The invention of the telephone
The telegraph transmitted symbols.
To send a telegram, you must first translate the message into a telegram and then send it out using a telegraph machine; on the receiving side, you must go through the opposite process, that is, decode the received telegram into a message, and then, delivered to the recipient.
Not only is the procedure cumbersome, but it also prevents timely two-way information exchange.
Therefore, people began to explore a communication method that can directly transmit human voices. This is the "telephone" that everyone knows now.
European research on long-distance sound transmission began in the 18th century. In 1796, Hughes proposed a method of using a microphone to relay voice information.
Although this method is not very practical, he gave this method of communication a name - Telephone, which is still used today.
In 1861, a German teacher invented the most primitive telephone, which could communicate with each other over short distances using the principle of sound waves, but it could not be put into real use.
How to connect current and sound waves to achieve long-distance calls?
Alexander Bell was destined to complete this historical task. He systematically studied human speech, the mechanism of sound production and the principles of sound wave vibration. In the process of designing hearing aids for deaf-mute people, he discovered the power of electric current. At the moment when it was turned on and stopped, the spiral coil made noise. This discovery gave Bell a sudden idea - "Use the strength of the current to simulate the change in the size of the sound, so as to transmit the sound with the current."
From this point on, Bell and his assistant Watson began the arduous process of designing the telephone. On June 2, 1875, Bell and Watson were making the final design and improvements of the model. The time for the final test arrived. Watson put his ear on the speaker in another room with the doors and windows closed and prepared to answer. Bell accidentally splashed sulfuric acid on his leg during the final operation. He screamed in pain: "Mr. Watson, Come and help me!" Unexpectedly, this sentence reached the ears of Mr. Watson who was working in another room through the phone in his experiment.
This very common sentence will be recorded in history as the first voice transmitted by human beings over the telephone.
June 2, 1875, is also commemorated as the great day of the invention of the telephone, and this place - 109 Court Road, Boston, USA, has also been recorded in history, and its door is still nailed to this day. There is a bronze medal engraved on it: "The telephone was born here on June 2, 1875."
On March 7, 1876, Bell obtained a patent for the invention of the telephone, patent number NO: 174655.
In 1877, the year after Bell invented the telephone, the first telephone lines were opened in Boston and New York, 300 kilometers apart.
It was also in this year that someone used the phone to send news to the "Boston Globe" for the first time, and the era of public use of telephones began.
Within a year, Bell *** installed 230 telephones and established the Bell Telephone Company, the predecessor of American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T).
The telephone was introduced to our country in 1881. British electrical technician Pi Xiaopu set up a pair of open-air telephones along the street in Shiliupu, Shanghai. You could make a call by paying 36 cents. This is China's The first telephone.
In February 1882, the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company opened my country's first telephone exchange on Yangyutian Road on the Bund in Shanghai, with 25 users.
In 1889, Peng Mingbao, the candidate governor of Anqing Prefecture in Anhui Province, designed a telephone by himself, including fifty or sixty self-made large and small parts, becoming the first self-designed and manufactured telephone in my country.
The original telephone did not have a dial. All calls were made through an operator, who connected the caller to the correct line. The dial began in the early 20th century, when measles was prevalent in Massachusetts. A physician brought it up because he was worried that if the operator fell ill, the city's telephone lines would be paralyzed.
However, in the 1970s in my country, some districts and counties were still using hand-cranked telephones powered by dry batteries and without dials.
Today, there are approximately 750 million telephone users in the world, including 10.7 million Internet users sharing this network.
Letter writing has enjoyed a surprising resurgence, but these letters are also being sent over this thin telephone wire.
The Invention of the Telephone
Author: Anonymous Reposted from: Original Clicks on this site: 126
Writer Bruce Sterling said that technology It has its own life cycle, just like cities, just like institutions, just like laws and governments.
The first stage of any technology can be called the "question mark period".
At this stage, technology is just a ray of light in the inventor's eye.
There was one such inventor named Alexander Graham Bell (1847
-1922).
Bell's early inventions, although not lacking in ingenuity, failed to shock the world.
In 1863, the teenage Bell and his brother Melville built an artificial talking machine out of wood, rubber and other materials.
This strange device has a "tongue" made of wood
, rubber "vocal cords", "lips" and "cheeks".
