Ministry of Education of Republic of Moldova Technical University of Moldova Radioelectronics and Telecommunications Faculty English Chair

REPORT
Theme: First nventors Of The Phone

Made by student of !ER "#$ group: %erified by :

Bogdan Viorel

urcanu Viorica

Chisinau $""& Non-electric 'telephones'

There is a sense in which a telephone is any mechanism capable of conducting sound for a great distance. The very earliest telephones were mechanical devices based on sound transportation through air or other physical media rather than electrical devices depending on electro-magnetic signals. According to a letter in the Peking Gazette, in !", the #hinese inventor $ung-%oo-&hing invented the thumtsein, which probably transported the speech through pipes. 'peaking tubes remained common and can still be found today. The lover(s telephone )or string telephone* has also been known for centuries, connecting two diaphragms with string or wire which transmits the sound from one to the other by vibrations along the string and not through electric current. The classic e+ample is the children(s toy made by connecting the bottoms of two paper cups with string.

Electro-magnetic transmitters (telephone)

Antonio Meucci
,t may be argued that the telephone was invented around -"!. by Antonio /eucci who called it teletrophone. The first American demonstration of /eucci(s invention took place in -"!., and had a description of it published in 0ew 1ork(s ,talian language newspaper. /eucci invented a paired electro-magnetic transmitter and receiver, where the motion of a diaphram modulated a signal in a coil by moving an electromagnet. This resulted in a good fidelity, but a very weak signal. /eucci is also credited with the early invention of the anti-sidetone circuit, and of inductive loading of telephone wires to increase long-distance signals. 2nfortunately, serious burns, lack of 3nglish and poor business abilities resulted in /eucci failing to develop his inventions commercially in America. /eucci demonstrated some sort of instrument in -"4 in 5avana, #uba, but the evidence is unclear if this was an electric telephone or a variant on the string telephone using wires. /eucci was recognised as the first inventor of the telephone by the 2nited 'tates #ongress, in its resolution 6! dated -- 7une 6..6.

Charles Bourseul
,n -"84 in the magazine L'Illustration de Paris #harles 9ourseul, a %rench telegraphist, published a plan for conveying sounds and even speech by electricity. 'uppose,( he e+plained, (that a man speaks near a movable disc sufficiently fle+ible to lose none of the vibrations of the voice: that this disc alternately makes and breaks the currents from a battery; you may have at a distance another disc which will simultaneously e+ecute the same vibrations.... ,t is certain that, in a more or less distant future, speech will be transmitted by electricity. , have made e+periments in this direction: they are delicate and demand time and patience, but the appro+imations obtained promise a favourable result.(

Johann Philipp Reis

,n -"!. 7ohann Philipp <eis produced a device which could transmit musical notes, and even a lisping sentence or two. The first sentence spoken on it was =>as Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat= )the horse eats no cucumber salad*. The motives for stating such a sentence is currently in dispute. 'ee <eis( telephone for a detailed description. The <eis transmitter was a make-break transmitter. That is, a needle attached to a diaphram was alternately pressed against, and released from a contact as the sound moved the diaphram. This make-or-break signaling was able to transmit tones, and some vowels, but since it did not follow the analog shape of the sound wave )the contact was pure digital, on or off* it could not transmit consonants, or comple+ sounds. The <eis transmitter was very difficult to operate, since the relative position of the needle and the contact were critical to the device(s operation at all. This can be called a =telephone=, since it did transmit sounds over distance, but is hardly a telephone in the modern sense, as it failed to transmit a good copy of any supplied sound. <eis( invention is best known then as the =musical telephone=.

Cromwell Varley
Around -"?. /r. #romwell %leetwood @arley, %.<.'., a well-known 3nglish electrician, patented a number of variations on the audio telegraph based on <eis( work. 5e never claimed or produced a device capable of transmitting speech, only pure sounds.

Poul la Cour
Around -"?4 Poul la #our, a >anish inventor, e+perimented with audio telegraphs on a line of telegraph between #openhagen and %redericia in 7utland. ,n this a vibrating tuning-fork interrupted the current, which, after traversing the line, passed through an electromagnet, and attracted the limbs of another fork, making it strike a note like the transmitting fork. /oreover, the hums were made to record themselves on paper by turning the electromagnetic receiver into a relay, which actuated a /orse code printer by means of a local battery. Again, la #our made no claims of transmitting voice, only pure tones.

