Editing Telephone (section)

== Early history ==
{{Main|History of the telephone}}
{{Further|Invention of the telephone|Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy}}
[[File:Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent Drawing and Oath - NARA - 302052 (page 2).jpg|thumb|Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent Drawing]]
[[File:Telefono di Meucci - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano 02148-02147 dia.jpg|thumb|Replica of the ''telettrofono'' at [[Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci]] of [[Milan]], [[Italy]], invented by [[Antonio Meucci]] and credited by several sources as the first telephone.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/17/humanities.internationaleducationnews|title=Bell did not invent telephone, US rules|first=Rory|last=Carroll|newspaper=The Guardian|date=June 17, 2002|via=www.theguardian.com|access-date=August 24, 2018|archive-date=July 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731091627/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/17/humanities.internationaleducationnews|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
[[File:Alexander Graham Telephone in Newyork.jpg|thumb|Bell placing the first New York to Chicago telephone call in 1892]]

Before the development of the electric telephone, the term ''telephone'' was applied to other inventions, and not all early researchers of the electrical device used the term. Perhaps the earliest use of the word for a communications system was the ''telephon'' created by Gottfried Huth in 1796. Huth proposed an alternative to the [[optical telegraph]] of [[Claude Chappe]] in which the operators in the signaling towers would shout to each other by means of what he called "speaking tubes", but would now be called giant [[megaphone]]s.<ref>Holzmann, Gerard J.; Pehrson, Björn, ''The Early History of Data Networks'', pp. 90-91, Wiley, 1995 {{isbn|0818667826}}.</ref> A communication device for sailing vessels, called ''telephone'', was invented by Captain John Taylor in 1844. This instrument used four [[air horn]]s to communicate with vessels in foggy weather.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/yearbookfactsin27timbgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/yearbookfactsin27timbgoog/page/n63 55]|title=The Year-book of Facts in Science and Art|date=July 6, 1845|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, and Company|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/telephoneandtel00kinggoog/#page/n8/mode/2up "The Telephone and Telephone Exchanges"] by J. E. Kingsbury published in 1915.</ref>

[[Johann Philipp Reis]] used the term in reference to his invention, commonly known as the [[Reis telephone]], in c. 1860. His device appears to be the first device based on the conversion of sound into electrical impulses.

The term ''telephone'' was adopted into the vocabulary of many languages. It is derived from the {{langx|el|τῆλε}}, ''tēle'', "far" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "voice", together meaning "distant voice".

Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed. As with other influential [[invention]]s such as [[Invention of radio|radio]], [[History of television|television]], the [[Incandescent light bulb#History|light bulb]], and the [[History of computing hardware|computer]], several inventors pioneered experimental work on ''voice transmission over a wire'' and improved on each other's ideas. New controversies over the issue still arise from time to time. [[Charles Bourseul]], [[Antonio Meucci]], [[Johann Philipp Reis]], [[Alexander Graham Bell]], and [[Elisha Gray]], amongst others, have all been credited with the invention of the telephone.<ref>{{cite book |last= Coe |first= Lewis |title= The Telephone and Its Several Inventors: A History |year= 1995 |publisher= McFarland & Company, Inc. |location= Jefferson, NC |isbn= 978-0-7864-2609-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/telephoneitsseve0000coel_y7q3/page/5 5] |url= https://archive.org/details/telephoneitsseve0000coel_y7q3/page/5 }}</ref><ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Telephone|volume=26|pages=547–57|first1=Harry Robert|last1=Kempe|first2=Emile|last2=Garcke}}</ref>

Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] (USPTO) in March 1876.<ref name="Brown">{{cite book
  | last = Brown | first = Travis
  | title = Historical first patents: the first United States patent for many everyday things
  | publisher = Scarecrow Press
  | location = University of Michigan
  | year = 1994 |edition = illustrated
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/historicalfirstp0000brow/page/179 179]
  | isbn = 978-0-8108-2898-8
  | url = https://archive.org/details/historicalfirstp0000brow
| url-access = registration }}</ref> Before Bell's patent, the telephone transmitted sound in a way that was similar to the telegraph. This method used vibrations and circuits to send electrical pulses, but was missing key features. Bell found that this method produced a sound through intermittent currents, but in order for the telephone to work, a fluctuating current reproduced sounds the best. The fluctuating currents became the basis for the working telephone, creating Bell's patent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beauchamp|first=Christopher|date=2010|title=Who Invented the Telephone?: Lawyers, Patents, and the Judgments of History|journal=Technology and Culture|volume=39|pages=858–859|via=Project MUSE}}</ref> That first patent by Bell was the ''master patent'' of the telephone, from which other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed.<ref>{{Patent|US|174465|Alexander Graham Bell: "Improvement in Telegraphy" filed on February 14, 1876, granted on March 7, 1876.}}</ref>

In 1876, shortly after Bell's patent application, Hungarian engineer [[Tivadar Puskás]] proposed the telephone switch, which allowed for the formation of [[telephone exchange]]s, and eventually networks.<ref>{{cite web
  | url = http://www.omikk.bme.hu/archivum/angol/htm/puskas_t.htm
  | title = Puskás, Tivadar
  | publisher = Omikk.bme.hu
  | access-date = 2010-05-23
  | archive-date = 2017-10-18
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171018160522/http://www.omikk.bme.hu/archivum/angol/htm/puskas_t.htm
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, ''the blower'' is used as a slang term for a telephone. The term came from navy slang for a [[speaking tube]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Rick Jolly|title=Jackspeak: A guide to British Naval slang & usage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4xaDwAAQBAJ|year=2018|page=46|publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=9781472834140}}</ref> In the U.S., a somewhat dated slang term refers to the telephone as "the horn," as in "I couldn't get him on the horn," or "I'll be off the horn in a moment."<ref>{{cite dictionary |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/on%20the%20horn |title=on the horn |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |access-date=25 August 2021 }}</ref>

===Timeline of early development===
{{For timeline}}
[[File:Johann Philipp Reis telephone.jpg|thumb|right|[[Reis telephone|Reis's telephone]] around 1861, first device called telephone<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.milestone-books.de/pages/books/003517/johann-philipp-reis/ueber-telephonie-durch-den-galvanischen-strom-in-jahres-bericht-des-physikalischen-vereins-zu | title=Ueber Telephonie durch den galvanischen Strom. In: Jahres-Bericht des physikalischen Vereins zu Frankfurt am Main für das Rechnungsjahr 1860-1861, pp. 57-64 by Johann Philipp REIS on Milestones of Science Books | access-date=2024-01-14 | archive-date=2024-01-14 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114204700/https://www.milestone-books.de/pages/books/003517/johann-philipp-reis/ueber-telephonie-durch-den-galvanischen-strom-in-jahres-bericht-des-physikalischen-vereins-zu | url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in an AT&T promotional film (1926).jpg|thumb|Bell's first telephone transmitter, ca. 1876, reenacted 50 years later]] 
[[File:Consolidated Telephone Co. ad 1886.jpg|thumb|Acoustic telephone ad, The Consolidated Telephone Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, 1886]]
[[File:1896 telephone.jpg|thumb|upright|1896 telephone from Sweden]]
[[File:Wall Hanging Telephone with Detachable Earpiece - Communication Gallery - BITM - Calcutta 2000 211.JPG|thumb|upright|Wooden wall telephone with a hand-cranked [[telephone magneto|magneto]] generator]]

