In 1870 Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell had both be working on the design for the telephone independently. They both rushed their designs to the patent office on the same day within hours of each other. There was a huge court fight over whose phone got the patent first. Alexander Graham Bell won the famous battle and was declared the first person who invented the telephone.
The definition of the telephone is an instrument that reproduces sounds at a distance. (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 1989, pg 1212) A device that is used to transmit and recieve sound is definition of a telecommunication. The telephone transmits and recieves sound at various distances apart from each other. Most of telephones operate through a transmission of electric signals. There is a complex telephone network that allows any user to communicate with each other.
Alexander Graham Bell had been interested in the education of deaf peoplehis whole life, which lead him to the invention of the microphone. A device that electric sound was converted from sound. Electrical Speech Machine was also invented by Bell after the invention of the microphone. We now call the electrical speech machine the telephone.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
first 50 years
Zach Charbel
As the words ”Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” on March 10, 1876 were spoken into the telephone the rest was history. After the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell it was used for communication “across and between major cities”. Cities beginning to use this technology could only talk over a short distance until the callers voice was lost completely.
The fix to this problem would reveal itself as Sir John Ambrose Fleming invented the vacuum diode in 1904. Even though the vacuum diodes were invented it would be a few more years before they are implemented in aiding telephone conversations over long distances. These vacuum diodes made it possible for long distance calls because when the diode is placed on telephone line it self it amplifies the signal allowing it to travel a longer distance. This made possible the first trans-continental phone call, placed in 1915 by Alexander Graham Bell from New York, NY to San Francisco, CA. Even as developments were being made to improve the telephone, there were still many limitations.
At first every caller had to talk to an operator to route their call to the person they wanted to talk to. But in 1919 switchboards and dial telephones were introduced to the public allowing for “customers to place calls without an operator.” The rotary dial telephone was used because it interrupted the signal within the telephone wire, which enabled customers to call a certain number. Each number listed on the phone was represented by a certain number of interruptions in the signal within the telephone line. Up until 1920 telephone lines were only able to handle one call at a time per line, but during 1920 an idea called frequency multiplexing was invented and put into use. Frequency multiplexing allows for multiple calls on a single telephone line, which allowed for a greater volume of calls. As the telephone’s popularity increased the major telephone companies began to implement the numbering system we are all familiar with today.
The system is called the North American Numbering Plan and was implemented in 1947, but did not take full affect until 1951. The first three letters refer to the area code, the next three are the prefix, which narrows down the area even further, the final four digits are the direct line to the telephone the person is trying to reach. The plan today includes 19 countries, including the United States. 1951 is also the year long distance was made available without going through an actual human operator, otherwise known as direct dialing.
In 1949 AT&T introduces the model 500 telephone, which is the standard rotary telephone everyone knows. Shortly after, in 1956, the first Transatlantic telephone cable was installed between Nova Scotia and Scotland. This allowed for “telephone service between North America and the United Kingdom.” With the development of the telephone and all of the services along with it millions of people’s lives were forever changed.
The telephone at the turn of the century allowed people to communicate like never before. Before the telephone there was the telegraph, which still took time to deliver the telegraph by hand to the person. Now people could communicate in an instant and actually have a conversation instead of sending a telegraph or a piece of mail to the person and having to wait.
Since the telephone was a newly popular item some marketing gimmicks were done to boost the use of the telephones. Some of the gimmicks were “wake-up calls and telephone-delivered sermons.” And like every new technology the price in the beginning was rather staggering, but as the years progressed the prices fell. At the turn of the 20th century, “the Bell system charged $99 per 1,000 phone calls… by the early 1920’s a flat monthly residential rate of $3 was typical.” As the telephone spread some people were scared the “community ties and old forms of civility were fraying.”