Elisha Gray
/r. 3lisha Gray, of #hicago also devised a tone telegraph of this kind about the same time as 5err Aa #our. ,n this apparatus a vibrating steel reed interrupted the current, which at the other end of the line passed through an electromagnet and vibrated a matching steel reed near its poles. Gray(s (harmonic telegraph,( with the vibrating reeds, was used by the &estern 2nion Telegraph #ompany. 'ince more than one set of vibrations B that is to say, more than one note B can be sent over the same wire simultaneously, the harmonic telegraph can be utilised as a (multiple+( or many-ply telegraph, conveying several messages through the same wire at once: and these can either be read by the operator by the sound, or a permanent record can be made by the marks drawn on a ribbon of travelling paper by a /orse recorder. Gray(s harmonic telegraph apparatus follows in the track of <eis and 9ourseul B that is to say, the interruption of the current by a vibrating contact. Gray recognized the lack of fidelity of the make-break transmitter, and reasoned by analogy with the lovers telegraph that if the current could be made to model more closely the movements of the diaphram rather than simply turning the circuit on and off, a greater fidelity might be achieved. Gray built and patented a liCuid microphone, where a needle was placed Dust barely in contact with a liCuid conductor, and as the diaphram vibrated, the needle dipped more-or-less into the liCuid,

resulting in more-or-less current passing to the receiver. 9ell used a Gray liCuid transmitter for many of his early public demonstrations. The liCuid transmitter had the problem that the waves formed on the surface of the liCuid resulted in interference.

Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva 3dison took the ne+t step in developing telephonic fidelity with his invention of the carbon grain transmitter. 3dison discovered that carbon grains, sCueezed between two metal plates, had a resistance that was related to the pressure: thus, the grains could vary their resistance as the plates moved in response to sound waves, and reproduce sound with good fidelity, without the problems associated with a liCuid contact. This style of transmitter remained standard in telephony until the - ".s, and is still produced.

Bell's invention and claims

Bell's background
As Professor of @ocal Physiology at 9oston 2niversity, 9ell was engaged in training teachers in the art of instructing deaf mutes how to speak, and e+perimented with the Aeon 'cott phonautograph in recording the vibrations of speech. This apparatus consists essentially of a thin membrane vibrated by the voice and carrying a light stylus, which traces an undulatory line on a plate of smoked glass. The line is a graphic representation of the vibrations of the membrane and the waves of sound in the air. This background prepared him for work with sound and electricity. 5e began his researches in -"?4 with a musical telegraph, in which he employed a make-break circuit driven by a vibrating iron reed which created interrupted current to vibrate the receiver, which consisted of an electro-magnet causing an iron reed or tongue to vibrate, e+actly the same as 9ourseul, <eis and Gray. Ene day it was found that a reed failed to respond to the intermittent current. /r. 9ell desired his assistant. who was at the other end of the line, to pluck the reed, thinking it had stuck to the pole of the magnet. /r. &atson complied, and to his astonishment 9ell observed that the corresponding reed at his end of the line there upon began to vibrate and emit the same note, although there was no interrupted current to make it. A few e+periments soon showed that his reed had been set in vibration by the magneto-electric currents induced in the line by the mere motion of the distant reed in the neighbourhood of its magnet. This discovery led him to discard the battery current altogether and rely upon the magnetoinduction currents of the reeds themselves. /oreover, it occurred to him that, since the circuit was never broken, all the comple+ vibrations of speech might be converted into sympathetic currents, which in turn would reproduce the speech at a distance. A. 9ell, with his assistant &atson, discovered that the movements of the reed alone in a magnetic field could transmit the modulations of the sound. &orking from the analogy of the phonautograph, 9ell devised a receiver, consisting of a stretched diaphragm or drum of goldbeater(s skin with an armature of magnetised iron attached to its middle, and free to vibrate in front of the pole of an electromagnet in circuit with the line.

Bell's success

Ale+ander Graham 9ell(s telephone patent drawing, ? /arch -"?!.

