ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL INVENTS THE LANDLINE​​

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Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone as we know it today. Bell was born in Edinburgh in 1847, to a father who was an expert on the mechanics of voice, largely inspiring his work. He was homeschooled for most of his education, but early on showed very strong problem-solving skills as a child. When he was twelve years old, Bell noticed the slow process of farming wheat grain in a grain mill, went home and built a device with paddles and brushes to remove husks from within the grain. [1]

In 1874 while using a phonautograph, Bell began experimenting with whether electric currents could be created that are responsive to sound waves, which would then be turned back into sound via metal reeds tuned to specific frequencies.

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Bell paid a visit to Joseph Henry, who he asked for advice regarding his metal reed idea, with the hopes that it could one day be used to transmit voice through telegraph. Henry spurred Bell on and convinced him to keep at the idea, however, Bell was lacking the resources he needed to continue development.

Lacking funds, Bell turned to Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard, both wealthy acquaintances he had met while working as a professor at Boston University School of Oratory. Once they heard about what Bell planned to create, they helped fund development in any way they could, with Hubbard taking a particular interest as his daughter was born deaf.

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With the equipment and money needed to continue working on his invention, Bell decided he needed an assistant, and hired Thomas Watson to assist with development. By chance in 1875, Watson plucked one of the reeds by accident, which Bell, at the other end of the line, vaguely heard. Realizing that only one reed was required for overtones to be heard on the other end, Bell decided to change the design, and purse development around the concept of just one reed.

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By 1875, the two had created what they called “The acoustic telegraph” and sent off a patent to offices in the US and the UK. The patent was for "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically ... by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound" [2].

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Just three days after the patent was processed, Bell managed to have his telephone working, controversially using a liquid transmitter design, created by a competitor, Elisha Grey. Upon testing the device, Bell said “Mr. Watson, Come here, I want to see you” [3], which Watson heard clearly whilst on the receiving end of the line. The liquid transmitter was used only for the purposes of a proof of concept, to see if speech that is understandable could be transmitted via electrical currents. After this experiment, Bell did not use the liquid transmitter technique again.

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In 1876, Bell used the device once again saying “Mr. Watson, come here, I wasn’t to see you” to Watson, who was this time in another room and out of hearing distance. Watson could make out the speech clearly enough that he came into the room, making the telephone a success. On August 10th 1876 the phone was used to make a call through the telegraph line running through Brantford and Paris, approximately eight miles away. This test is regarded by many as the first long distance phone call.

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References:

[1] https://www.biography.com/inventor/alexander-graham-bell

[2] [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell#The_telephone