Even in the myth of ancient Greek times, Theseus was the first mention of how information can be transmitted. Aegeus, the father of this hero, when he sent his son to the island of Crete, to battle with the monster Minotaur, asked him to return, if successful, to raise the white sail on the ship, and in case of defeat - black. Unfortunately, the inventor of the phone was not yet born, and the colors were mixed up, and Aegeus, deciding that his son was dead, drowned. The sea where he did this, and called the Aegean.
Continuation of the story with communication
For some time, people did not pay special attention to solving the problem of broadcasting symbols and signals over long distances. For a long time, the most reliable way to ensure high-quality communication remained birds and people. When the weather was disgusting and there were no people who wanted to escape, they used fire fire, smoke, voice or other conventional signs.
Although, frankly, in the 16th century there was a proposal, Giovanni della Porta, an Italian scientist, to use intercoms for communication. A similar method operates on ships for communication between the engine room and the captain. So, the proposal to lay such pipes throughout Italy did not meet with understanding, and the first telephone at that time was not invented.
The revolution in France and a breakthrough in the issue of communications
The mechanic Claude Schappe in 1789 proposed to the Convention to solve the problem of communications as follows: they intended to cover the whole of France with a network of towers and install devices made of slats on them. Moreover, they should have been clearly visible from a distance. In the dark, lights were lit at the ends of the slats. Inside the tower was a telegraph operator, changing the location of the slats. The landmark for him was the tower in sight. The telegraph operator sitting in it copied the message and sent it on. And so it went - from the starting point to the ending. You could get about 200 combinations by changing the layout of the strips.
A cipher was compiled, which consisted of a notebook with a volume of 92 pages, each of which had the same number of words. The telegraph employee transmitted the number of the word and page, at the intermediate points of the cipher they did not know, but simply passed on the received combinations. Claude Schapp is not yet the inventor of the phone, but his big fan, Napoleon, has implemented his mode of communication across almost all of Europe. By the way, the transmission speed was quite high. For example, communication from Petersburg to Warsaw took about 45 minutes, if only the weather was normal.
The invention of electricity and communications
When electricity was invented, the first time scientists could not find practical use for it. The first experience was the transmission of distance information. Austrian scientists, seeing the dependence of Schapp's telegraph on weather conditions, created its electric version. A member of the Munich Academy of Semmering in 1809 invented a device that was connected by thirty-five wires, each of which corresponded to numbers and letters of the alphabet. The message came into the bathtub filled with water, there was a closure of the electric network, in which gas bubbles were released, and information was read on them. The design was very complex, it did not immediately take root, only in 1832 was made suitable for use telegraph. It was invented by Schilling, a scientist from Russia, and later improved by the British Cook and Wheatstone. So, gradually, we will get to how the invention of the telephone occurred , briefly focusing on important points.
Morse invention
Morse showed his telegraphic alphabet and transmitting apparatus to the public in 1837. From that moment, the electric telegraph began its victorious march around the world. In just 10 years, its lines entangled most of North America and Europe. His triumph was the laying of a communication cable along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, made in 1866 with the help of the Great Eastern ship, specially built for this. When the radio was invented, Morse code went on the air.
And now, despite the massive spread of satellite, cellular, other sophisticated communications, the Internet, there are people, and there are many who prefer to send telegrams. And not only in villages, but also in big cities. Now we are very close to such a significant date as the year the telephone was invented.
When did the telephone invented
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the telephone became the main means of communication. He was born much later than the telegraph, his predecessor. Even at the time when this predecessor was the main one, Philip Rice, a German scientist, in 1861 invented a device that with the help of galvanic current carries a human voice at any distance. After 15 years, Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher at a school in Philadelphia, demonstrated the first telephone electric telephone at the World's Fair. Remember: 1876 is the date of the invention of the telephone. But Elish Gray, another inventor, was only a couple of hours late with an application for the same invention. Therefore, the primacy in this matter is purely conditional.
Telephone development
Just five years later, a new means of communication, which was much simpler than a telegraph, firmly entered human life. Have you seen the photo of the first phone? So, the famous Thomas Edison improved this device, and it has become a truly everyday means of communication. But the telegraph was and remains public. There was an option and a field telephone. Thanks to the speed of deployment and ease of use, it has become indispensable for the army and the military.
The first telephone exchange opened in 1878. This means of communication, like the telegraph, has acquired the status of inviolable. Neither revolution nor war could prevent their normal functioning. From films about those times it can be seen that one of the favorite pastimes of military commanders of both the White Army and the Red Army during the Civil War was a phone call.
Briefly about the first phone
You already understand who is the official inventor of the phone. And what was this first telephone like? By the way, the invention turned out by chance, like many others in this life. In the experiments and experiments, the stuck plate began to act as a primitive diaphragm, and it was already a matter of time to figure out what followed. As a result, Bell's phone became a real sensation at the exhibition.
