Who invented the first telephone. School Encyclopedia. How mobile phones appeared
Even in the myth of ancient Greek times, Theseus was the first mention of how information can be transmitted. Aegeus, the father of this hero, when he sent his son to the island of Crete, to fight the monster Minotaur, asked him to return, in case of success, to raise a white sail on the ship, and in case of defeat - black. Unfortunately, the inventor of the telephone had not yet been born, and the colors were mixed up, and Aegeus, deciding that his son was dead, drowned himself. The sea where he did this was called the Aegean.
Continuation of the story with communication
For some time, people did not pay much attention to solving the problem of transmitting symbols and signals over long distances. For a long time, birds and people remained the most reliable way to provide high-quality communication. When the weather was disgusting and there were no people willing to flee, they used fire, smoke, voice, or other conventional signs.
Although, to be honest, in the 16th century there was a proposal by Giovanni della Porta, an Italian scientist, to use speaking pipes for communication. A similar method operates on ships for communication between the engine room and the captain. So, the proposal to lay such pipes throughout Italy did not meet with understanding, and the first telephone was not invented at that time.
Revolution in France and a breakthrough in communications
In 1789, the mechanic Claude Chappe proposed to the Convention to resolve the issue of communication in the following way: they intended to cover the whole of France with a network of towers and install devices made of planks on them. At the same time, they should have been clearly visible from a distance. At night, lanterns were lit at the ends of the planks. Inside the tower was a telegraph operator, changing the location of the slats. The reference point for him was the tower in the zone of visibility. The telegraph operator sitting in it copied the message and sent it further. And so it went - from the starting point to the end. Approximately 200 combinations could be obtained by changing the arrangement of the bars.
A cipher was compiled, which consisted of a notebook with a volume of 92 pages, each of which had the same number of words. The telegraph employee transmitted the number of the word and page, they did not know the cipher at the intermediate points, but simply passed on the received combinations. Claude Chappe is not yet the inventor of the telephone, but his great admirer, Napoleon, introduced his method of communication throughout almost all of Europe. By the way, the transmission speed was quite high. For example, a message from St. Petersburg to Warsaw took about 45 minutes, if only the weather was normal.
and communication
When electricity was invented, at first scientists could not find a practical application for it. The first experience was the transmission of information over a distance. Austrian scientists, seeing the dependence of Schapp's telegraph on weather conditions, created its electric version. Semmering, a member of the Munich academy, invented a device in 1809 that was connected by thirty-five wires, each of which corresponded to numbers and letters of the alphabet. The message came to a bath filled with water, here the electrical network was closed, during which gas bubbles were released, information was read from them. The design was very complex, it did not immediately take root, only in 1832 was a usable electric telegraph made. It was invented by Schilling, a scientist from Russia, and later improved by the British Cook and Wheatstone. So, gradually, we will get to how it happened, briefly dwelling on important points.
Morse invention
Morse demonstrated his telegraph alphabet and transmitting apparatus to the public in 1837. From that moment on, the electric telegraph began its victorious march around the world. In just 10 years, his lines have entangled most of North America and Europe. His triumph was the laying of a communication cable along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, carried out in 1866 with the help of the ship Great Eastern, specially built for this purpose. When radio was invented, she moved to the air.
And now, despite the mass distribution of satellite, cellular, other sophisticated communications, the Internet, there are people, and there are many of them, who prefer to send telegrams. And not only in villages, but also in big cities. Now we are very close to such a significant date as the year of the invention of the telephone.
When was the telephone invented
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the telephone became the main means of communication. He was born much later than the telegraph, his predecessor. Even at a time when this predecessor was the main one, Philipp Rice, a German scientist, in 1861 invented a device that, using a galvanic current, transfers a human voice to any distance. Fifteen years later, Alexander Graham Bell, a Philadelphia school teacher, demonstrated the first electric telephone at the World's Fair. Remember: 1876 is the date the telephone was invented. But Elish Grey, another inventor, was only a couple of hours late with a claim for the same invention. Therefore, primacy in this matter is purely conditional.
connections
Literally five years later, a new means of communication, which was much simpler than the telegraph, firmly entered human life. Have you seen the photo of the first phone? So, the famous improved this device, and it became a truly household means of communication. And the telegraph was and remains public. There was also a field phone option. Due to the speed of deployment and ease of handling, it has become indispensable for the army and the military.
