History of the Phone
by
 
Brigitte apologizes
for this page still beeing very poor
we will be adding more content
the more we find out ...
writing the Phonebook of the World is quite a lot of work
  
I490



















Morse invented the Telegraph



when
Alexander Bell began
experimenting
the Telegraph,
next to the Post (Post)
was the current means
of communication.

The Telegraph,
using dot-and-dash Morse codes
was limited to receiving and
sending
one message at a time.
Woudn't there be
a possibility to transmit
multiple messages at the same time
over the same wire ?




Alexander Bell's
extensive knowledge
of the nature of sound
gave him the idea
to transmit
multiple messages
at the same time

 





Alexander Bell's design sketch of the telephone

in I875
along with his assistant
Thomas Watson,
Alexander Bell constructed
instruments
that transmitted
recognisable voice
like sounds



february I4 I876
in the US Patent Office
a certain
patent n° I74 465
gets filed






Alexander Bell's patent
is accepted
march 7   I876

neither
Alexander Bell's
nor Elisha Gray's
theories of the
phone
are working ...

but
only a month  later
march I0 I876 ...
Hallo

Alexander Bell (photo taken at a later time)
'Hallo Mr Watson,
come here I want to see you'

and the phone was born ....





only a 3 hours later
Elisha Gray,
a different inventor working independently
files another pattern related to the telephone




june 25 I876
Alexander Bell presents
his invention
at the universal expo in Philadelphia
(I3 years later, I889 the universal expo takes place in Paris)

Bell's telephone patent

is widely considered
to be the most valuable patent
ever issued

it was followed
by hundreds of legal suits
but
the beginning
was not that easy




on Auguste I, I877   the three members of the patent agreement formed the
Bell Telephone Company, a Massachusetts association



The enterprise's prospects were poor.
at the time Western Union Telegraph was
the dominant Telegraph company
Shortly after the Bells left for Europe,
Gardiner Hubbard offered to sell all the Bell patents to William Orton,
president of the giant Western Union Company, for $100,000.

Seeing no way that the "electrical toy" could benefit his business,
Orton refused the offer as useless

Rejected, Hubbard set out again to turn Bell's invention into a successful business.
His first and most important decision was to lease the telephone instruments instead of selling them.


Although leasing would enable the Bell interests to protect their patent rights,
it actually increased the enterprise's needs for funds to move the business forward.
When the Bell Telephone Company was formed
only 778 telephones were in use
and the firm desperately needed additional capital.

Hubbard's second strategic decision was to solve that problem by using agents
to develop the business in other regions and in promising local markets.

Thomas Sanders managed to convince a group of men from Massachusetts and Rhode Island
to invest in a firm to develop the telephone in New England.
On February 12, 1878, they formed the New England Telephone Company (this firm has no direct relationship with the present-day New England Telephone and Telegraph Co.) and set about the task of leasing the telephones to customers in the urban Northeast.

Still, the Bell interests were short of funds,
and to bring in new investors and the much needed capital,
they incorporated a reorganized Bell Telephone Company in Massachusetts on June 30, 1878.
The next month, Hubbard persuaded Theodore N. Vail,
then superintendent of the government's Railway Mail Service, to join the new company as general manager.

Along with O. E. Madden (who was recruited from the Domestic Sewing Machine Company and placed in charge of agency operations), Vail brought professional management to the Bell enterprise for the first time.













The company's 5,000 shares of stock were distributed as follows:
Alexander Graham Bell - 10 shares Mabel Bell Hubbard - 1497 shares
Gardiner Hubbard - 1387 shares Gertrude Hubbard (née Mercer) - 100 shares
Thomas Sanders - 1497 shares Thomas Watson - 499 shares
C. E. Hubbard (Gardiner's brother) I0 shares








what are
$ I00 000
in today's values ?

a few year before, I867
the United States bought
Alaska (I 5I8 775 hm²)
from Russia for
$ 7 200 000

a view years later
in I889
Anna Boch
a van Gogh painting
for 400 Francs

 




surprise surprise
Western Union Telegraph

soon offered phone service
based on technology developped by Elisha Gray and Thomas Edison ...

