FROM TALKING TELEGRAPHS TO SIRI: THE EVOLUTION OF THE TELEPHONE THROUGH TIME Presentation by: Mrs. Daniels, 6th Grade Pre-AP LA Teacher

Alexander Graham Bell, 1902 (Everyday Mysteries) INVENTOR (credited) Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish-born Educated at University of London Taught speech and vocal physiology at Boston University (primarily concerned with the deaf) Developed idea for telephone in 1874: “If I could make a current of electricity vary in intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the production of sound, I should be able to transmit speech telegraphically.” Patent approved March 7, 1876 “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you” (Gordon) Research Foundations and Institutions across the nation Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf (1890) Alexander Graham Bell, 1902 (Everyday Mysteries)

INVENTION – CONTROVERSY Elisha Gray, 1878 (Everyday Mysteries) Antonio Meucci (Everyday Mysteries) Professor at Oberlin College Applied for caveat (announcement of invention) the same day as Bell applied for patent – February 14, 1876 Bell was 5th entry Gray was 39th (Everyday Mysteries) Apparatus descriptions: the real controversy (Swezey) Italian immigrant to the United States Began development 1849 Filed caveat 1871 Financial hardships Overlooked until 2002 Resolution passed by US House of Representatives (Everyday Mysteries)

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 1890s – 1930s: The Candlestick Phone 1960s: The Answering Machine 1980s: The Portable Phone 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and the Original Telephone 1930s – 1960s: The Rotary Phone 1963 – 1980s: The Push-Button Phone Candlestick: Popular from the 1890s to the 1930s; separated into two pieces (mouth piece = candlestick part, receiver was placed by your ear); style died out in the ’30s when manufacturers began combining two pieces into a single unit. Rotary: Rotated the dial to the number you wanted and then release (irritating!); push-button phones gained popularity in ‘60s and ‘70s so this died out. Push-button: Introduced by AT&T in 1963; use a keypad to dial numbers; each key would transmit a certain frequency, signaling to the telephone operator which number you wanted to call; downside: dial tones were subject to spoofing by what were called “blue boxes” and people could make free long-distance phone calls. Answering machine: Allowed callers to leave a message if no one answered; not popular until the 1960s; used miniature cassette tapes to record messages; recently (within the past 15 years) replaced by digital answering machines; even more recently (within the past 10 years) replaced by cell phone voicemail. Portable phones: AKA “cordless” phones meant people were no longer physically attached to their phone’s base and could talk on the phone anywhere in the house; similar to a small-scale cell phone. Pictures and information courtesy of The Boy Genius Report (Zigterman).

THE INTRODUCTION OF MOBILE PHONES (CELLULAR PHONES) 1991: Caller ID introduced (very controversial) 2003: Sanyo SCP-5300 (one of first camera phones) 2007 – present: iPhone and Android phones take over 1984: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X released as first commercially available cell phone 1996: Motorola StarTAC (first flip phone) Early 2000s: PDAs transition into “smartphones” Motorola DynaTAC: The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was released in 1984 as the first commercially available mobile phone, about 10 years after Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call ever; weighed 1.75 pounds, had 30 minutes of talk time, and cost around $4,000.   Caller ID: Introduced in 1991; very controversial at the time because people felt like it was an invasion of privacy; now comes standard and is taken for granted, though it completely changed the way we use phones. Motorola StarTAC: First successful flip phone introduced in 1996; really was the first successful consumer cell phone, as Motorola eventually sold 60 million StarTACs; much lighter at just 3.1 ounces; considered a milestone in the trend toward smaller cell phones. **Later perfected flip phone with the RAZR: Announced in 2004; only 0.54 inches thin (had a lot to do with being fashionable for your phone to be tiny); overall sold 130 million RAZRs; popularity rapidly declined due to touchscreen smartphones. Sanyo SCP–5300: Released in 2003; one of the first phones to include a camera; no comparison to today’s cameras, but could take 640 × 480 pixel photos and store 10 to 15 of them; built-in flash with a range of only three feet. Palm Treo: In the early 2000s PDAs (personal digital assistants) transitioned into the first smartphones; Palm Treo specifically had a tiny keyboard at the bottom, and began to lose its appeal after the introduction of touchscreen smartphones. **The "Web Phone" combined a traditional telephone with an LCD touch-screen and a retractable keyboard so people could surf the Internet, check e-mail, make phone calls and check voice mail from a single device iPhone and Android: 1) With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Apple brought the smartphone to the masses; intuitive touchscreen, intelligent sensors, and sleek design made the clunky previous smartphones and flip phones obsolete; initially lacked features like copy-and-paste, but made consistent improvements with annual updates to both its hardware and software; runs on an OS consistent with Apple’s desktop systems (many people find this helpful). 2) Less than a year later, the Juggernaut was introduced and Android quickly rose to become Apple’s biggest competitor; offered a modern operating system that could compete with Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry (and eventually Apple); first true Android phone, the HTC Dream, was launched in October 2008 with an app-based OS for touchscreens. This company has also continued to enhance and improve its functionality throughout the years. Pictures and information courtesy of The Boy Genius Report (Zigterman) and the Telecommunications History Group.

: as 19th Century 20th Century SOCIETAL IMPACTS The digital technology age, and especially the use of cellular telephones, has completely changed the way we as humans behave in public.   In the past, public squares and parks have been the stage for some of history’s most memorable moments: the beheading of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution in Paris in 1793; the March on Washington in 1963, where a crowd filling the National Mall heard Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech; the pro-democracy protests in 1989 in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which left us the with the image of a single man standing in front of a line of tanks. These public spaces have also traditionally hosted markets, outdoor concerts, and cafés. Now, in the Digital Age, every kind of information can be transmitted to mobile phones, computers, and TV screens. We can catch up on the news, buy stuff, listen to music, watch webcams, and sign petitions – all without meeting in person. So what is to become of these public areas? When families, couples, or friends sit down to grab a bite to eat nowadays, there is no familiarity anymore. Phones and tablets immediately come out and nearly each person at the table is preoccupied with texting, surfing the internet, or playing a game. Real conversation is impossible in the face of so much technological distraction. And yet, conversation through texting does encourage people to be honest—honest as machines are honest. The content of one-on-one converstaion might still contain facts, but those facts can be easily undermined by the tone and body language with which they are delivered. Next to conversation, people-watching also diminishes as more and more people become locked into the private worlds of their earphones and iPhones. What will become of this sacred and very entertaining pastime as we fall further and further into the digital era? “The telephone … changed the way we live, work and play--and contributed to the invention of television, computers, pagers, fax machines, e-mail, the Internet, online stock trading and more.” (Telecommunications History Group, Inc.)

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? In the future, I foresee the elimination of actual cell phones in favor of devices similar the Apple watch. I also believe that when we answer calls on these devices, the caller will be projected up as a hologram so that we can actually talk “face to face,” so to speak. Think Star Wars!

FUN FACTS! Though he is credited with its invention, Alexander Graham Bell refused to have a telephone in his study, fearing it would distract him from his scientific work (Gordon). And other fun facts…