As for marketing of the telephone itself it changed as trends in marketing changed. When the telephone was invented it was right around the time particular brands began to come about. The telephone companies at the time, two of which were AT&T and Bell Telephone System, like a lot of the companies in the early days of the brand wars relied on hard-selling because everyone that bought their product wanted to know what it could do for them. So the companies had technical information about their product in the ads they produced and what it specifically could do for you. Then as time went on the marketing switched to soft-selling. Soft-selling happened when brands were becoming established and more common place in the work place and home as well. This allowed for the companies to move away from what the product could do for you to marketing towards the person themselves.
In a way the telephone did not need any marketing in the beginning for the simple fact that it had changed to way we live. And the concept of the telephone changed very little during this time because the telephone was invented to speak to someone over a distance and that is it, nothing else. Now today it is a very, very different story.
Works Cited
“Telephone Timeline”. November 23, 2008 http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3625.
The fix to this problem would reveal itself as Sir John Ambrose Fleming invented the vacuum diode in 1904. Even though the vacuum diodes were invented it would be a few more years before they are implemented in aiding telephone conversations over long distances. These vacuum diodes made it possible for long distance calls because when the diode is placed on telephone line it self it amplifies the signal allowing it to travel a longer distance. This made possible the first trans-continental phone call, placed in 1915 by Alexander Graham Bell from New York, NY to San Francisco, CA. Even as developments were being made to improve the telephone, there were still many limitations.
At first every caller had to talk to an operator to route their call to the person they wanted to talk to. But in 1919 switchboards and dial telephones were introduced to the public allowing for “customers to place calls without an operator.” The rotary dial telephone was used because it interrupted the signal within the telephone wire, which enabled customers to call a certain number. Each number listed on the phone was represented by a certain number of interruptions in the signal within the telephone line. Up until 1920 telephone lines were only able to handle one call at a time per line, but during 1920 an idea called frequency multiplexing was invented and put into use. Frequency multiplexing allows for multiple calls on a single telephone line, which allowed for a greater volume of calls. As the telephone’s popularity increased the major telephone companies began to implement the numbering system we are all familiar with today.
The system is called the North American Numbering Plan and was implemented in 1947, but did not take full affect until 1951. The first three letters refer to the area code, the next three are the prefix, which narrows down the area even further, the final four digits are the direct line to the telephone the person is trying to reach. The plan today includes 19 countries, including the United States. 1951 is also the year long distance was made available without going through an actual human operator, otherwise known as direct dialing.
In 1949 AT&T introduces the model 500 telephone, which is the standard rotary telephone everyone knows. Shortly after, in 1956, the first Transatlantic telephone cable was installed between Nova Scotia and Scotland. This allowed for “telephone service between North America and the United Kingdom.” With the development of the telephone and all of the services along with it millions of people’s lives were forever changed.The telephone at the turn of the century allowed people to communicate like never before. Before the telephone there was the telegraph, which still took time to deliver the telegraph by hand to the person. Now people could communicate in an instant and actually have a conversation instead of sending a telegraph or a piece of mail to the person and having to wait.
Since the telephone was a newly popular item some marketing gimmicks were done to boost the use of the telephones. Some of the gimmicks were “wake-up calls and telephone-delivered sermons.” And like every new technology the price in the beginning was rather staggering, but as the years progressed the prices fell. At the turn of the 20th century, “the Bell system charged $99 per 1,000 phone calls… by the early 1920’s a flat monthly residential rate of $3 was typical.” As the telephone spread some people were scared the “community ties and old forms of civility were fraying.”
As for marketing of the telephone itself it changed as trends in marketing changed. When the telephone was invented it was right around the time particular brands began to come about. The telephone companies at the time, two of which were AT&T and Bell Telephone System, like a lot of the companies in the early days of the brand wars relied on hard-selling because everyone that bought their product wanted to know what it could do for them. So the companies had technical information about their product in the ads they produced and what it specifically could do for you. Then as time went on the marketing switched to soft-selling. Soft-selling happened when brands were becoming established and more common place in the work place and home as well. This allowed for the companies to move away from what the product could do for you to marketing towards the person themselves.