Although the first device worked only at a distance of up to two hundred meters, with monstrous sound distortions, the transmitting and receiving devices were very primitive. The inventor created the Bell Phone Society and began to actively improve it. As a result, after just one year, he patented valves and a new membrane for his device. A little later I used a carbon microphone (to increase the transmission distance) and power from individual batteries. A little more than a hundred years, almost in this form, the phone existed.
The development of telephone communications in the twentieth century
How did the further development of the invention go, the author of which was Alexander Bell? The telephone he created soon surpassed telegraph communication and began to develop by leaps and bounds. The first transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1 was laid between Canada and Scotland in 1956. And after that - more than one hundred thousand kilometers of such cables. Including - Washington - Moscow, the famous government special wire, for communication between the American president and the leader of the Soviet Union. No one else had access to it. Such a wired, cable telephone connection, of course, is much more expensive than a radiotelephone, especially if you count the number of drowned and buried copper, but it is not going to take its positions. At least because of its greater reliability and the ability to intercept a conversation.
Phone today
Bell, the inventor of the telephone, most likely could not imagine the progress that communication has made to date. It would seem that the development of cellular communications should slow down wired, but the latter continues to move forward, especially in large cities: thanks to, as already mentioned, its reliability, as well as the introduction of the latest technologies, for example, fiber optic communications.
Have you forgotten what wires the Internet is transmitted through? In the same way that our grandfathers and grandmothers communicated, and in the central part of Moscow - great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. Thanks to the latest technologies, the phone mastered the ether and turned from a stationary object into a very convenient and advanced human companion.
Another version about the inventor of the phone
Opening the topic of the invention of this communication tool, one cannot fail to mention yet another version, according to which the inventor of the phone is Eliysha Gray, and not Alexander Bell at all. In 2007, a book was published by the famous researcher, journalist Seth Shulman, in which he wrote that the latter had stolen the invention of a competitor and passed it off as his own. The main evidence is Bell's notebook, access to which until 1976 was very limited. It turns out, among other things, that Gray filed the application for the patent first, but his competitor, thanks to bribery and aggressive lawyers, managed to register the patent earlier. But this is far from all.
There is a version that as the inventor of the first phone, Philip Rice, a German scientist, can also be considered. His device, created in 1860, was capable of transmitting speech at a distance, but it worked on a different principle. By the way, Gray began his work as a carpenter, while studying at Oberlin College. Then he experimented with telegraph equipment and electricity, invented a hotel notification device, a telegraph switch, a letterpress machine and other devices. He lost the trial for the right to be considered the inventor of the telephone, and it is Bell that has since been considered the first.
Further prospects for the development of communications
The inventor of the telephone, whoever he may be, could probably have imagined what further perspectives the communication facilities have. They are a little out of the realm of fantasy, but, nevertheless, have a right to exist. This is telepathy, or, in other words, the transmission of thoughts at a distance. Back in the seventies of the last century, the Soviet academician Glushkov formulated this perspective. He noted that the human thought process will be sent to the computer, she will remember him, over time a complete symbiosis of the machine and the person will turn out. And I was sure that in 2020 full compatibility of the computer and the human brain will be achieved.
Considering how computer communication displaces traditional means of
transmitting information over a distance, the forecast of the academician does not create the impression of a very fantastic one. After all, many seemed unrealistic fantasies come true. For example, a fully computerized home, helmets connected to a PC that convey visual sensations. It was once a science fiction by
Arthur Clark and Ray Bradbury. Or computer printing at the command of a human voice. When the transmission of thoughts at a distance will be claimed, then this question will be solved. It's just that nobody really needs it yet.
A little about other inventions of mankind
Although the invention of the telephone is one of the most important, all the inventions of mankind do not end there. Now we briefly list the ten most basic of them.
- Alcohol.
- The Internet.
- Birth control.
- Antibiotics.
- Anesthesia.
- Print.
- Sewerage.
- Instruments.
- Cooking.
- Tongue.
Brief biography of Alexander Bell
Since we talked about the invention of the great scientist, we need to briefly outline his biography. He was born in Edinburgh (Scotland), on the third of March 1847. Many of his relatives had the profession of professional rhetoricians - uncle, grandfather and father. The latter even wrote a treatise on eloquence. First, Alexander also followed their path, graduated from the corresponding school, and became a teacher of music and eloquence. He studied for a year at the University of Edinburgh, then moved to Bath (England). In 1870, the family moved to Canada and settled in Ontario. Here Bell continued to deal with the issue of signal transmission through telecommunications, which he became interested in in Scotland. He created, for example, an electric piano, which transmitted music by wire. Soon, in 1873, Alexander became a professor of speech physiology at the University of Boston. And after three years he received a patent No. 174465 for the invention of the telephone. He also worked with light beams, which subsequently contributed to the creation of fiber-optic technologies. In 1877 he married Maybel Hubbard, his student, in 1882 - became a US citizen. He died on August 2, 1992. In the country for a minute, in order to honor his memory, all phones were disconnected.