Who is the inventor of the telephone

Who is the inventor of the telephone? March 7 marks the 145th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's 1876 patent for the telephone, which is referred to as a device that transmits sounds over a cable via electrical signals. For a long time Bell was considered the inventor of the telephone, along with Elisha Gray. However, the Scottish researcher was not the inventor of this device, but he was the first to patent it.

In this sense, Alexander Graham Bell considers that he "borrowed" his idea because everything came much earlier. The telephone was invented in 1854 by the Italian Antonio Meucci. The purpose was simple: to connect his desk to the bedroom so that he could talk to his wife, who was bedridden by a serious illness. The device was able to transmit audio signals at a distance via electrical signals.

Unfortunately, he did not have the money to pay for the development of the said invention. In 1871, due to economic difficulties, Meucci was only able to provide a brief description of his invention, but not formalize the patent before the United States Patent Office. It was not until June 11, 2002 when the United States Congress recognized Antonio Meucci as the true author of the telephone after ratification of Resolution 269, which recognized the inventor of the telephone as Antonio Meucci.

The first intercontinental call, 1915

Influential visitors such as Emperor Pedro II of Brazil were able to observe Graham Bell's invention. Even Queen Victoria requested a private audience at Osborne Castle, calling the show "extraordinary". The excitement surrounding Peel's public demonstrations helped accept the revolutionary device. The Bell Telephone Company was formed in 1877 and by 1886, more than 150,000 people in the United States owned telephones.

Bell engineers made many improvements to the phone, which became one of their most successful products. In 1879, the Bell Company obtained Edison's patents for the carbon microphone from Western Union. This made the telephone practical over long distances, unlike Bell's voice-activated transmitter which required users to yell at it in order to be heard on the receiving phone, even over short distances.

On January 25, 1915, Alexander Graham Bell sent the first transcontinental telephone call, from 15 Day Street in New York City, which was received by Thomas Watson at 333 Grant Street in San Francisco, California. The infrastructure continued to evolve until finally, in 1973, the first wireless call was made thanks to engineer Martin Cooper.

The subsequent advancement of this format made possible the development of the first cell phones that allowed us to communicate anywhere. At that time, the duration of calls was limited to 30 minutes only. It was in the 1990s when the first brands began to be marketed. Many of these models were more compact than earlier models, with a cover to protect the frontal structure.