In a way the telephone did not need any marketing in the beginning for the simple fact that it had changed to way we live. And the concept of the telephone changed very little during this time because the telephone was invented to speak to someone over a distance and that is it, nothing else. Now today it is a very, very different story.Works Cited
“Telephone Timeline”. November 23, 2008 http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3625.
second 50 years
Katy Rankin
History of Design
Group product web assignment
11/23/08
Up until the second half of the twentieth century, the telephone’s prominent success had been generated through the construction of the dial switch, although by the start of the early 1960’s the history of the telephone’s progress made an incredible turning point by the introduction of the touch-tone system. Before hand, the dial switch used power in which was supplied to every subscriber line by central office batteries rather than a local battery. This procedure resulted in required periodical services. After this point, networking and persistent employees behind the telephone developed this new and improved method, which increased the speed of dialing.
“The first touch-tone system - which used tones in the voice frequency range rather than pulses generated by rotary dials - was installed in Baltimore, MD, in 1941. Operators in a central switching office then pushed the buttons.” (The Great Idea Finder). At this time, the process had been declared too expensive for general use but was finally made possible by the use of low-cost transistors and associated circuit components in 1962. This innovative concept made it possible for users to push buttons, which produced a specific tone for each number. “Extensive human factors tests determined the position of the buttons to limit errors and increase dialing speed even further” (The Great Idea Finder).
While the ever-growing lifestyle of touch tone telephones continued to fabricate the all American dream and current trends in home appliances, so did the development of the mobile telephones. The whole overall concept of the mobile phone originated back to the two-way radio that was installed in specific vehicles such as taxi cabs, police cruisers and trains. “Later versions such as the so-called transportables or (bag phones) were equipped with a cigarette lighter plug so that they could also be carried, and thus could be used as either mobile two-way radios or as portable phones by being patched into the telephone network” (The Great Idea Finder). By continuing extensive research of cellular technology during the 1960’s, Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs established the necessary electronics for cellular towers. On April 3, 1973 a Motorola manager by the name of Martin Cooper placed the first cellular phone call to Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs. This astonishing breakthrough launched the familiar era of hand held cell phones we use today.
As the years progressed, cable television companies began using fast-developing cable networks to provide telephone services connected with major telephone companies. “One of the early cable operators in the UK, Cable London, connected its first cable telephone customer in about 1990” (The Great Idea Finder). Cellular technology continues to advance from broadband Internet connection, to picture phones, while society has become an even more connected world than ever before. The idea of the common phone is much more than a communication device; it’s a personalized essential commodity, which shapes our everyday lives.
Works Cited
“The Great Idea Finder.” Invention of the telephone. 23 Nov. 2008
http://www.ideafinder.com/home.htm
History of Design
Group product web assignment
11/23/08
Up until the second half of the twentieth century, the telephone’s prominent success had been generated through the construction of the dial switch, although by the start of the early 1960’s the history of the telephone’s progress made an incredible turning point by the introduction of the touch-tone system. Before hand, the dial switch used power in which was supplied to every subscriber line by central office batteries rather than a local battery. This procedure resulted in required periodical services. After this point, networking and persistent employees behind the telephone developed this new and improved method, which increased the speed of dialing.
“The first touch-tone system - which used tones in the voice frequency range rather than pulses generated by rotary dials - was installed in Baltimore, MD, in 1941. Operators in a central switching office then pushed the buttons.” (The Great Idea Finder). At this time, the process had been declared too expensive for general use but was finally made possible by the use of low-cost transistors and associated circuit components in 1962. This innovative concept made it possible for users to push buttons, which produced a specific tone for each number. “Extensive human factors tests determined the position of the buttons to limit errors and increase dialing speed even further” (The Great Idea Finder).
