Editing Telephone (section)

===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.