The first telephone exchange opened in 1878. This means of communication, like the telegraph, acquired the status of inviolable. Neither revolution nor war could interfere with their normal functioning. From films about those times it is clear that one of the favorite activities of the military commanders of both the White Army and the Red Army during the Civil War was quarreling over the phone.
Briefly about the first phone
You have already understood who is the official inventor of the telephone. And what was this first phone like? By the way, the invention happened by chance, like many others in this life. During experiments and experiments, the stuck plate began to act as a primitive diaphragm, and it was already a matter of time to think out what to do next. As a result, Bell's phone became a real sensation at the exhibition.
Although the first apparatus worked only at a distance of up to two hundred meters, with monstrous sound distortions, the transmitting and receiving devices were very primitive. The inventor created the "Bell Telephone Society" and began to actively improve it. As a result, one year later he patented fittings and a new membrane for his device. A little later, I used a carbon microphone (to increase the transmission distance) and powered by separate batteries. A little over a hundred years, almost in this form, the telephone existed.
Development of telephone communication in the twentieth century
How was the further development of the invention, the author of which was Alexander Bell? The telephone, created by him, soon surpassed and began to develop by leaps and bounds. The first transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1 was laid between Canada and Scotland in 1956. And after that - more than a hundred thousand kilometers of such cables. Including - Washington - Moscow, the famous government special wire, for communication between the American president and the leader of the Soviet Union. Nobody else had access to it. Such a wired, cable telephone connection, of course, is much more expensive than radiotelephone, especially if you count the amount of drowned and buried copper, but it is not going to give up its positions. At least because of its greater reliability and the ability to intercept the conversation.
Phone today
Bell - the inventor of the telephone - could not, most likely, imagine the progress that communication has made to date. It would seem that the development of cellular communications should slow down wired communications, but the latter continues to move forward, especially in large cities: thanks, as already mentioned, to its reliability, as well as the introduction of the latest technologies, such as fiber optic communications.
Have you forgotten what wires the Internet is transmitted through? According to the very ones that our grandfathers and grandmothers used to communicate, and in the central part of Moscow - great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. Thanks to the latest technologies, the phone has mastered the ether and has turned from a stationary object into a very convenient and advanced human companion.
Another version of the inventor of the telephone
Expanding the topic of the invention of this means of communication, one cannot fail to mention one more version, according to which the inventor of the telephone is Elisha Gray, and not Alexander Bell at all. In 2007, a book was published by a well-known researcher, journalist Seth Shulman, in which he wrote that the latter had stolen a competitor's invention and passed it off as his own. The main piece of evidence is Bell's notebook, access to which was very limited until 1976. It turns out, in addition to everything else, that Gray applied for a patent first, but his competitor, thanks to bribery and aggressive lawyers, managed to register a patent earlier. But that's not all.
There is a version that Philipp Rice, a German scientist, can also be considered as the inventor of the first telephone. His device, created in the 1860s, was capable of transmitting speech over a distance, but it worked on a different principle. By the way, Gray began his work as a carpenter, while studying at Oberlin College. Then he experimented with telegraph technology and electricity, invented a hotel notification device, a telegraph switchboard, a letter-printing machine and other devices. He lost the trial for the right to be considered the inventor of the telephone, and Bell has since been considered the first.
Further prospects for the development of communications
The inventor of the telephone, whoever he was, could probably imagine what future prospects the means of communication have. They are a little out of the realm of fantasy, but, nevertheless, they have the right to exist. This is telepathy, or, in other words, the transmission of thoughts over a distance. Back in the seventies of the last century, the Soviet academician Glushkov formulated this perspective. He noted that the thinking process of a person will be sent to a computer, it will remember it, and over time, a complete symbiosis of a machine and a person will turn out. And he was sure that in 2020 full compatibility of the computer and the human brain would be achieved.
