History of the telephone The first telephone patent was g | Honest historian
History of the telephone
The first telephone patent was granted to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.Before electromagnetic telephones were invented, there were mechanical acoustic devices to transmit speech and music over a greater distance. This distance was greater than that of ordinary direct speech. The earliest mechanical telephones were based on transmitting sound through pipes or other physical media.
The acoustic tin can telephone, or "lover's telephone," has been known for centuries. A classic example is a children's toy made by connecting the bottoms of two paper cups, metal cans or plastic bottles with a tight string.
For several years in the late 1800s, acoustic telephones were sold commercially as a competitor to the electric telephone.
Talking handsets have long been common, especially in buildings and aboard ships, and they are still in use today.
