The Evolution of the Telephone

This is a presentation I researched and put together for a job interview.

1. The Evolution of the Telephone:
From the Crank Phone to the iPhone
Created by Mark LitwaJuly 20, 2009

2. How It All Began
•An accident gives
Alexander Graham Bell
his idea for the
telephone
•Alexander Graham Bell
patents the electric
telephone in 1876
•Lawsuits were filed by
various individuals, and
Bell’s claim to being the
inventor of the first
telephone had to be
defended in court some
600 times

3. Switchboard Operators

4. Switchboard Operators
•The first telephone operators were under-trained,
unsupervised telegraph boys but were soon
replaced by young women who proved to be more
pleasant and reliable
•The ever increasing number of callers soon
transformed the profession. By 1946, nearly a
quarter-million switchboard operators were
employed by AT&T
•In 1921, Omaha, Nebraska opened the first all-
automatic exchange
•Today there are no telephones served by manual
exchanges in the United States. All telephone
subscribers are served by automatic exchanges run
by computers, which perform the functions of the
human operator

5. How They Work
•Sound waves are converted into electrical
signals, and electrical signals into sound waves
•The telephone required the
simultaneous invention of the microphone,
signal amplifiers and speaker
•Parts:
–Transmitter (microphone)
–Receiver (speaker)
–Dial (pulse or tone)
–Alerter/Ringer
–Antisidetone network

6. Long Distance
1881 Boston-Salem
1884 New York-Boston
1892 New York-Chicago
1893 Boston-Chicago
1895 Chicago-Nashville
1896 Kansas City-Omaha
1897 New York-Charleston
1898 New York-Kansas City
1927 Columbia, MO-London

7. Hand Cranked Wall-1880’s

8. Candlestick-1890’s

9. Cradle Phone-1890’s

10. Candlestick Rotary-1914

11. Desktop Rotary-1920’s

12. Touchtone-1960’s

13. Wall Touchtone-1970’s

14. Cordless-1980’s

15. Mobile/Cellular-1983

17. Candy Bar-1990’s

18. Clamshell/Flip

19. Sliding/Qwerty Keyboard

20. Smart Phone

21. Blackberry

22. Bluetooth

23. Touch Screen

24. iPhone

25. VoIP (eg, Skype, Vonage)

26. Then and Now

27. Then Now
Make calls Make calls
Text
Voicemail
Pictures
Video
Music
Internet
Email
GPS
Videogames
And more!

28. From Big & Bulky to Slim & Subtle

30. The Future?

31. References
Krupa, Frederique (1992). The Evolution of the Telephone
System: From Bell's Electric Toy to the Internet. Retrieved
July 15, 2009, from http://www.translucency.com
/frede/telephone.html
“Telephone.” Wikipedia (2009). Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org
“Telephone.” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia
(2009). Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://encarta.msn.com