Part 1 –
The Beginnings
Cell
Phone Repair Hawaii: a
historical perspective from the professionals at
MobileREMEDIES®
Even
though Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
is a better descriptive term for that little device we carry with us
in our purse, pocket or on our belt, it just hasn’t caught-on in
our daily vocabulary the way smartphone
has. Many of us still call it our cell phone;
even though the most primitive models do a lot more than just make
phone calls! No matter what you call it, this precious little device
holds a position of prominence in our daily lives that was
inconceivable before the beginning of the 21st
century! How it came to be is a fascinating story, worth some
reflection. The whole story however, is so vast and so complex, with
so many contributors, that this little summary cannot do it justice
Voices
Through the Wires?
Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the telephone just as Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. Instead, both pioneers were instrumental in making their devices known to the public and affordable to use. When Bell patented his telephone (Greek: tele = far-off and phone = voice sound) in 1876, people had already been sending electrical signals over wires in the form of telegraph messages or telegrams for 40 years and in fact, cables already crossed the Atlantic Ocean since the late 1850’s transmitting data to and from Europe at the rate of 1 character per 2 minutes. By 1870 the transatlantic message rate reached a blazing 20 words per minute! (So, “texting” was already the norm, though the term itself didn’t come into existence until we re-invented the concept for our smartphones in the late 1990’s) Voice transmission, however, was completely unknown and in fact, sound recording of any kind would not come into public consciousness for another 2 years, when Thomas Edison (who also did not invent the device!) would patent his phonograph in 1878. Not everyone thought the telephone had a future and even Alexander Graham Bell, in some financial difficulty and in a moment of doubt, offered to sell his patent to Western Union, the telegraph giant, for $100,000 in 1876. They turned him down, reportedly declaring the device to be of no practical value!
Early telephones suffered from some of the same limitations as the telegraph system but also benefitted from its existing technologies. First, wires had to be stretched between the desired points of communication. Then, unless you only wanted to use it as an intercom, connecting the two fixed points, you also had to have a central exchange or “switchboard” where the correct wires could be connected, routing calls to the right locations. Also, since one line could only accommodate one call at a time, the number of individual wires in the cables connecting the exchange stations (“trunk” lines) determined the number of simultaneous calls possible. It is easy to see how exponentially complex such a network would become even connecting a small number of locations!
Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the telephone just as Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. Instead, both pioneers were instrumental in making their devices known to the public and affordable to use. When Bell patented his telephone (Greek: tele = far-off and phone = voice sound) in 1876, people had already been sending electrical signals over wires in the form of telegraph messages or telegrams for 40 years and in fact, cables already crossed the Atlantic Ocean since the late 1850’s transmitting data to and from Europe at the rate of 1 character per 2 minutes. By 1870 the transatlantic message rate reached a blazing 20 words per minute! (So, “texting” was already the norm, though the term itself didn’t come into existence until we re-invented the concept for our smartphones in the late 1990’s) Voice transmission, however, was completely unknown and in fact, sound recording of any kind would not come into public consciousness for another 2 years, when Thomas Edison (who also did not invent the device!) would patent his phonograph in 1878. Not everyone thought the telephone had a future and even Alexander Graham Bell, in some financial difficulty and in a moment of doubt, offered to sell his patent to Western Union, the telegraph giant, for $100,000 in 1876. They turned him down, reportedly declaring the device to be of no practical value!
Early telephones suffered from some of the same limitations as the telegraph system but also benefitted from its existing technologies. First, wires had to be stretched between the desired points of communication. Then, unless you only wanted to use it as an intercom, connecting the two fixed points, you also had to have a central exchange or “switchboard” where the correct wires could be connected, routing calls to the right locations. Also, since one line could only accommodate one call at a time, the number of individual wires in the cables connecting the exchange stations (“trunk” lines) determined the number of simultaneous calls possible. It is easy to see how exponentially complex such a network would become even connecting a small number of locations!
TO BE
CONTINUED… (Part 1 –
The Beginnings)
(Part 2 - The Golden Age of Telephones)
(Part 3 –
Bridging the Oceans)
(Part 4 -
The Road to Cellular Technology)
(Part 5 –
From Cell Phones to Smartphones: The Internet!)
0 comments:
Post a Comment