Considering how computer communications are pushing traditional means at a distance, the academician's prediction does not seem very fantastic. After all, many fantasies that seemed unrealistic came true. For example, a home that is fully computerized, helmets connected to a PC, transmitting visual sensations. Once it was fiction and Ray Bradbury. Or computer printing at the command of a human voice. When the transmission of thoughts over a distance is demanded, then this issue will also be resolved. It's just that no one really needs it yet.
A little about other inventions of mankind
Although the invention of the telephone is one of the most important, all the inventions of mankind do not end there. Now we briefly list a dozen of the most important of them.
Short biography of Alexander Bell
Since we talked about the invention of the great scientist, we need to briefly outline his biography. He was born in Edinburgh (Scotland), March 3, 1847. Many of his relatives had the profession of professional orators - uncle, grandfather and father. The latter even wrote a treatise on eloquence. Alexander at first also followed their path, graduated from the appropriate school and became a teacher of music and eloquence. He studied for a year at the University of Edinburgh, then moved to Bath (England). In 1870 the family moved to Canada and settled in Ontario. Here Bell continued to deal with the issue of signal transmission through telecommunications, which he became interested in back in Scotland. He created, for example, an electric piano that transmitted music over wires. Soon, in 1873, Alexander became a lecturer in the physiology of speech at the University of Boston. And three years later he received patent No. 174465 for the invention of the telephone. He also worked with light rays, which subsequently contributed to the creation of fiber optic technologies. In 1877 he married Mabel Hubbard, his student, in 1882 he became a US citizen. Died August 2, 1992. In the country for a minute, in order to honor his memory, all phones were turned off.
More than a dozen years have passed since the appearance of the first mobile phone. Over time, they have been constantly improved, new features have been added to them, and sizes have been reduced. But at one fine moment, all the functions invented by engineers became crowded in the concept of "mobile phone". This is how the concept of "communicator", and then "smartphone" appeared.
- Mobile phone(English mobile phone) - a portable communication tool designed primarily for voice communication.
- Smartphone(English smartphone - smart phone) - a mobile phone, supplemented by the functionality of a pocket personal computer.
- Communicator(eng. communicator, PDA phone) - a pocket personal computer, supplemented by the functionality of a mobile phone.
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The presence of a fully functional operating system makes smartphones and communicators more attractive in the eyes of most users. Modern solutions (models of the middle price category and above) perfectly cope with many tasks that go beyond telephone: working with e-mail, viewing text documents and spreadsheets, working with the task scheduler and many others. Extending the functionality of phones is possible through J2ME programs, which are supported by almost all mobile devices. The screen of a number of phones is not inferior to most smartphones, many models are equipped with a slot for a memory card.It is important to note that programs written specifically for the operating system of a smartphone or communicator are complete sequences of low-level microprocessor instructions compiled into binary code. Specialized applications use processor resources more efficiently and generally have more functionality than "generic" J2ME programs.
However, for most users, this circumstance is not the main selection criterion. Smartphones are promoted by manufacturers due to other factors such as:
- Advanced multimedia features (better camera, enhanced video playback, improved musical abilities);
- Increasing the number of cores and processor frequency;
- Using the unique design of the model;
- Protection of the device from external influences.
The history of smartphones
What is the first smartphone? They tried to combine the functionality of a mobile phone and a communicator almost immediately after the appearance of the first communicators in the early 90s of the last century.
Mobile communications in the USSR
We are all used to the fact that mobile technologies and devices come from abroad. And communication standards (for example, GSM), and the phones themselves, and all the equipment of operators - bear the stigma "Made in not-with-us". The USA, Europe, Japan and even China supply us with communications. And somehow it was already forgotten that earlier we ourselves were leaders in this area. At one time, it was in our country that the world's first network of automatic mobile communications was launched. And if not for the attitude of the Soviet leadership, (sabotage?) Perhaps we would now speak not by “nokia”, but by “volemot” ...
