History of

Telecommunications
(Chapter 1)

ENGR 475 Telecommunications

Harding University
August 22, 2006

Jonathan White
Outline
What is Telecommunications?
The time before phones
Who actually invented the telephone?
1900 1982 Regulated AT & T Monopoly
1982 Long Distance Competition
1996 Local dial tone competition
2000 and Beyond WWW, internet phones
Telecomm. Definition
Transmission of signals over a distance for the
purpose of communication.
The word telecommunication is adapted from a
French word. It is a compound of the Greek prefix
tele, meaning 'far off', and communication, meaning
'to transfer information'.
3 parts:
Transmitter
Medium
Receiver
Telecomm. Definition

What are some

examples of
Telecommunication
systems?
Name the mediums for
each.
Time before Phones

1831 Professor Joseph

Henry, Albany, NY Ring a
bell at a distance by
connecting and disconnecting
wires.
May 24, 1844 -- Samuel
Morse sends from Baltimore to
Washington, D.C. What hath
God wrought.
Numbers 22:23
Morse code
Time before Phones

1854 25,000 miles of telegraph wires have

been laid across the US.
Train schedules, weather, important news
1864 A telegraph line spans the entire
continental US
Western Union is formed.
1866 Trans Atlantic telegraph
8 words a minute
Very costly
Who invented the Phone?

1861 Johann Reiss, a German physics

teacher, completed an almost working
version of a telephone.
Used: sausage skin, beer barrel, platinum bar
Function: sent musical notes to a receiver that
could play them.
Downsides: same idea as the telegraph;
making and breaking a circuit. Not continuous.
Who invented the Phone?

1871 Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant living

in New York, files a caveat (an announcement of
invention) of a talking telegraph. However, due to
financial hardships, he is unable to pay for a full
patent when the caveat is due 3 months later.
Had a working prototype.
Honored in 2002 by Congress.
Who invented the Phone?
February 14, 1876 (Valentines Day), Boston, MA
US Patent Office
9:30 AM Elisha Gray (or his lawyer) files a caveat for
an invention described as the art of transmitting vocal
sounds or conversations telegraphically through an
electric circuit.
11:30 AM Alexander Graham Bells lawyer files AND
pays for a patent described as "Improvements in
Telegraphy.
2:30 PM Elisha Grays caveat is paid for so that a
patent can be granted.
Who invented the Phone?

Elisha Gray (1878)

Alexander Graham Bell (1867)
Who invented the Phone?
US Patent 174,465
Said to be the most valuable patent ever
Over 600 lawsuits were filed in the 1800s over it.
Awarded to:
Bell in 1876

Bell tried to sell the patent rights to

Western Union in 1876 for $100,000.

Western Union said the patent was

worthless; whod want voice when the
telegraph still work?
Who invented the Phone?
More about Alexander Graham Bell:
Wife was deaf.
Wanted to communicate to her at a distance.
1874 phonoautograh made out of a dead mans ear.
Ears membrane vibrated differently based on the intensity of
the sound. Used to switch a lever on and off and write.
He thought that by using a membrane to convert sounds of
varying intensity into electrical current of varying intensity and
then reversing the process on the other end with another
membrane, he could replicate speech over long distances.
Who invented the Phone?
Bells first phone used a metal disk attached to a
rod floating in acid to create a variable resistance.
A change in intensity made the disk vibrate differently.
1877 Thomas Edison invents the carbon
microphone.
Used in phones until late 1970s
A phone produced from around 1900 on will still
work on todays phone network.
Who invented the Phone?
When the patents were filed, Bells phone didnt
work.
Grays was a better design
March 10, 1876:
Mr. Watson, Come here! I want you!
First telephone message.
A one wire, copper system was
used at first.
A 2 wire system was invented in 1881
- Much clearer conversation.
- Insulated by cotton/rubber and twisted
Who invented the Phone?
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the
first US patent for a device which ultimately
became the telephone.
Who invented the telephone is very
debatable.
1877 - 1900
1877 Bell telephone company formed.
1877 Western Union forms the American Speaking
Telephone Company using Grays invention.
All phones are party lines initially.
1877 In July, a druggist in New Hartford, Connecticut
invents the switchboard.
1877 - 1900
1877 - 1900
Ringers:
Thumper (pre switchboard)
1878: Thomas Watson
invents the Magneto
An AC current sent down the line
that would make a hammer
move back and forth between 2
bells.
The first non-voice signal that
the telephone system used.
1877 - 1900
1891 An undertaker named Almon Strowger in
Kansas City, Missouri invents the first phone that
uses a keypad
Also uses automatic connections from the central office
using electromagnetic rods.
Automatic switching didnt take hold, however.
1921 first automatic system installed in Omaha,
Nebraska.
It wasnt until after well after WW 2 that automatic
systems were the norm.
Think of the Andy Griffith Show.
1877 - 1900

Strowgers Phone
1877 - 1900
1879 Because of the measles epidemic in
Massachusetts, a doctor recommends
numbering phone lines instead of using names.
The system was eventually expanded to a 2 letter, 5
number system
The first 2 letters identified the state / CO.
The next number identified the CO.
The last 4 numbers identified the customer.
PE 6-5000
This system was used until the 1950s and beyond.
1877 - 1900
1896 Invention of the rotary dial phone.
Less wiring and cheaper.
1900 1982 Monopoly
1899 American Bell is acquired/renamed AT & T
American Telephone and Telegraph.
Many companies entered the phone market
around this time.
None were interconnected.
You had to have the same carrier.
You had to buy your phone from your provider and they
owned the network.
AT & T eventually become a natural monopoly by the
1920s for long distance calls.
This was allowed by law.
No competition and expensive.
1900 1982 Monopoly
January 8, 1982 AT & T is broken up:
AT & T was broken up into 23 Bell Operating
Companies, that would compete against AT &
T in the telephone long distance market.
AT & T had to let other companies use their
network.
AT & T would only be in the long distance
market Very Bad.
AT & T was bought by one of its children (SBC)
in 2005.
1996 Telecommunications Act
February 1996
There can now be competition in the local market.
The telephone industry was deregulated.
You can now get local, long distance, cellular, high
speed Internet, and digital cable all from one provider,
all over the same network.
Prices go way down.
Who owns the Internet? Who owns the telephone
network? Are they even separate networks?
Circuit switched vs. packet switched.
QOS
2000 and Beyond
The telephone network is now all digital, up to the
end users home (local loop).
Some are digital DSL.
Most are analog phones.
Is telephony going to become just another
application of the Internet?
Maybe
Many applications exist that we havent talked
about:
Caller ID (1991), 911 emergency service (1968),cellular
phones (1984)