In a previous post we were talking about American inventors and their inventions, a this talk about the history of the invention of two other quite important for humanity such inventions as the telephone and Telegraph.
Received the money, handed the Morse Telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore and 11 may 1844 he sent the first telegraphic message (the word "telegram" appears only twelve years). Every American schoolboy knows that the first telegram read: "Marvelous are thy works, o Lord". In fact, the first telegram was: "Everything works fine".
The text came up with to take from the Bible the daughter of a friend of Morse, head of the Bureau of patents. The only real contribution to the Morse Telegraph was invented the alphabet, in all other respects he was completely incompetent. To build a working Telegraph, Morse stole published Henry open, but constantly turned to him for advice. Henry liked his persistence, and he spent several years encouraged Morse and resolved problems.
When Morse became famous and rich, he argued that all invented independently, and has not expressed any gratitude to Henry. All his life Morse has benefited from communication with people more generous and more talented than he is. While in Paris, he persuaded Louis daggers to show him how it works Dugger invented the photographic process.
Returning to America he added to his wealth of good Kush, opening the Studio, where she first began to photograph the living. During the same trip, he actually stole the magnet, invented by Louis Breguet who was the main element of the far telegraphic communication, and brought him home to deal with him without interference.
It is difficult to imagine what a striking impression on the whole world made the Telegraph. What news can immediately transfer over distances of hundreds of miles, it seemed to the Americans the same incredible as we thought it would be teleportation of people between the continents. People were so excited that no words to Express it was impossible. Four years after the first public demonstration of the Telegraph, America was entangled five thousand miles of Telegraph wire, a Morse was considered the greatest man of his time.
Alexander Graham Bell
Morse was dethroned by another invention more original, practical, and durable than the Telegraph. It was, of course, the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham bell in 1876 (not a purely American invention, as bell, born in Edinburgh in Scotland, became an American citizen just six years later). The term itself was not invented by bell, the word was in Vogue from 1830 and was applied to various devices that produce sounds from musical instruments to deafening beeps of the ship. In the patent application, bell described his device as a new kind of "telegraphy", but soon became called the "electric speaking telephone", another term used at the time, was a "speaking Telegraph".
Bell became interested in the problem of voice transmission over long distances due to the fact that his mother and wife were deaf. He was only twenty eight years, and his assistant, Thomas Watson, twenty one, when they made their remarkable discovery on March 10, 1876, in Spite of a long collaboration and close relationship, they communicated with each other very formally. In the first telephone conversation between bell said: "Tom, come here, I need you," said, "Mr. Watson, come here I need you".
Anticipating the delight of the audience and their business interest, bell and Watson demonstrated their invention to the Telegraph company "Western Union", but (you already guessed?) the company's management remained indifferent. "Mr. bell they wrote, after careful consideration of your invention we have concluded that it represents a remarkable novelty, but, unfortunately, there is commercial interest." This "electrical toy" in their view of the future had. Fortunately for Bella, other businesses were not so short sighted. Four years after the invention of America was 60,000 phones a in another twenty years more than six million, and the company of Bella, which was renamed to "American Telephone and Telegraph" (AT&T), became the largest company in America, whose shares were worth $ 1,000 apiece. Bell's patent number 174 465 was the most valuable patent in history. The phone burst into life in America with such rapidity that in the early 1880 e years, the phrase I'll call you meant not "I'll call you", as it has been for hundreds of years, a "I'll call you".
Bell sold the rights to his invention in 1881 and engaged in other tasks. He came up with aerons for airplanes, made an important contribution to the improvement of the phonograph, respirator, photovoltaic cells, and in desalination of water. When it was necessary to come up with a way to detect bullets in the body of a wounded President Garfield, then turned to Bella.
The phone not only allowed millions of people in America to communicate with each other, but, unlike the Telegraph, have enriched American English. The word operator as the address to the telephone operator appeared in the late 1870. "Hello, Central?" universal phrase, used before the room began to score out of the house in 1895, "Number, please!" in 1895, and in the same year appeared the term phone booth. The expression Yellow pages ("Yellow pages" telephone directory institutions) 1906 telephone directory (phone book) in 1907 (the first, which was listed as 50 telephone numbers was issued in new haven, Connecticut), a phone book in 1915 In the same year appeared communications between the Western and Eastern coast, although establishing all the connections took about half an hour and the minimum charge was 20 dollars and 70 cents.
People at first did not know what to say, taking the phone. Edison suggested informal Ahoy! (Hello!), and the first telephone operator, one George Coy of new haven, began to use it (only men participated in the telephone; as with all new technology at the time, women it is not allowed, until it became routine). Others have answered, Yes! or What?, a many just silently lifted the handset and waited to see what they say. The problem was so serious that magazines devoted long articles to the etiquette of telephone conversations.
Today America is the most dependent on your country on earth. 93% of American homes have telephones, a 70% have two phones no country in the world except Canada, is not even close to these figures. Each family makes an average 3616 calls for a year the figure is quite unbelievable for all other countries (data from 1994).