History of the phone

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  The Telegraph

  Precursor to the phone The story of the telephone begins in earnest with the invention of the electrical telegraph. This ... read more →

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  Invention of the Phone

  The dawn of modern communications Towards the end of the nineteenth century various inventors around the world were investigating ways to improve ... read more →

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  Early Telephones

  Experimentation and the first networks The earliest telephones were, from a technical point of view, extremely diverse, as there was still ... read more →

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  Early 20th Century

  Manual exchanges and consumer phones The manual switchboard exchange persisted long into the twentieth century, as the uptake of telephone systems rapidly ... read more →

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  Late 20th Century

  Style and diversification The mid to late twentieth century saw the dissolution of the major telecommunications monopolies, and the opening of ... read more →