Telephone, the
Chronology of:
Robert Hook conveyed sounds to a distance by distended wire......1667
Alexander Graham Bell begins his investigation of electrical transmission and reproduction of articulate speech......July, 1874
Bell constructs an electrical telephone, with a diaphragm of gold-beater's skin, which transmits speech......July, 1875
Thomas A. Edison, furnished by
William Orton, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, with a description of
Reis's telephone, begins experiments with a view to producing an articulating telephone......July, 1875
Elisha Gray files his caveat for an invention “to transmit the tones of the human voice through a telegraphic circuit,” etc......Feb. 14, 1876
Professor Bell publicly explains his method before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of
Boston......May 10, 1876
[
38]
Bell's telephone exhibited at the
Centennial Exhibition at
Philadelphia, Pa.......June, 1876
Iron diaphragm first used by
Bell......June 30, 1876
Edison's carbon, loud-speaking telephone invented......January, 1877
Professor Bell exhibits at the Essex Institute,
Salem, Mass., his telephone, using a powerful horseshoe magnet, by which a short speech, shouted into a similar telephone in
Boston, 16 miles distant, is distinctly audible to an audience of 600 persons in
Salem......Feb. 12, 1877
First-known telephone line connects the office of Charles
Williams, electrician, in
Boston, and his house in
Somerville......April, 1877
First telephone exchange established in
Boston, Mass......1877
One form of microphone invented by
Edison......April 1, 1877
Experiments begun in Brown University by
Prof. Eli W. Blake,
Prof. John Pierce, and others, result in the construction by
Dr. William F. Channing of the first portable telephone......April, 1877
Handle telephone, now generally in use, made by
Dr. Channing and
Edson S. Jones, at
Providence, R. I......May, 1877
Glass-plate telephone invented by
Henry W. Vaughan, State assayer,
Providence, R. I.......June, 1877
Bell telephone patent expires......March 7, 1893
Statistics
Miles of wire, 1,016,777; circuits, 422,620; stations, 632,946; intruments in use under lease, 1,580,101; average daily connections of exchanges, 5,173,803; capital of American Bell Telephone Company, $25,886,300......Report of Jan. 1, 1900
Telephone company in opposition to the American Bell Telephone Company organized ......1901
