Early Telephones

While working on sound transmission for the deaf, Alexander Graham Bell discovered that steady electric current can be altered to resemble the vibrations made by the human voice. In 1876 he patented a device that sent speech along wires and called it the telephone. Early models of the telephone include Edison’s 1879 wall-mounted phone (left), the candlestick design common in the 1920s and 1930s (bottom), and a 1937 “cradle” telephone.

Dorling Kindersley

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Telephone

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