Wednesday, April 11, 2012


By 1904 there were over three million phones in the US, still connected by manual switchboard exchanges. By 1914, the US was the world leader in teledensity and had more than twice the teledensity of Sweden, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Norway. The longest lasting physical style of telephone was introduced in the early 20th century, including Bell’s model 102. A carbon granule transmitter and electromagnetic receiver were united in a single molded plastic handle, which when not in use sat in a cradle in the base unit; it had direct connection of the receiver to the line, while the transmitter was induction coupled, with energy supplied by a local battery. The coupling transformer, battery, and ringer were in a separate enclosure. The dial switch interrupted the current very briefly disconnecting the line 1-10 times for each digit. In 1960s the touch-tone signaling started replacing the rotary dial (Wikipedia, 14 March 2012).Theodore N.Vail led the Bell Companies to create his “universal service” which was completed in 1915 from New York to San Francisco. Vail also used the wireless system to begin overseas cable installations, connecting the US to other countries. In the late 1940s the first commercial mobile phones were installed and microwave radio was introduced for long distance use. The scientist at Bell Labs invented the transistor and the course of history changed, in 1948 there were 30 million phones in service. Fredrick Kappel brought technological advancement to the system. New phones were introduced like the Princess phone which was in 1959, in 1963 the first Touch-Tone phones were released and in 1965 the Trimline was commenced. By 1971 there were over 100 million phones in service (Gregory Russell, 1998).

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