Telephone

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Telephone

Although there are others who claim to have done so first, the telephone was invented in 1875 by a Scot, Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922). His invention enabled people to talk to one another across vast distances. Within twenty years, telephones were widespread in the homes of the wealthy in the United States and in Europe. The laying of the first transatlantic telephone cable in 1956 began to create what is known as the "global village." In the twenty-first century, the principles of telephony invented by Bell are behind innovations such as fax machines and the Internet (see entry under 1990s—The Way We Lived in volume 5). Although telephone messages are now transmitted using satellites and digital signals, the telephone of the twenty-first century remains much as Bell anticipated.

Like many other things, the telephone was invented partly by accident. In the 1870s, the telegraph was the quickest way of sending messages over a long distance. But Bell hoped to speed up the system by making it possible to send more than one message at a time. He created a device that could convert sounds into electrical pulses and transmit them down a wire. From there, it was a short step to developing a machine that could carry the human voice. He was issued patent number 174465 on March 7, 1876. Soon after, he made the first telephone call, commanding his assistant Thomas Augustus Watson (1854–1934), who was in the next room: "Mr. Watson, come here! I want you!"

Bell's invention transformed the way people thought about distance, travel, and their communities. The telephone opened the way for long-distance gossip in a way that was impossible by telegraph, the older method of sending messages, yet in many ways the changes brought by the telephone were subtle and gradual. For a start, it did not change much in the way of the physical environment. The device itself was always quite small, stuck out of the way in hallways and booths. Where the telephone had its greatest impact was on the structure of society itself. As home telephones became more affordable in the 1920s and 1930s, people began using them as part of their social lives. For some commentators, this marked the beginning of a trend towards people becoming more private and self-centered. For others, however, the telephone simply freed people from having to travel to deliver simple messages. Either way, the telephone changed the way people lived their lives.

The telephone led to the growth of a whole range of services never before available. Police and firefighters could be called by the public from special telephone boxes on the street. (As more and more people acquired telephones, this practice was replaced beginning in the 1960s by the 911 system of alerting emergency services.) Telephone companies began to offer "wake-up" calls and messaging services. "Cold calling," whereby a salesperson uses the phone book to find new customers, became a useful but hated way to find new business. The arts and the media also felt the effect. The TV or radio phone-in became a cheap way for broadcasters to fill airtime. The plots of detective fiction (see entry under 1930s—Print Culture in volume 2) of the 1930s and 1940s often turn on a well-timed telephone call. Comedy routines from the early days of film include telephone jokes. Even in the twenty-first century, the telephone is a source of humor in shows from Frasier (see entry under 1990s—TV and Radio in volume 5) to The Simpsons (see entry under 1980s—TV and Radio in volume 5).

By the 1930s, most households in America at least had access to a telephone. People could be contacted more easily, and they in turn could make contact with the outside world. The trend continued throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. By the 1980s, documents could be transmitted by fax while personal computers (see entry under 1970s—The Way We Lived in volume 4) "talked" to one another using modems that connected to telephone lines. Car telephones were available in the 1960s, but it was in the 1990s that hand-held mobile telephones became cheap enough for most people to own. They even became a fashion item. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the video telephone had moved out of science fiction and into offices and some homes. Cellular phones (see entry under 1990s—The Way We Lived in volume 5), satellite (see entry under 1950s—The Way We Lived in volume 3) links, and the Internet meant that in 2002 there were few places on earth where one could not be reached by telephone.

Voicemail, answering machines, automated information services, and a host of other systems have made the telephone the most powerful communication tool of the early twenty-first century. But perhaps the best measure of the telephone's importance is that it is taken for granted. Telephones work behind the scenes so that in 2002, more than half of all telephone calls take place between machines, with no human intervention. In the twenty-first century, not having access to a telephone is a serious form of deprivation, and the multibillion-dollar telecommunications industry is fundamental to the world economy. Whether for medical emergencies, high-powered business deals, or ordering pizza (see entry under 1940s—Food and Drink in volume 3), the telephone remains an essential part of twenty-first century life.

—Chris Routledge