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The Invention of the Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell's “large box” telephone, 1876.

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.

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Citation Information
“Alexander Graham Bell's Large Box Telephone,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/f4f399efea7f05c96a4cead4f954d3d4.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center via Smithsonian Institution.

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For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
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  • historical context
  • audience

Item 5 of 15 in the Primary Source Set The Invention of the Telephone

Previous ItemNext Item
A Congressional tribute from 1999 to Mr. Antonio Meucci, one of the inventors of the telephone.
A telegraph register made in 1870.
A telegraph sounder.
An experimental telephone made by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876.
Alexander Graham Bell's “large box” telephone, 1876.
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing and oath, officially approved March 7, 1876.
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.
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.
A photograph of workers in the Orange Central Office of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, Orange, California, 1915.

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