Alexander Graham Bell Who Invented Telephone

¶ … Inventions of Modern Times

Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone

The United States has produced many inventors, but few as significant as Alexander Graham Bell. Bell's 1876 invention of the telephone revolutionized society. For the first time in history, it became possible to communicate directly and instantaneously across vast distances. A man could speak into a telephone in one place and converse with a woman miles away. Earlier in the Nineteenth Century, the telegraph had made possible a similar change in human interaction. Yet, the telegraph had never allowed for the transmission of act5ual speech. With that invention, one needed to know and understand a special code. One's words were first converted in that code, and then sent across wires in the form of coded electrical impulses; impulses that then had to be "translated" at the other end. What Alexander Graham Bell accomplished was little short of a miracle -- a method of long distance communication that anyone could use with virtually no training at all. Two individuals, out of earshot of each other, could speak as though they were standing next to one other.

As Alexander Graham Bell's telephone became widely available it brought about many unforeseen changes in the world in which we live. The telephone made it possible for a company to conduct business without all its employees beyond concentrated in one place. As well, the telephone eliminated the long delays previously demanded by the sending and receiving of written messages. Perhaps even more importantly, families and friends could keep in touch even though they might live in different parts of the country or the world. In the case of an emergency, individuals could instantly get in touch with distant authorities. A storeowner could call the police if he had been robbed. A mother could call a doctor if her child was sick. Alexander Graham Bell's invention made the world a smaller place -- the telephone brought humanity together as never before.