!