* 1844: [[Innocenzo Manzetti]] first mooted the idea of a "speaking telegraph" or telephone. Use of the "speaking telegraph" and "sound telegraph" monikers would eventually be replaced by the newer, distinct name, "telephone".
* 26 August 1854: [[Charles Bourseul]] published an article in the magazine ''[[L'Illustration]]'' (Paris): "Transmission électrique de la parole" (electric transmission of speech), describing a "make-and-break" type telephone transmitter later created by Johann Reis.
* 26 October 1861: [[Johann Philipp Reis]] (1834–1874) publicly demonstrated the [[Reis telephone]] before the Physical Society of Frankfurt.<ref name=EB1911/> It was the first device to transmit a voice via electronic signals and for that the first modern telephone.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Telephone and Its Several Inventors: A History|last=Coe|first=Lewis|publisher=McFarland|year=2006|isbn=9780786426096|pages=[https://archive.org/details/telephoneitsseve0000coel_y7q3/page/16 16–24]|url=https://archive.org/details/telephoneitsseve0000coel_y7q3/page/16}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite book|title=Nineteenth-century Scientific Instruments|last1=Turner|first1=Gerard L'Estrange|last2=Weston|first2=Margaret|publisher=University of California Press|year=1983|isbn=9780520051607|pages=140}}</ref> Reis also coined the term.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.milestone-books.de/pages/books/003517/johann-philipp-reis/ueber-telephonie-durch-den-galvanischen-strom-in-jahres-bericht-des-physikalischen-vereins-zu | title=Ueber Telephonie durch den galvanischen Strom. In: Jahres-Bericht des physikalischen Vereins zu Frankfurt am Main für das Rechnungsjahr 1860-1861, pp. 57-64 by Johann Philipp REIS on Milestones of Science Books | access-date=2024-01-14 | archive-date=2024-01-14 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114204700/https://www.milestone-books.de/pages/books/003517/johann-philipp-reis/ueber-telephonie-durch-den-galvanischen-strom-in-jahres-bericht-des-physikalischen-vereins-zu | url-status=live }}</ref> He used his telephone to transmit the phrase "Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat" ("The horse does not eat cucumber salad").
* 22 August 1865, ''La Feuille d'Aoste'' reported "It is rumored that English technicians to whom Manzetti illustrated his method for transmitting spoken words on the telegraph wire intend to apply said invention in England on several private telegraph lines".{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} However, telephones would not be demonstrated there until 1876, with a set of telephones from Bell.
* 28 December 1871: [[Antonio Meucci]] files [[patent caveat]] [[Antonio Meucci#Patent caveat|No. 3335]] in the U.S. Patent Office, titled "Sound Telegraph", describing communication of voice between two people by wire. A patent caveat was not an invention [[patent]] award, but only an unverified notice filed by an individual that he or she intends to file a patent application in the future.
* 1874: Meucci, after having renewed the caveat for two years does not renew it again, and the caveat lapses.
* 6 April 1875: Bell's U.S. Patent 161,739 "Transmitters and Receivers for Electric Telegraphs" is granted. This uses multiple vibrating steel reeds in make-break circuits.
* 11 February 1876: Elisha Gray invents a liquid transmitter for use with the telephone but does not build one.
* 14 February 1876: Gray files a [[patent caveat]] for transmitting the human voice through a telegraphic circuit.
* 14 February 1876: [[Alexander Graham Bell]] applies for the patent "Improvements in Telegraphy", for electromagnetic telephones using what is now called amplitude modulation (oscillating current and voltage) but which he referred to as "undulating current".
* 19 February 1876: Gray is notified by the U.S. Patent Office of an interference between his caveat and Bell's patent application. Gray decides to abandon his caveat.
* 7 March 1876: Bell's U.S. patent 174,465 "Improvement in Telegraphy" is granted, covering "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically…by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound."
* 10 March 1876: The first successful telephone transmission of clear speech using a liquid transmitter when Bell spoke into his device, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." and Watson heard each word distinctly.
* 30 January 1877: Bell's U.S. patent 186,787 is granted for an electromagnetic telephone using permanent magnets, iron diaphragms, and a call bell.
* 27 April 1877: [[Thomas Edison]] files a patent application for a carbon (graphite) transmitter. It was published as No. 474,230 on 3 May 1892, after a 15-year delay because of litigation. Edison was granted patent 222,390 for a carbon granules transmitter in 1879.