Technological Advancement

Technological Advancement - Invention of Telephone

Introduction

During the era between 1820 and 1860, United States faced a drastic transformation in the form of massive expansion and urbanization. These transformations collectively led to the Second Industrial Revolution that occurred during 1870 and 1914.

A lot of industrial and technological advancements took place during that era. These improvements and advancements proved to be a catalyst for the development process of the world. Inventions and developments during the Second Industrial Revolution were interrelated. The expansion in railroads encouraged the development of the telegraph machine (Fischer, 2006).

Railroad lines and telegraph lines were so much interrelated to each other as telegraph polls determined the length of railroad lines. The telegraph, and afterward the telephone, emerged and accompanied each other in the period of instantaneous communication that minimized the distances and brought the world closer. This paper focuses on the invention and development of the telephone that turned out to be the major communicating device.

Background

The basic telephone has become a taken-for-granted part of our everyday life, but when it first appeared, its role was far from clear. This happened to all the major innovations in the past.

Telephony provides an example of how difficult it is to point to a first “inventor” of a new technology given that several researchers were working in this field. Some of these researchers were trying to improve telegraphy, by enabling it to carry more traffic, when they discovered how sound could be sent over wires. However, the telegraphy industry was not interested in developing this line of innovation because from its perspective the telegraph left a permanent record, which a sound message would not, and the development of automatic telegraphy for sending telegrams had led to one telegraphic vision of a telegraph going into every home and business. Even when first promoted by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone, for many observers at that time, had no obvious use—it was perceived as being a toy (Moyal, 2002).

First Ever Experiment

At the Universal Exhibition in Philadelphia in June 1876, one could notice a small instrument similar in kind to a cup and ball, 20 centimeters long, with two metal son, who was said transmitted human speech at distances incalculable. Its inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, was there, explaining the effects of each phone, because that was the name he had given to his aircraft.

Scholars to which this invention seemed almost supernatural, made an immediate telephone experiences: they adopted a son of the telegraph line, and in New York they could hear words spoken in Philadelphia: the smallest sounds were played, such as exclamations, laughter, sighs, breathing even.

Among the listeners was the famous physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). He was excited about the discovery of Bell and named Wonder of wonders (Aronson, 2005).

Discussion

Partly because of some technical limitations on the quality of two-way communications, there were early experiments using telephony for broadcasting music, drama, and news as a way of popularizing the technology. However, Bell had a long-term vision of point-to-point telephony replacing telegraphy and campaigned ...