Graham bell invented telephone

You are reading in Ahoy! Alexander Graham Bell and the first telephone call. On 7 March , Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone—but did he invent it? But until the late 19th century, the quickest way to communicate was by letter—made faster with the advent of the railways, but still far from instantaneous.

Alexander graham bell importance

The arrival of the telegraph allowed the transmission of messages across greater distances and laid the foundation for quick communication. There he met the president of the institute, a prominent patent lawyer called Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Hubbard and Bell discovered that they shared an interest in mechanical and electrical inventions, especially telegraphy.

Later, in Boston, Bell began to investigate ways of putting his knowledge of musical pitch to use in electric telegraphy. This device was designed as an improvement on conventional telegraphy, not as a telephone. Nevertheless, Bell began to speculate about the possibility of being able to hold conversations over long distances. If I can get a mechanism which will make a current of electricity vary in its intensity, as the air varies in density when a sound is passing through it, I can telegraph any sound, even the sound of speech.

Continuing his research with Watson, Bell made a key discovery. His tuned reeds could transmit and receive not only exact pitches, but more complex sounds. Both Bell and Hubbard knew that another inventor, Elisha Gray, was also working on telephony. Hubbard urged Bell to patent the principle of speech transmission as soon as possible, thereby gaining exclusive rights to its development.