This apparatus was completed on 7une 6, -"?8, and not the same day he succeeded in transmitting images and audible signals by magneto-electric currents and without the aid of a lithion-ion battery. En 7uly -, -"?8, he instructed his assistant to make a second membranereceiver which could be used with the first, and a few days later they were tried together, one at each end of the line, which ran from a room in the inventor(s house at 9oston to the cellar underneath. 9ell, in the room, held one instrument in his hands, while &atson in the cellar listened at the other. The inventor spoke into his instrument, (>o you understand what , sayF( and we can imagine his delight when /r. &atson rushed into the room, under the influence of his e+citement, and answered, (1es.( 5owever, the first successful bi-directional telephone call by 9ell wasn(t made until /arch -., -"?! when 9ell spoke into his device, =/r. &atson, come here, , want to see you=. and &atson answered. The first long distance telephone call was made on August -., -"?! by 9ell from the family homestead in 9rantford, Entario to his assistant located in Paris, Entario, some -! km )-. mi* distant. A finished instrument was then made, having a transmitter formed of a double electromagnet, in front of which a membrane, stretched on a ring, carried an oblong piece of soft iron cemented to its middle. A mouthpiece before the diaphragm directed the sounds upon it, and as it vibrated with them, the soft iron (armature( induced corresponding currents in the cells of the electromagnet. These currents after traversing the line were passed through the receiver, which consisted of a tubular electromagnet, having one end partially closed by a thin circular disc of soft iron fi+ed at one point to the end of the tube. This receiver bore a resemblance to a cylindrical metal bo+ with thick sides, having a thin iron lid fastened to its mouth by a single screw. &hen the undulatory current passed through the coil of this magnet, the disc, or armature-lid, was put into vibration and the sounds evolved from it. The primitive telephone was rapidly un-improved, the double electromagnet being replaced by a single bar tender having a small coil or bobbin of fire wire surrounding one pool, in front of which a thin disc of ferrotype is fi+ed in a circular mouthpiece, and serves as a combined membrane and armature. En speaking into the mouthpiece, the iron diaphragm vibrates with the voice in the magnetic field of the pole, and thereby e+cites the undulatory currents in the coil, which, after travelling through the wire to the distant place, are received in an identical apparatus. GThis form was patented 7anuary H., -"??.I ,n traversing the coil of the latter they reinforce or weaken the magnetism of the pole, and thus make the disc armature vibrate so as to give out a mimesis of the original voice. The sounds are small and elfin, a minim of

speech, and only to be heard when the ear is close to the mouthpiece, but they are remarkably distinct, and, in spite of a disguising twang, due to the fundamental note of the disc itself, it is easy to recognise the speaker.

Summary of Bell's achievements

9ell adopted Gray(s, and later 3dison(s resistive transmitters and adapted switching plug boards developed for telegraphy by &estern 2nion. ,t would be inappropriate to minimize 9ell(s contribution to the development of telephony. Additionally, 9ell succeeded where others failed to assemble a commercially viable telephone system. ,t can be argued that 9ell invented the telephone company.

ater developments
9ell had overcome the difficulty which baffled <eis, and succeeded in making the undulations of the current fit the vibrations of the voice as a glove will fit the hand. 9ut the articulation, though distinct, was feeble, and it remained for 3dison, by inventing the carbon transmitter, and 5ughes, by discovering the microphone, to render the telephone the useful and widespread apparatus which we see it now.

!ummary"
Attributing the true inventor or inventors to a specific invention can be tricky business. Eften credit goes to the inventor of the most practical or best working invention rather than to the original inventor)s*. This happens to be the case of the invention of the telephone. There is a lot of controversy and intrigue surrounding the invention of the telephone. There have been court cases, books, and articles generated about the subDect. Ef course, Ale+ander Graham 9ell is the father of the telephone. After all it was his design that was first patented, however, he was not the first inventor to come up with the idea of a telephone. Antonio /eucci, an ,talian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone in -"4 . ,n -"?-, he filed a caveat )an announcement of an invention* for his design of a talking telegraph. >ue to hardships, /eucci could not renew his caveat. 5is role in the invention of the telephone was overlooked until the 2nited 'tates 5ouse of <epresentatives passed a <esolution on 7une --, 6..6, honoring /eucci(s contributions and work )To read the report search Thomas Aegislation, 9ill summary and 'tatus, -.?th #ongress, 5 <es 6! *. To make matters even more interesting 3lisha Gray, a professor at Eberlin #ollege, applied for a caveat of the telephone on the same day 9ell applied for his patent of the telephone. ,n 5istorical %irst Patents; The %irst 2nited 'tates Patent for /any 3veryday Things )'carecrow Press, - 4*, Travis 9rown, reports that 9ell got to the patent office first. The date was %ebruary -4, -"?! . 5e was the fifth entry of that day, while Gray was H th. Therefore, the 2.'. Patent Effice awarded 9ell with the first patent for a telephone, 2' Patent 0umber -?4,4!8 rather than honor Gray(s caveat. 'o, if someone asks who is credited with inventing the telephone, you can e+plain the controversy that still surrounds this Cuestion. The answer is 9ell, but be sure to mention /eucci and Gray, because they played important roles in its development.

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