Melville used a blower to send wind into a tin tube
to imitate the movement of the lungs, while Bell manipulated the mouth, tongue and other organs to make a series of A shrill, incomprehensible voice.
Another invention was the "phonograph," which was made from real ears (dead ones, of course).
Place it on a tripod
and draw a sound wave pattern on the blackened glass through a straw glued to the ear bone.
By 1875, Bell had learned to use magnets, diaphragms and electric current to produce sound.
Most technological inventions reach a dead end, but if this is not the case, the second stage of technology begins, which is
the "up phase".
On March 8, 1876, one of Bell's most ambitious inventions, the telephone, entered this stage.
On this day
Bell became the world's first great inventor to use electric current to transmit a recognizable human voice.
Technology at this stage often does not work well.
The prototype may be novel, attractive, and look
useful, but no one, including the inventor, understands its promise.
People will have this or that expectation about the potential utility of technology
But these expectations are often wrong.
Bell's initial consideration of the telephone was as a mass medium.
The telephone acted as a sending center that would carry music,
the pastor's sermons, important speeches, etc., to a group of paying subscribers.
At the time, many people thought Bell's idea was tenable.
In fact, the telephone was indeed used in this way.
This has been practiced in Hungary
and Italy.
From 1893 until after World War I, there was a telephone service in Budapest
*** operated, providing a variety of news and entertainment programs, such as stock market quotes , plays, concerts, etc.
At a certain time of the day
the phone in the user's home will ring. At this time, just connect the loudspeaker and the whole family can sit around and "listen to the phone".
This service has disappeared today, but it can be considered a precursor to modern dial-up computer services.
Its principle is not far from that of electronic bulletin board system (BBS, bulletin board system).
The electronic bulletin board system did not appear in the United States in the 1970s.
It quickly became very popular, and you will read a lot about it in this book.
The development of the telephone into what it is today is inseparable from the simultaneous action of a series of factors, including political decisions, legal decisions, industrial promotion, National conditions and people's conditions, and even opportunities and luck.
As Bell and his supporters promoted new inventions in 19th-century New England, they had to contend with skepticism and industrial competition.
At that time, the United States already had a powerful electronic communication network, the telegraph network.
The telegraph at that time
The industrial giant Western Union believed that Bell's invention was nothing more than an "electronic toy" and refused to buy it
Its use is patented.
In its view, the telephone is only a so-so entertainment tool in the living room, but it cannot become a business climate at all
.
An internal memo from the Western Union Telegraph Company said: "The telephone has so many shortcomings that it cannot be taken seriously as a
communication tool.
This device was, fundamentally, of no value to us
"It soon paid the price for its shortsightedness.
The telegraph is different from the telephone in that the telegraph can leave a permanent record of the message delivered.
It can reply when the recipient is available and
convenient.
It was able to cover a huge range compared to earlier telephones.
These factors made telegraphy a seemingly
more efficient business technology—at least in the eyes of those at Western Union.
In 1876, the United States had built 214,000 miles of telegraph lines and 8,500 telegraph offices.
There are also many dedicated lines installed for business
users and stock traders, police, police and fire departments.
The telegraph system seemed to have achieved
an unshakable status.
And Bell's things are just "toys".
The third stage of technological development can be called the "harvest period". In this stage, the technology establishes its position and transforms from laboratory results into mature things. , and start to generate benefits.
Bell and his investors discovered a year later that using the telephone as a "music box" was not the best use of the invention.
No.
For example, use it as a personalized communication tool to transmit human conversations in real time.
The phone will no longer be controlled by any broadcast center, it will
become a technology that is deeply personal.
When you pick up the phone, you are not receiving some cold machine output, but you are having a conversation with another person.
Once people realize the magic of this thing, the idea of ??the phone as a toy disappears immediately.
When the phone rings,
It is not a machine calling you, but usually a person you know is calling you.
It is not the machine that does things for you, but you
that do things through the machine.
This shift in consciousness for the young Bell Company was unusually critical.
The first telephone network was established around Boston, and most of its users were wealthy people and people interested in technology.
(More than a hundred years later, a group of people with the same attributes began to take the lead in using personal computers.
) However, supporters of the telegraph still
Scoffing the phone.
