Invention of The Telephone

The invention of the telephone is the culmination of work done by many individuals, the history of which involves a collection of claims and counterclaims. The prerequisite for the development of the telephone goes back to the year 1833 were Carl Friedrich Gauß and Wilhelm Eduard Weber invented the electric transmission of signals in Göttingen which set the fundamental basis for the technology that was used in all inventions following. This invention is recognized to be the first electromagnetic telegraph of the world. The development of the modern telephone involved an array of lawsuits founded upon the patent claims of several individuals. This article covers the early years 1844–1898, from conception of the idea of an electric voice-transmission device, failed attempts to use "make-and-break" current, successful experiments with electromagnetic devices by Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson, to commercially successful telephones in the late 19th century.

The origins of the telephone date back to the non-electrical string telephone or "lover's telephone" that has been known for centuries, comprising two diaphragms connected by a taut string or wire. Sound waves are carried as mechanical vibrations along the string or wire from one diaphragm to the other. The classic example is the tin can telephone, a children's toy made by connecting the two ends of a string to the bottoms of two metal cans, paper cups or similar items. The essential idea of this toy was that a diaphragm can collect voice sounds from the air, as in the ear, and a string or wire can transmit such collected voice sounds for reproduction at a distance.