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 the existing telegraph system. Now that the infrastructure of all the wires was in place, the race was on to find a way of sending multiple messages simultaneously over a single wire. The aim was to do this by using audio frequencies at different modulations at the same time.
Some of the inventors who were involved are Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, Thomas Edison, Johann Philipp Reis, Antonio Meucci and Charles Bourseul. It is important to mention them all, as there was (and still is) immense controversy over who first invented the electric telephone, and thus who should be granted the legal patent to the invention.
The very early history of the telephone is littered with an unedifying mass of lawsuits, claims and counterclaims, contested patents, and objections. Ultimately the patents (and the credit) were awarded to Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, who used them to great commercial advantage.
