US History

Science and Technology

The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

This collection uses primary sources to explore the invention of the telephone.

A Congressional tribute from 1999 to Mr. Antonio Meucci, one of the inventors of the telephone.

A telegraph register made in 1870.

Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. 

A telegraph sounder.

Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. 

An experimental telephone made by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876.

Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated several experimental telephones at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. This unit features a single electromagnet and could be used as both transmitter and receiver. Bell approached the problem of transmitting speech differently from other telephone inventors because his study of hearing and speech more strongly influenced his work.


Alexander Graham Bell's “large box” telephone, 1876.

One of two telephones used by Alexander Graham Bell in a demonstration that took place between Boston and Salem, Massachusetts on November 26, 1876. Critical features are the iron diaphragm (seen as a black circular disc mounted on the vertical wooden support), two electromagnets (seen in white, facing the diaphragm), and a horseshoe permanent magnet (lying horizontal, pressed against the electromagnets). When the device is used as a transmitter, sound waves at the mouthpiece cause the diaphragm to move, inducing a fluctuating current in the electromagnets. This current is conducted over wires to a similar instrument, acting as a receiver. There, the fluctuating current in the electromagnets causes the diaphragm to move, producing air vibrations that can be heard by the ear. This was a marginal arrangement, but it worked well enough to provide the first commercial services in 1877. The magnetic receiver continued to be used, but the transmitters were soon replaced by a carbon variable-resistance device designed by Francis Blake and based on a principle patented by Thomas Edison. 

Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing and oath, officially approved March 7, 1876.

Transcript:

...[tes]timony whereof I have hereunto signed [my] name this 20th day of January A.D. 1876

Alexander Graham Bell

Witnesses 
Thomas E. Barry 
[P. ?. Richards?]

State of Massachusetts 
Suffolk County

Alexander Graham Bell -- the above named petitioner being duly sworn deposes and says that he verily believes himself to be the original and first inventor of the improvements in telegraphy described and claimed in the foregoing specification, that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever before known or used; and that he is a native of Great Britain and has declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States.

Alexander Graham Bell

Thomas E. Barry 
[P. ?. Richards?] , Witnesses

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 20th day of January, A.D. 1876 
Thomas E. Barry, Notary Public

An excerpt from *The History of the Telephone* by Herbert Casson about Alexander Graham Bell’s breakthrough experiment, 1910.

A photograph of Alexander Graham Bell during his demonstration of the telephone for Joseph Henry's Family, January 13, 1877.

Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his telephone for the Secretary of the Smithsonian Joseph Henry and his daughters at the Smithsonian, and at a meeting of the Philosophical Society of Washington that evening. Bell's first telephone patent had been issued on March 7, 1876, and a month later, Bell transmitted the first intelligible human speech over the telephone. As a judge for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Henry submitted a report praising Bell's invention. Bell's second patent, covering the "box" phone that he demonstrated during his visit to Washington, would be issued on January 30, 1877.

A diagram of Alexander Graham Bell’s speaking telephone, patented March 19, 1878.

A photograph of Thomas Edison’s parlor phonograph, which was used for experimentation by Alexander Graham Bell, 1879.

A photograph of Alexander Graham Bell in New York calling Chicago on the telephone, 1892.

A photograph of the first telephone office in the town of McGraw, New York, 1902.

A photograph of operators working the switchboard at the Utah Independent Telephone Company, 1905.

A photograph of Alexander Graham Bell and others at the opening of the first transcontinental telephone line, New York, January 25, 1915.

In this photo are (from left): John J. Carty, chief engineer of AT&T, George McAney, president of the New York Board of Aldermen, Union N. Bethell, senior vice president of AT&T, Alexander Graham Bell, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, C. E. Yost, president of the Nebraska Telephone Company and dean of Bell System presidents, and Comptroller William A. Prendergast of New York. Above Bell is a photograph of Theodore N. Vail, president of AT&T, who participated in the ceremony from Jekyll Island, Georgia, where he was recuperating from a fall. 


A photograph of workers in the Orange Central Office of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, Orange, California, 1915.

