Today’s telephone has a long history. It started when there were no
telephones. The only way to get a message to someone else was to write it and
send it. Long ago there were messengers. They were people who would run
from place to place. They would bring messages to other people. They would
run miles.
After the invention of a new communications tool, people could send
messages quickly. That tool was the telegraph. It used a line that went from
one place to another. It took years to put all the lines across America. With
those telegraph lines people could use a machine to send messages. But it did
not let people talk to each other. It used a code to get the messages across the
wires. On one end of the telegraph, an operator clicked the message. On the
other end, a machine would make the same clicks. At first, a person had to
listen and note what the clicks said. But then they figured out how to make
the machine record them.
Still, there was no telephone. Then a man named Bell invented it. He
tried many ways to get a machine that would work. He failed many times. But
then he got it to work. Once he had done that, the world all wanted
telephones.
The next changes for the telephone were the same as the telegraph.
People had to put in all those lines. If you see a picture of Chicago in 1900 you
will see lots of wires downtown. The first telephone lines went from one
person’s phone to another. Those were called land-lines. Then they added
what were called switching stations. So one line could reach more than one
place. Still, it would take years to get the phone system to work more
efficiently.
Today there are cell phones. They do not need wires. They use signals
that travel through the air. Some people now do not have a land line any more.
They just use their cell phone. It can connect people. It can download music
from the Internet. Some people even use their computers to talk to other
people. Those are the latest changes. So the telephone is still changing.
E-Linguisto wish you a happy reading.
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