But a disaster in 1878 changed people's view of the telephone.
A train crashed in Triveville, Connecticut
Visionary doctors in the neighboring city of Hartford happened to install a telephone.
All local doctors mobilized themselves by phone
and rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded.
This accident, like all accidents, was widely reported in the media.
The telephone proved its utility in the real world.
Since then, the telephone network has developed rapidly.
In 1890, all of New England had telephone access.
By 1904, telephone lines
covered the entire United States.
The phone took hold completely.
Bell thus established his immortal position in the history of world technology.
There will never be another Bell
But in the following years, many people like him appeared.
Bell may be called the
pioneer of high-tech entrepreneurs.
High-tech entrepreneurs play an important role in this book: they are not only technology experts and businessmen, but also pioneers on the electronic frontier, and their influence goes beyond high-tech. Beyond the technical field, its footprints extend as far as the political and social arena.
Bell not only invented the telephone, he also successfully established his own company to promote the telephone.
But after his patent expired,
competing phone companies began to pop up everywhere.
The Bell Telephone Company fell into the hands of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1907.
At this time, Theodore Vail, the second important figure in the history of telephone development, appeared.
Under Weir's leadership, ATdiT focused on developing long-distance lines and soon began gobbling up small local phone companies.
Wei
He invested most of the money he earned in research and development, creating a tradition for the company to maintain strong research capabilities.
AT&T gradually
became a huge commercial entity, at one point even buying Western Union Telegraph Company, the company that once derided the telephone as a "toy
company.
Vail's greatest contribution was that he made the telephone a part of public facilities, rather than a special tool for governments and businesses.
At first, only a few wealthy people could afford personal phones, and Bell's company focused mainly on business users.
Telephone
The telephone system is used to make money, it is not a charity.
But from the beginning, almost every community with telephone service
had a public phone.
The average person may not own a phone, but you can always access the phone system if you need it.
Vail put forward a resounding slogan: “One policy, one system, universal service.
"This means giving the public
a great deal of trust.
Because it is not a matter of course to make the telephone a public transmission tool.
In France, the totalitarian tradition even hindered the spread of the telegraph.
The telegraph seemed too apolitical for many years in the 19th century. France has been transmitting information through a signaling system throughout the country.
The French built huge stone towers on the mountains and used
devices similar to windmills to send signals to distant places. p>
In 1846, a Mr. Barbet said:
"The telegraph is by no means a useful invention.
A little interference will destroy it, wild boys, drunks, homeless people... can all
stop its operation.
One person could cut the telegraph line to Paris without being discovered, but the stone tower system had no such worries
.
These stone towers are surrounded by high walls and guarded by armed personnel, so nothing will ever happen to them.
Yes, I think replacing our current system with a telegraph
system is a terrible idea and a truly foolish move. ”
Mr. Barbey and his stone tower eventually disappeared into obscurity, but his rhetoric - in order to protect national security, communication tools must
be placed under strict precautions to prevent "Wild boys" disrupted the operation of the system - but will echo in people's ears again and again
When France finally established its telephone system, its inefficiency and poor service became "famous around the world." .
On the contrary, in the United States,
the telephone has become almost indispensable to ordinary people.
It is an intimate social tool and has begun to bring about. There was a certain family flavor,
because there were a lot of women using them
The early telephone companies, especially AT&T, were among the companies that employed the most women.
This was not because the telephone company supported women's liberation, but purely for business purposes
Bell's earliest operators
were not women, but teenagers. Boys, because their labor was cheap.
But Bell soon learned its lesson: Don't let boys sit behind a telephone switchboard. p> Letting boys manage the phone system is a recipe for disaster.
They will yell at users openly, make random jokes, cancel calls for no reason, and chat endlessly with users.
What's worse
is that they like to play clever tricks when plugging and unplugging phone plugs: interrupting other people's conversations, messing with the wiring so that users find out
that they are talking to strangers, Wait.
The combination of power, mastery of technology, and the mystery of no one knowing what they were doing was too much for the boy, They were like cats smelling fish
So the boys were kicked out of the machine room by the phone company, and they no longer had the opportunity to sit behind the switchboard.
But the phone company.
The troubles are not over: they will learn the boys' spirit of adventure and discovery again and again.