Questions

1. According to the [tribute](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1298), what role did Antonio Meucci play in the invention of the telephone? How does this compare to the statements made in [Bell's telephone patent drawing and oath](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1303)? What impact did Bell’s patent have on the way we understand the history of the telephone?
2. Compare the [telegraph register](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1299), the [telegraph sounder](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1300), the [experimental telephone](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1301), the [“large box” telephone](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1301), and the [diagram of Alexander Graham Bell’s speaking telephone](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1306). How did the technology for the telephone evolve over time? What was the relationship between the telegraph and early telephones? Which specific innovations influenced the telephone’s development?
3. Read the [excerpt from *The History of the Telephone*](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1304). What is Herbert Casson’s purpose in telling the story of Bell’s invention? What is his perspective on the history he narrates?
4. Using the photograph of [Alexander Graham Bell demonstrating the telephone](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1305), the photograph of [Alexander Graham Bell in New York calling Chicago](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1308), and the photograph of [Alexander Graham Bell and others at the opening of the first transcontinental telephone line](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1311), explain the purposes of public and private demonstrations for Bell and his invention. What did these demonstrations make possible?
5. What does the photograph of [Thomas Edison’s parlor phonograph](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1307) tell us about the relationship between Bell’s work and the work of Thomas Edison? 
6. Consider the photograph of [Alexander Graham Bell in New York calling Chicago](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1308), the photograph of the [first telephone office in McGraw, New York](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1309), the photograph of [operators working the switchboard](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1310), the photograph of [Alexander Graham Bell and others at the opening of the first transcontinental telephone line](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1311), and the photograph of workers in the [Orange Central Office](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-invention-of-the-telephone/sources/1312). Once the telephone was invented and demonstrated, how did it evolve from being a novel invention to an industry, a technology infrastructure, and a part of Americans’ daily lives? In what time frame? How did the telephone create jobs for women?

Activity

1. Organize students into two teams and ask them to prepare for a debate on the following topic: “Resolved: Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.” Students on each team should use the sources in this set in conjunction with additional research about the invention of the telephone and its technologies and come up with a working definition of what it means to be the “inventor” of a technology. The class should then stage the debate, which should include opening statements, presentation of key points, and closing arguments for each side. A panel of impartial outsiders can judge the debate and decide which team makes the best presentation of arguments and evidence.
2. After examining the sources in this set, ask students to write a short essay on the impact of the telephone in response to the following prompt: How did the telephone change conversation, etiquette, and privacy in the twentieth century? How have technological advances in cell phones changed these ideas further in the twenty-first century? 

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Invention of the Telephone

Resources

1. “[Who is credited as inventing the telephone?](https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/telephone.html),” Library of Congress. 
2. [The Telephone](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/index.html), American Experience, PBS. 
3. “[First He Invented the Telephone. Then, Bell Left a Voice Message](http://www.npr.org/2013/04/28/179650928/after-inventing-the-phone-bell-also-left-a-voice-message),” NPR. 

Overview

Numerous innovations and inventors laid the groundwork for the telephone. Samuel Morse’s telegraph, patented in 1837, used electric signals to transfer coded messages. In 1840, Charles Grafton Page used electrified wire connected to a magnet to produce sound. In the next decades, Johann Philipp Reis and Antonio Meucci developed electromagnetic devices that could transmit music and some voice communication. But it was a teacher interested in sound and speech instruction for the deaf, Alexander Graham Bell, who would combine the power of electromagnetism with a machinery of vibration and thereby establish the basis of modern telephone technology.

On March 7, 1876, Bell became the first inventor to receive a US patent for the technology that powered the telephone. Working with his assistant, Thomas Watson, Bell initially had a different goal in mind: to develop a “harmonic telegraph” that could send a number of messages at the same time, each at its own pitch. But after an accidental discovery, in which Watson electrified a vibrating reed on the telegraph, Bell and Watson created a device using vibration to produce and receive sound waves through electrical signals. In June 1876, Bell traveled to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (the first World’s Fair in the United States) to demonstrate this device to an international audience. 

The telephone revolutionized communication. It allowed people to share information with greater speed and efficiency and to connect with one another through conversation in real time. By the turn of the twentieth century, the telephone enabled such communication for ordinary citizens, first locally, then across the continent and the world. This primary source set uses physical objects, documents, photographs, and drawings to tell the story of the invention of the telephone and its transformative impact on modern-day communication. 

English

The Invention of the Telephone

invention-telephone_04_b20054c0f0fe0a6da41147c5ba24c437.jpg

Courtesy of National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center via Smithsonian Institution.

“Alexander Graham Bell Experimental Telephone,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/b20054c0f0fe0a6da41147c5ba24c437.

An experimental telephone made by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 4 of 15 in the Primary Source Set The Invention of the Telephone