Did the USSR have mobile communications?
Such a question may seem strange to many, especially from a generation for which mobile communications are strongly associated with a plastic box with a large color screen, a bunch of buttons and buzzwords such as GPRS, WAP, 3G. Where in the Cursed Scoop (c) could mobile communications come from?
Well, firstly, what is a mobile connection? What is the definition of this term?
Mobile communication is a radio communication between subscribers, the location of one or more of which changes.
Mobile communication is cellular, trunking, satellite, plus paging systems and zonal SMRS (fixed channel through a repeater).
In other words, cellular communications (although this term is probably not familiar to all users of this very type of communication) is just a variation of a broader concept - mobile communications. Moreover, it appeared much later than the first mobile radio systems in general.
In the world, the first mobile communication systems appeared after the First World War. So in 1921, the first radio-equipped police cars began to be used in the United States. But mobile communication of that time was almost completely used in highly specific forms, primarily military, police and all kinds of specialized services. They did not have access to public telephone networks, they were not automatic, so this period can be skipped.
The first mobile communication systems for the average consumer began to appear after the Second World War. However, these were also rather limited systems in terms of capabilities. The connection was one-way (simplex), that is, in the image of military radio stations - you pressed the PTT - you speak, let go - you listen. And the choice of a free radio channel with subsequent connection to the landline telephone network was completely manual. The presence of a control room with telephone ladies and a manual switchboard was an indispensable attribute of such systems.
Those who remember the French film of the 60s "Razin" can remember the episode when the hero of Louis de Funes spoke on such a "mobile phone" from his car. "Hello, young lady, give Smolny!".
From this follows a simple conclusion. The process of calling from a mobile phone should be indistinguishable from a call from a regular phone. This is what will be the criterion for a mobile communication network for widespread use.
So, the world's first fully automatic mobile communication system was created and put into operation in the Soviet Union. And for several years the USSR was the world leader in the field of mobile communications.
"Altai". The first in the world.
See the first US patent 1972!
U.S. Patent 3,663,762 -- Cellular Mobile Communication System -- Amos Edward Joel (Bell Labs), filed Dec 21, 1970, issued May 16, 1972 http://www.google.com/patents?vid=3663762 at this link and other patents , later
Work on an automatic mobile communication system called "Altai" began in 1958. In the city of Voronezh, in the Voronezh Research Institute of Communications (VNIIS), subscriber stations (in other words, telephones themselves) and base stations for communication with them were created. Antenna systems were developed at the Moscow State Specialized Design Institute (GSPI), the same place where Soviet television was born. Leningraders worked on other components of Altai, and later enterprises from Belarus and Moldova joined. Specialists from different parts of the Soviet Union joined forces to create an absolutely unique product at that time - automatic mobile communication.
"Altai" was supposed to become a full-fledged telephone installed in a car. It was simply possible to speak on it, as on a regular phone (that is, the sound passed in both directions at the same time, the so-called duplex mode). To call another "Altai" or a regular phone, it was enough just to dial the number - as on a desktop telephone, without any channel switching or talking with the dispatcher.
Realizing this possibility at the then technical level was not easy. There was, of course, no digital communication yet; the voice was transmitted over the air in the usual way. But, in addition to voice, it was necessary to transmit special signals, with the help of which the system itself could find a free radio channel, establish a connection, transmit a dialed telephone number, etc.
It now seems natural to us to simply dial a number on the buttons of a mobile phone. And in 1963, when the experimental zone of the Altai system was launched in Moscow, a real telephone in a car made an indelible impression. The developers tried to make it as similar as possible to the usual devices: Altai had a handset, and in some models even a dialing dial. However, the disk was soon abandoned and replaced with buttons, since it turned out to be inconvenient to turn the disk in a car.
Party and economic leaders were delighted with the new system. Car telephones soon appeared in the ZILs and Chaikas of the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership. They were followed by "Volga" directors of the most important enterprises.