Bell System took Western Union to court for
patent infringement

the case was settled in I879 and Western Union
had to sell its telephone activities to Bell.

and Bell could develop the business without competition
until the expiration of the I8 year lasting patent in I894



Thomas Edison
invented electricity
and contributed to
the phone
I878
the first
phonebook
is born

at this time
Lars Magnus Ericsson
runs a repair shop in
Stockholm







today
the logo has modernised
I884 first
long distance
phone call

Bell Systems

Bell's long distance subsidary
AT&T
American Telephone and Telegraph

within 4 years ATT
becomes the mother company of the enire Bell system
Bell needed a large structure to be able to face competition
from independant operator
the moment the monopoly would expired in I894




I889
Inauguration of
the Eiffel Tower

that years later
becomes
a Telecom Tower
for
Transatlantic
Transmission
of Radio Phonecalls

in I900 there are already quantities of
local phone companies,
in some US states over a hundred

but

ATT was the only one to have a national network
and they simply didn't let
the little companies interconnect

Theodore Vail running the Bell system
bought many of the competition
including Western Union Telegraph


Vail is know for having build
the largest monopoly
America had known, ATT and Ma Bell

  
in the US monopoly that got regulation in I934
when the US Congress decided to creat the FCC
Federal Communications Comission
    






an quite a story
is waiting
now ......

ouf
how will we get all this info ?????

please be a little patient.....





July I9I4 first
long distance call


thanks to Lee De Forest's "audions," the first vacuum tubes.
ATT placed them along the 3,400 miles of wires
connecting one coast to the other.
As a voice signal traveled along the wires it naturally weakened.
Every time it hit an audion, the signal was boosted.


But the big celebration didn't occur
until January 25, I9I5
Alexander Bell
repeating a
famous phrase
I952
creation
of the
US
area codes


I956
first atlantic
phone cable
goes online
it can only carry 89
simoultaneous
conversations between
Europe
and the US/Canada
in the US monopoly that got regulation in I934
when the US Congress decided to creat the FCC
Federal Communications Comission

the monopoly lasted until I984....

.....???

I960
CCITT Red Book
features a list of
country codes
for Europe
becoming a precursor
for the
International
Country Codes




I964
creation of the
IDD
(International Direct Dial)
system
with country codes
World set up into 9 regions:
Phonebook of North America.com (+I)  
Phonebook of Africa.com  (+2) 
 Phonebook of Europe.com (+3 or +4 ) 
Phonebook of Latin America.com  (+5)
Phonebook of South/Austral Asia.com (+6)
Phonebook of Russia.com  (+7)
Phonebook of North Asia.com  (+8)
Phonebook of the Middle/Far East.com   (+9)













I957 Russia
launches
the first satellite
Spoutnik I




22 july 69
Buzz Aldrin
photo by Neil Armstrong

walks on the Moon
opening
an new frontier
for
Telecom transmission
I97I Intel's
microprocessor










I977 birth of
the first Apple Computer
..... ???


le 22 à Asnières
I98I the Columbia
space shuttle

..... ???







the story of Ericsson
I984
divestiture of ATT
(end of US
telephone monopoly)



birth of
22 'Baby Bells'
(named after Alexander Bell)




who invented the GSM ?


Birth of the Answering Machine

Birth of the Fax




I987
Akio Morita's spectecular Sony
Answering machines arrive in Paris

Electrica for Sony is born
an adventure
on II rue des IIaIIes PARIS Ier


CallBack
invented by IDT



I995
Electrica
(now )
needs to survive
and offers US CallBack



I996 Bill Clinton
signs
the Telecom Act
Birth of the GSM Mobils

I996
explosion of
GSM

.....???





Sony
neglects telephones
Lady Di
needs to wait
9 months !
for repair parts
and
Nokia
becomes the new
market leader

the Worldcom story

la metamorphose
de France Telecom


jan I I988
opening
of the
Telecom markets in Europe
.....???


Iridum
satellite system
doesn't work



the Mannesmann
takeover by
Vodaphone






jan I 2000
Brigitte cannot
find phonenumbers

  




WAP







many of these telephone numbers
we dial every day
are not a coincidence
they tell us the story
of the our Modern Telecommunication World.....


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