The Invention Of The Telephone

Explore the history and development of the telephone and find out how a telephone works. Learn about the inventors who helped influence the invention of the telephone.

In 1876, at only 29 years old, Alexander Graham Bell completed the invention that would turn him into a household name: the telephone. What began as a tool for his deaf students, the device would ultimately change the way people communicate forever. Driven by a keen scientific mind and a desire to find new ways to assist people, Bell produced groundbreaking inventions in an astonishing range of fields, including aviation and medicine. Jennifer Groundwater tells the story of his most important discoveries, and his passionate, lifelong quest to improve the way things work. This new illustrated edition offers 50+ visuals including blueprints, artifacts, and behind-the-scenes photos of Bell developing inventions.

". . . rarely have inventor and invention been better served than in this book." – New York Times Book Review Here, Edwin Grosvenor, American Heritage's publisher and Bell's great-grandson, tells the dramatic story of the race to invent the telephone and how Bell's patent for it would become the most valuable ever issued. He also writes of Bell's other extraordinary inventions: the first transmission of sound over light waves, metal detector, first practical phonograph, and early airplanes, including the first to fly in Canada. And he examines Bell's humanitarian efforts, including support for women's suffrage, civil rights, and speeches about what he warned would be a "greenhouse effect" of pollution causing global warming.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone or did he? Inventor Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci was also working on a telephone at the same time. Watch Meucci and Bell race to be first to the invention finish line.

Introduces the life and accomplishments of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor most widely known for developing the telephone.

On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office issued to a young inventor named Alexander Graham Bell what is arguably the most valuable patent ever: entitled "improvements in telegraphy," in truth it secured for Bell the basic principles involved in a telephone. On the same day that Bell filed his patent application, a caveat (a preliminary patent document) was filed by Elisha Gray. This coincidence sparked the first of many debates over whether Bell was the true inventor of the telephone. In the early 1860s Johann Phillipp Reis developed a version of the instrument, but his claims against Bell were hampered by the bungling of his lawyers in demonstrating his instrument in court. This work is a first look at the many men who developed the telephone and an examination of their claims against Bell's patent. A lay description of the phone is also provided, as well as a history of the development of the telephone system.

Reproduction of the original.