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Telephone history how technology changed the telephone
The invention of the telephone and how it has changed over the years
The invention of the telephone and how it has changed over the years
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The Telephone System
The telephone is one of the most creative and prized inventions in the world. It has advanced from its humble beginnings to its wireless communication technology today and for the future. The inhabitants of the earth have long communicated over a distance, which has been done by shouting from one hilltop or tower to another. The word "telephone" originated from a combination of two
Greek words: "tele", meaning far off, and "phone", meaning voice or sound, and became the known term for "far- speaking."
A basic telephone usually contains a transmitter, that transfers the caller's voice, and a receiver, that amplifies sound from an incoming call. In the transmitter there are two common kinds of transmitters: the carbon transmitter, and the electret transmitter. The carbon transmitter uses carbon granules between metal plates called, electrodes, with one consisting of a thin diaphragm that moves by pressure from sound waves and transmits them to the carbon granules. These electrodes conduct electricity flowing through the carbon. The sound waves hit the diaphragm causing the electrical resistance of the carbon to vary. The electret transmitter is composed of a thin disk of metal-coated plastic held above a thicker, hollow metal disk. This plastic disk is electrically charged, and creates an electric field. The sound waves from the caller's voice cause the plastic disk to vibrate, changing the distance between the disks, thus changing the intensity of the electric field. These variations are translated into an electric current which travels across the telephone lines. The receiver of a telephone is composed of a flat ring of magnetic material. Underneath this magnetic ring is a coil of wire where the electric current flows. Here, the current and magnetic field from the magnet cause a diaphragm between the two to vibrate, and replicate the sounds that are transformed into electricity.
The telephone is also composed of an alerter and a dial. The alerter, usually known as the ringer, alerts a person of a telephone call, created by a special frequency of electricity sent by the telephone number typed in. The dial is the region on the phone where numbers are pushed or dialed. There are two types of dialing systems; the rotary dial, and the Touch-Tone. The rotary dial is a movable circular plate with the numbers one to nine, and zero. The
Touch-Tone system uses buttons that are pushed, instead of the rotary that send pulses. The telephone was said to be invented by many people. However, the first to achieve this success, although by accident, was Alexander Graham Bell.
He and his associate were planning to conduct an experiment, when Mr.
Starr argues that it is the government and political decisions that mainly influence the development of the post office, telegraph, and telephone during the 19th and early 20th centuries. While accurate in some regards, this view is too narrow-sighted in that it forgets the impact that users (individuals and organizations) had on the development of the various technologies. It also overlooks the fact that the users of the systems are able to influence the government, either through voting or through lobbying, and can therefore be responsible for the very decisions that Starr attributes solely to the government. Starr is probably correct about the political origins of the post office as a technology, mainly because it is the only one of the three socio-technical systems to be owned by the federal government, though there is still an argument to be made as to whether it was purely a political decision or actually a response to the using public for the reason that the legislation passed the way it did. As for the telegraph, though Starr spends a lot of time talking about the influence of the bilateral monopoly with the Associated Press, and to a less extent the interaction with the railroads, he doesn’t seem to make the jump to actually saying that the AP and the railroads influenced the development of the telegraph from a non-political standpoint. Finally, the telephone was highly influenced by its users, both directly through the creation of the independent telephone companies and indirectly through changing government policy.
that allows you to talk to and listen to. This device is called the handset. The
Remember, people you don’t need to talk to, will ring three times before they hang up.
Cell phone technology dates all the way back to 1947. “In that year researchers first developed ideas as to the possibility of creating mobile phones that used "cells" that would identify a user in whatever specific region he or she was initiating the call from” (Cell Phone World). Still the technology was very limited at the time, so much more extensive research was required. In 1968 private companies started getting involved with cell phone development, such as AT&T. The FCC (The Federal Communications Commission) then opened new frequencies and the private companies had the theory of cellular towers. Each tower would be responsible for a particular region. When a customer traveled farther a way from one region it would switch the call to a closer tower with no interruption. In 1977 public cell phone testing had begun. People in Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington were the first to be eligible for cell phone trials. In 1979 a company in Japan began doing cell phone testing with the public. Not until 1983 were cell phones really available. “The year 1988 changed many of the technologies that had become standard in the past. The Cellular Technology Industry Association was created to set realistic goals for cellular phone providers and research new applications for cell phone development” (Cell Phone World). In a way they still were not very accessible to the public, due to their extremely high operating cost to the consumer. Only the very wealthy could afford cell phones. Important heads of cooperation’s, movie stars, and top government officials were able to afford the luxury of a mobile phone.
The earliest telephone switches were hand-operated - that is, they required a human operator to make connections by plugging circuits into a switchboard. When the customer "rang" the central office, the operator scanned the switchboard and connected the caller by plugging into the requested line.
Firstly, today’s cell phones are more and more easily to use. They are capable of not only receive incoming and making phone calls, but taking, receiving and even sending pictures, sending data and information, checking e-mail, a calendar to plan for your schedule, a calculator, and a variety of types of clocks (alarm, stopwatch, and timer)....
the text or number into the PC so you can see what you done. They use
It gave us ways of contacting each other over world wide distances. The telephone of course has evolved into something like a mini computer without the keyboard with apps, messaging and phone calls. But overall it serves the same purpose as it did back in the day. It let us have a way of communicating without having to write a letter or use the telegraph. Overall, I believe that the telephone was one of the greatest inventions and turning points in our history. If we didn’t have phones today, communication would be a lot trickier than just a click of a
When land phones first came into rural India, there used to be a single phone for a whole village which acted as the sole point for communication. People used to go there and wait for calls from their loved ones at prior appointed hours so as not to waste time or money. The same phone was used by everyone in the locality to communicate with their dear ones who stayed far from home. Telephones were costly affairs and it was a tad too difficult to get cables and connections to remote and far flung areas. As time passed, the scenario changed gradually and a telephone
screen to choose from. It saves a trip to library and looking up call numbers, and
If button 2 is pressed on the keypad, hook off circuit will be activated to disconnect the call as shown in Figure 16.
In early telephone networks, call completion was dependent on an operator to complete the calls. When you wanted to place a call you would pick up the receiver and be connected to an operator at the Central Office (CO). The CO is the local telephone office which all local lines connect too and where circuit switching of subscriber lines occurs. The operator would determine which two lines need to be connected for the parties to talk and connect the lines. To connect the two lines the operator would plug a cord connecting the two ports on a cord board to bridge the two ports together. The cord board used by the operator to connect the two parties was the first example of an early switching system.
I have a land-line telephone with the same number that I’ve had for over thirty-years and its connected to a digital answering system, which is what most people call when they want to speak with me, or leave me a message. I still do use the telephone book to look up numbers and I use the internet also, but sometimes it’s faster to simply look it up in the book. I have voicemail on my cell phone also, and I do listen to it, contingent upon if I hear it ring!
Making a telephone call no longer should conjure up visions of operators connecting cables by hand or even of electrical signals causing relays to click into place and effect connections during dialing. The telephone system now is just a multilevel computer network with software switches in the network nodes to route calls get through much more quickly and reliably than they did in the past. A disadvantage is the potential for dramatic and widespread failures; for as has happened.
used can be a normal or a specially purchased telephone line called a leased, or