The Phone Zone (Blog Post #5)

 

The Phone Zone (Blog Post #5)

How did the alien break its phone? He Saturn it! According to How Many People Have Smartphones Worldwide (Jun 2023), it is estimated that there are 6.92 BILLION smartphones in the world today. This number is supposed to grow to a whopping 7.33 billion by the year 2025! My generation grew up with smartphones in place of toys, and now we can’t go about a day without them in our hands or in our pockets. It’s so hard to imagine a world without smartphones since they serve so many purposes in our lives. It makes me wonder, “Where did smartphones originate from?” 

History

The first phone was invented by a nineteenth-century American inventor named Alexander Graham Bell. According to https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.highpoint.edu/stable/366619?seq=2, Bell became interested in communication, particularly the “voice telegraph”, because his father was a speech therapist and worked with those that were hard of hearing. He was granted his patent in 1876 and worked tirelessly on his invention. The project took place in Boston and he worked closely with a man named Thomas Watson.

Bell and Watson

Before the telephone, the only way to send simple messages was through the telegram. Bell and Watson’s main goal was to find an alternative to this device. The telegram would only send messages through dots and lines, so being able to actually hear the other person’s voice using a telephone was revolutionary. On March 7, 1876, Bell and Watson accomplished the unimaginable and their device would go on to make them a fortune. This magical new invention was the biggest demonstration at the Centennial celebration in Philadelphia, winning the exhibition's top prize.

This awesome video provides the history in much greater detail! The Machines That Built America: Alexander Graham Bell’s Revolutionary Invention (S1) | History 

Impacts

This new invention connected the world in a way that was once never imaginable. At first, many people were actually scared to use the telephone and this fear was known as “telephone terror”. The first people to adopt the use of the phone were businessmen and doctors. Only wealthy families would install telephones in order to have a direct line of communication from their homes to their workplaces. Although Bell just had a great breakthrough with technology, there was still plenty of work to do. Calls at this time were very delayed and had a lot of static. Oftentimes people had to yell in order to make themselves heard. Alexander Graham Bell went on to launch the Bell Telephone Company, known today as AT&T, to further improve his invention.

I personally have a connection to the telephone because my family brought the telephone to Lincoln, Nebraska by starting Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph. This was an independent company started in 1903 by Frank H. Woods, which was a direct competitor to Bell Telephone Company. In fact, the two businesses sat right next to each other in downtown Lincoln. I find it funny that those who had a subscription to Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph could not reach those who had subscribed to Bell Telephone Company because the lines weren’t connected. Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph was the first to use a rotary phone system and implemented the first use of a state-wide 9-1-1 calling system. Bell ended up buying LT&T for over 2 million dollars! If you're ever in Nebraska, make sure to check out the Telephone Museum!

A sign from Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph when it was in business.

All in all, the telephone revolutionized communication as we know it today because it allowed two individuals to talk, even if they were in two different locations. This invention is so critical to life as we know it because the first telephone evolved into the smartphones that we carry with us every day.