History of the Telephone Timeline

Innocenzo Manzetti first mooted the idea of a "speaking telegraph" (telephone) in 1844.

Antonio Meucci developed a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone.

Image source: Antonio Meucci

Charles Bourseul wrote a memorandum on the principles of the telephone in 1854.

Antonio Meucci demonstrated an electric voice-operated device in New York; exactly what kind of device he demonstrated is unknown.

Antonio Meucci filed a patent caveat (No. 3353), a notice of intent to invent but not a formal patent application, at the U.S. Patent Office. In June 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing Meucci's contributions 'in' the invention of the telephone.

Thomas Edison experimented with acoustic telegraphy and in November built an electro-dynamic receiver, but did not exploit it.

Image source: Thomas Edison

Bell used a bi-directional "gallows" telephone that was able to transmit "voicelike sounds", but not clear speech.

Bell signed and notarized his patent application for the telephone on January 20, 1876.

Elisha Gray designed a liquid transmitter for use with a telephone, but did not build one.

Image source: Elisha Gray

Bell's U.S. patent was granted on March 7, 1876, becoming the first telephone patent.

Image source: Invention of the telephone

Bell transmitted the sentence: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you", marking the first successful transmission of clear speech by telephone.

Using the telegraph line between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, eight miles (thirteen kilometres) distant, Bell made a telephone call said by some to be the "world's first long-distance call".

Image source: Alexander Graham Bell

Emile Berliner invented an improved telephone transmitter in 1877. After protracted litigation, a federal court ruled in 1892 that Edison, not Berliner, was the inventor of the carbon microphone.

Image source: Emile Berliner

Bell's second U.S. patent for the telephone was granted on January 30, 1877.

Edison filed for a patent on a carbon (graphite) transmitter. Patent No. 474,230 was granted on May 3, 1892, after a 15-year delay because of litigation.

Image source: Carbon microphone

Scientific American published the invention from Bell—at that time still without a ringer—spreading awareness of the new device.

Bell demonstrated the telephone to Queen Victoria and made the first publicly witnessed long-distance calls in the UK.

Edison was granted patent No. 222,390 for a carbon granules transmitter in 1879. In 1877 and 1878, Edison had invented and developed the carbon microphone used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s.

After protracted patent litigation, a federal court ruled in 1892 that Edison and not Emile Berliner was the inventor of the carbon microphone. The Edison patents kept the Bell monopoly viable into the 20th century.

Elisha Gray established the Western Electric Manufacturing Company in 1872, which would become a major player in telephone equipment manufacturing.

Hungarian Tivadar Puskás, the inventor of the telephone exchange, arrived in the USA in 1875.

Image source: Tivadar Puskás

The telephone exchange was an idea of the Hungarian engineer Tivadar Puskás (1844–1893) in 1876, while he was working for Thomas Edison on a telegraph exchange.

The first experimental Telephone Exchange was established in Boston in 1877.

Image source: Telephone exchange

George Coy was inspired by Alexander Graham Bell's lecture at the Skiff Opera House in New Haven on April 27, 1877.

Image source: Frontier Communications of Connecticut

On November 3, 1877, Coy applied for and received a franchise from the Bell Telephone Company for New Haven and Middlesex Counties.

The first commercial telephone company entered telephone business in Friedrichsberg close to Berlin using the Siemens pipe as ringer and telephone devices built by Siemens.

Frost and Walter Lewis, who provided the capital, established the District Telephone Company of New Haven on January 15, 1878.

The first commercial telephone exchange opened at New Haven, Connecticut, with 21 subscribers, in a storefront of the Boardman Building.

By February 21, 1878, when the first telephone directory was published by the company, fifty subscribers were listed.

Image source: Telephone directory

By 1880, the company had the right from the Bell Telephone Company to service all of Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

As it expanded, the company was first renamed Connecticut Telephone, and then Southern New England Telephone in 1882.

The Pulsion Telephone Supply Company, created by Lemuel Mellett in Massachusetts, designed its version in 1888 and deployed it on railroad right-of-ways.

Around 1893, the country leading the world in telephones per 100 persons was Sweden with 0.55 in the whole country but 4 in Stockholm (10,000 out of a total of 27,658 subscribers). The United States became the world leader after the Bell patents expired in 1893 and 1894.

By 1904, over three million phones were connected by manual switchboard exchanges in the U.S., reflecting rapid adoption of the telephone.

What turned out to be the most popular and longest-lasting physical style of telephone was introduced in the early 20th century, including Bell's model 102 telephone.

Image source: Western Electric hand telephone sets

The first U.S. coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call was made in 1915, demonstrating the reach of the expanding national network.

Wodehouse, a British author, showed that at least during the era including 1919 and possibly up until 1931, the British answered the phone by saying, "Are you there?", finding "hello" too abrupt.

Image source: Hello

The first transatlantic phone call was made from the United States to the United Kingdom via radio, connecting the continents by voice for the first time.

Image source: Transatlantic communications cable

In December 1947, Bell Labs engineers Douglas H. Ring and others laid groundwork for advances in telecommunications electronics that would transform telephony.

Image source: Transistor

The 1956 inauguration of the TAT-1 cable and later international direct dialing were important steps in putting together the various continental telephone networks into a global network.

Image source: TAT-1

Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng developed the MOSFET at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1959, and the MOS integrated circuit chip was proposed soon after, though MOS technology was initially overlooked by Bell before being commercialized by Fairchild and RCA.

Image source: MOSFET

After the rotary dial was added to telephones, the instrument itself changed little until Touch-Tone signaling started replacing the rotary dial in the 1960s.

Image source: DTMF signaling

The British companies Pye TMC, Marconi-Elliott and GEC developed the digital push-button telephone, based on MOS IC technology, in 1970, and demonstrated it in the United Kingdom.

Image source: Telephony

Between 1971 and 1973, Bell combined MOS technology with touch-tone technology to develop a push-button MOS touch-tone phone called the "Touch-O-Matic" telephone, which could store up to 32 phone numbers.

Motorola manager Martin Cooper placed a cellular-phone call (in front of reporters) to Dr. Joel Engel of Bell Labs, marking the birth of mobile telephony.

Image source: Martin Cooper (inventor)

In 1974, Hodges and Gray worked with R.E. Kerwin and others on CMOS technology that would underpin digital telephony.

Image source: CMOS

Work by Black in 1980 has since been the industry standard for digital telephony, shaping how voice is digitized and transmitted worldwide.

One of the early cable operators in the UK, Cable London, connected its first cable telephone customer in about 1990.

Telecommunication of the 21st century has been dominated by the development of the smartphone, which merged telephony with computing, internet access, and multimedia.

Image source: Smartphone