Nick Marshall

MAJ Sook Ha

CIS-270WX-01

March 25, 2016

The invention of the telephone was one of the most important communication developments of the late 19^th century. Innovative creators were able to expand on the success of the telegraph to create a new communication medium that would become a staple of global intercommunication that persisted into the modern digital era. The early history of the telephone exemplifies how the limitations of an existing technology resulted in the creation of an improved technology that, in turn, goes through several evolutionary stages to produce a vastly superior commodity.

The telephone can traces its origins back to the 1870s and two inventors – Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. At the time, the telegraph was a widely popular wire-based electrical communication system. However, limitations existed in the system. With telegraphs, it was only possible to send and receive a single message at a time (Bellis). Bell had extensive background knowledge with the nature of sound (specifically music) that allowed him to posit the idea of sending multiple messages over a single wire at the same time (Bellis). Eventually, Bell and Gray were able to simultaneously invent these “harmonic telegraphs” that could transmit speech electronically. Historically, Bell was the first to secure the patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The two famously entered several legal battles which Graham won (Bellis).

Bell formally founded the first telephone company in 1878. The company was known as the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T). This marked an important point in the history of the telephone because from this point onward, telephones were able to be leased to subscribers for service (Bellis). The telephones were connected at first by having a wire run between each location. These phone lines were known as direct lines (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”). As phone subscriber numbers increased, this model became unsustainable because it was not scalable. To alleviate these scalability issues, the concept of “exchanges” was created. A precursor to switchboards, these exchanges allowed for the centralization of the phone lines rather than having multiple lines going from phone-to-phone. Subscribing for a monthly fee allowed users to gain access to a much wider phone network than direct lines allowed for (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”).

This concept of the “network” in telephone communications became important in the expansion of telephone services and innovations. Having centralized switching locations allowed for a more rapid expansion of subscriber bases. As these new users joined the network, a wider area of communication became available for the previous users due to the interconnectivity of the phone lines. The additional lines were also used to connect to additional switching locations, strengthening the network in the process (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”).

The phone would go through several evolutionary stages throughout the 20^th century, each of which brought their own unique improvements to the usability and efficiency of the telephone and the telephone networks across the world. From the Bell telephone, the first important step forward came in the form of the rotary dial phone (Bellis). The importance of this innovation was the ease that it brought to entering the phone numbers of other users. Prior to the rotary dial phone, users had a single button on their phones which was pressed for a specific number of pulses to contact another user. The button was abandoned entirely by 1943 in favor of the rotary dial (Bellis). Additionally, rotary dial phones were the first to combine the mouthpiece and receiver portions of the phone into a single handset (“Telephone Timeline”). But the rotary dial was still more tedious than it needed to be. In 1941, touch-tone phones were introduced as an even more efficient way of entering phone numbers. Each key was able to transmit a certain frequency which would signal to the operator which number needed to be connected on the line. No more than six years later, in 1947, research began on cell phone technology.

Cell phone technology began with research into mobile car phones that were marginally popular at the time (Bellis).  The technology continued to be developed into the 1980’s until Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile phone in the form of the Motorola DynaTAC (Bellis). The first cell phones were large and clunky with limited call time and high prices. The DynaTAC, for example, only had thirty minutes of call time with a four-thousand dollar price point. With these limitations, cell phones were not a commodity that the general public could afford for their day-to-day lives. The phone company Nokia made some of the first significant advancements towards improving the availability of cell phone technology. Nokia released their classic 5110 model “candybar” cell phone which had a reduced size, longer battery life, LCD screen, and customizable face plates (“Telephone Timeline”). Following up on this innovation, the world saw the release of the first commercially successful flip phones into the consumer market.

For cell phone networks, these innovations meant that switchboards became replaced by cell towers with many of the same principles still in place. Calls placed by users would be routed through networks of cell towers to reach their destination. Because cell phones can connect to any tower that’s closest to them, users were able to move anywhere that had a nearby tower and place a call or send a text message. This was achieved largely through the integration of radio wave technology with telecommunications. The creation of the microprocessor also allowed for cell phones to be made smaller, more efficient, and more complex. Without the microprocessor, it’s unlikely that we would have technological achievements like smartphones. Advancements in cell phone technology has ushered in a new era of global connectivity and intercommunication. Commonplace items in the first world, such as the iPhone, Android, and Windows smartphones would not be readily available without the advancements in cell phone and microprocessor technology.

Significant improvements have been made in telecommunications from the original inventions implemented by Bell and Gray in the late 1800’s.

Works Cited

Bellis, Mary. “The History of Cordless & Other Modern Phones.” About.com Inventors. About.com, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone_3.htm>.

“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses.” History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://www.shoretel.com/history-telephone-and-communication-businesses>.

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