On the evening of March 10, 1876, Watson heard Alec’s voice emanating from the receiver in the next room, “Mr. He sketched out a rudimentary diagram of the transmitter and receiver, and the very next day, he and Watson were experimenting on the world’s first telephone. This effect was of great importance to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone idea. It was a bright twang, and it sounded the same on the receiver as when Watson plucked it. In 1876, Watson plucked a spring in one room, and the sound came through on a receiver in the other. Alexander Graham Bell‘s Telephone Invention During their telegraphy experimentation, they had a breakthrough. He realized it would be possible to convey the human voice across a wire.īell had employed an assistant by the name of Thomas Watson to help him with the harmonic telegraph. ![]() Bell understood that if sound could be transmitted as an electrical current, it would be possible for a “receiver” to interpret those vibrations. In inventing the phonautograph, Bell had essentially recreated the human ear. This revelation became the genesis for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention. Bell, however, was struck by how sound waves on a membrane could move the components of the machine. The result was a contraption that he dubbed “the ear phonautograph.” A person could speak into the machine, and a pen attached to a membrane would react by tracing a line.īell’s idea was that he could speak into it, and when his pupil mimicked him, they could compare the lines and help the deaf improve their pronunciation. His primary source of income was from his work as an elocution expert.Īlexander Graham Bell was particularly interested in developing technology to assist the deaf community. In fact, his tinkering and experimentation with the telegraph was just a passion project. ![]() His mother and his wife were both deaf, and he was devoted to the cause of helping the deaf community. The Eureka Momentīell’s proximity to the hearing impaired informed his work in sound science. But his work on the harmonic telegraph was hugely influential in his quest to transmit the human voice itself. The telegraph was already in widespread commercial use, and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention was still just a great idea. The race for an improved telegraph often overshadowed Bell’s idea for the first telephone. Alexander Graham Bell’s observations about how sound traveled along a wire gave rise to his idea of transmitting a human voice in the same manner. The harmonic telegraph served as the basis for the modern telephone. So before the genius idea for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention came along, he first set out to improve upon the telegraph.įrom his laboratory in Boston, Bell applied his knowledge of phonetics to create a “harmonic telegraph.” He wanted to make a telegraph that could send several different notes simultaneously on the same wire. But the technology was limited in its capacity because it could transmit only one message at a time. But it wasn’t until the electric telegraph came about in the 1840s that the foundations of modern communication were laid.īy the 1870s, telegraph wire connected cities across the globe. The idea of sending coded messages across long distances had been around in one form or another for centuries. The telegraph was one of the most important inventions of its time. His dedication and eagerness to create would eventually make him one of the defining inventors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This kind of intellectual curiosity foreshadowed Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention in 1876, among many others. ![]() The machine’s sound was so convincing that the landlady looked for a crying baby, only to find the boys admiring their invention in the stairwell. When Bell was just a teenager, he and his brother invented a “speaking machine” that could mimic the voice of a baby saying “mama.” They studied their father’s anatomy books and recreated the elements of a human mouth and vocal cords. His father and grandfather were elocution experts, known today as speech pathologists. But do you know the real story behind how the first telephone invention came to be? Inspired by the Science of SoundĪlexander Graham Bell was born into a family that was preoccupied with sound. You likely already know that Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention changed the world. You probably learned in school that it was Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention changed the way the world communicates.
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