While the ever-growing lifestyle of touch tone telephones continued to fabricate the all American dream and current trends in home appliances, so did the development of the mobile telephones. The whole overall concept of the mobile phone originated back to the two-way radio that was installed in specific vehicles such as taxi cabs, police cruisers and trains. “Later versions such as the so-called transportables or (bag phones) were equipped with a cigarette lighter plug so that they could also be carried, and thus could be used as either mobile two-way radios or as portable phones by being patched into the telephone network” (The Great Idea Finder). By continuing extensive research of cellular technology during the 1960’s, Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs established the necessary electronics for cellular towers. On April 3, 1973 a Motorola manager by the name of Martin Cooper placed the first cellular phone call to Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs. This astonishing breakthrough launched the familiar era of hand held cell phones we use today.
As the years progressed, cable television companies began using fast-developing cable networks to provide telephone services connected with major telephone companies. “One of the early cable operators in the UK, Cable London, connected its first cable telephone customer in about 1990” (The Great Idea Finder). Cellular technology continues to advance from broadband Internet connection, to picture phones, while society has become an even more connected world than ever before. The idea of the common phone is much more than a communication device; it’s a personalized essential commodity, which shapes our everyday lives.
Works Cited
“The Great Idea Finder.” Invention of the telephone. 23 Nov. 2008
http://www.ideafinder.com/home.htm
Monday, November 24, 2008
rEVOLUTIONary phone
These are the sketches for the new Bluetooth inspired phone that is the next step in the design of the telephone (cell phone). The top two are one design for one based off of the iPhone with a sleek, modern design with touch-screen buttons featured on it for easier access. The bottom left is the design that we decided to create into the actual proposal. The bottom right is the phone attachment with a touch screen keypad for quiet texting.
This is our finalized design for the new phone. It comes in a variety of colors for a more modern appeal. (The colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and pink, however for some reason blogspot does not like this file and will not upload the proper colors.)
Please see Amy's post for the detailed description and information on this new design.
Next step in evolution
Based on research we have done we designed the proposed idea of a complete headset cell phone. Bluetooth technology came out in the late 1990's and the first cell phone to include bluetooth was in 2000. Bluetooth was the first design to use a wireless headset for a cell phone. Our design would not include a separate phone but rather just a headset that is a cell phone. Almost everything about the phone would require voice recognition. If you wanted to call your mom you would just say "call mom" and your phone would recognize it and dial your mom's number. If you wanted to text your friend Mary you would say "text Mary" and then say what you want your text to be. The phone would also repeat things back to you to make sure everything you said was correct.
The phone would be programmable via the computer. It would include a program that you would load onto your computer. You would be able to control a contact list from your computer and then upload it to your phone. All the initial voice recognition would be done through the program and also uploaded to your phone. If you are in a quiet place that you aren't able to "voice text" you could go to any computer nearby and simply plug your phone in through USB and sent a text message to someone using the computer. Everything done on the computer will be password protected so no one could steal your phone and upload everything off of it.
Another design that we came up with to solve the texting problem would be to have a very little touchscreen pad that is attached to the headset. It would just be the normal number/letter pad. It would make texting in a quiet place easier. You would also be able to add new phone numbers to the phone without having a computer present.
Bibliography:
http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/SIG/History_of_the_SIG.htm
The phone would be programmable via the computer. It would include a program that you would load onto your computer. You would be able to control a contact list from your computer and then upload it to your phone. All the initial voice recognition would be done through the program and also uploaded to your phone. If you are in a quiet place that you aren't able to "voice text" you could go to any computer nearby and simply plug your phone in through USB and sent a text message to someone using the computer. Everything done on the computer will be password protected so no one could steal your phone and upload everything off of it.
Another design that we came up with to solve the texting problem would be to have a very little touchscreen pad that is attached to the headset. It would just be the normal number/letter pad. It would make texting in a quiet place easier. You would also be able to add new phone numbers to the phone without having a computer present.
Bibliography:
http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/SIG/History_of_the_SIG.htm
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