"Altai" of course was not a full-fledged cellular system. Initially, one city, together with the suburbs, was served by only one base station with sixteen radio channels. But for a small number of senior leaders who had access to mobile communications, this was enough at first.
The system used a frequency range of 150 MHz - these are frequencies of the same order as the meter range of television. Therefore, an antenna mounted on a high tower made it possible to provide communication at a distance of up to tens of kilometers.
A similar system in the US, IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service), was launched in the pilot area a year later. And its commercial launch took place only in 1969. Meanwhile, in the USSR, by 1970, "Altai" was installed and successfully operated in about 30 cities!
By the way, about the IMTS system. There is one very interesting paragraph in the description of this system.
In the 70s and the early 80s, before the introduction of cellular phones, there were "waiting lists" of up to 3 years for those wishing to have mobile telephone service. These potential subscribers were literally waiting for other subscribers to disconnect their subscription in order to obtain a mobile telephone number and mobile phone service.
I translate:
In the 70s and early 80s, before the use of cellular communications, there were "waiting lists", up to 3 years, for those who wanted to have a mobile connection. Potential subscribers were forced to wait until existing subscribers disconnected from the network in order to receive a telephone number and mobile network services.
Queues! Lists! Numbers! Here it is, the Cursed Scoop (c)!!!
Of course, such severe restrictions were caused by a limited number of radio channels. But I specifically draw attention to this so that readers understand that such systems could not be mass-produced purely for technical reasons, and not because of someone's malicious intent.
For this reason, the phones of this system were very expensive (from 2 to 4 thousand dollars) and a minute of conversation cost from 70 cents to 1.2 dollars. Often the phones were rented from the company rather than bought.
And by the way, this system is still in operation in Canada and the United States.
Now in Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Rostov, Kiev, Voronezh and many other cities (and regions) of the USSR, party and economic leaders could easily talk on the phone from the car. Our country, strange as it may seem to hear now, was confidently leading in the field of mobile communications.
In the 1970s, the Altai system was actively developed. New radio channels were allocated (22 "trunks" of 8 channels each) in the 330 MHz band - i.e. at slightly longer wavelengths than decimeter television, which made it possible to provide a considerable range and simultaneously serve more subscribers. Thanks to the use of the first microcircuits, subscriber stations became more and more compact - although they still remained automobile (it was possible to carry the phone along with the batteries in a heavy suitcase).
By the mid-70s, the geography of the Altai system gradually expanded to 114 cities of the Soviet Union.
Special work on the modernization of equipment had to be carried out for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Moreover, it was for the Olympics that the base station "Altai" moved to the Ostankino television tower. Prior to that, she occupied the top two floors of a high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya embankment.
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The famous building on Kotelnicheskaya embankment. The top three floors in the 60s were occupied by the Altai system equipment, which provides the Central Committee and the Supreme Council with excellent mobile communications.
At the Olympics-80, the communication of the modernized Altai-3M system was used very widely and showed its best side. So, almost all journalistic reports from the competitions passed through Altai. Soviet signalmen became the winners of the Olympics along with Soviet athletes; True, they did not get Olympic medals, but many leading developers received the USSR State Prize.
However, during the Olympics, the limitations of Altai began to appear. Sometimes journalists complained about poor communication; the engineers advised them to rearrange the car a little, and everything immediately got better.
In total, by the beginning of the 80s, the number of subscribers of the Altai system was about 25 thousand.
In order for the wireless telephone to become widespread, further development of the system was required - in particular, the transition to the now familiar use of many base stations covering neighboring areas of the territory. And Soviet engineers were quite ready for this development. Unfortunately, not everything depended only on this readiness.
A VOLEMOT that came too late.
In the early 1980s, specialists from VNIIS and other enterprises were ready to work on a new generation communication system. It was named "Volemot" (short for the names of the cities where the developers were located: Voronezh, Leningrad, Molodechno, Ternopil). A feature of "Volemot" was the ability to fully use many base stations; during a conversation, it was possible to switch from one of them to another without losing connection.
This feature, now known as "handover" and allowing conversations on the move without any problems, made "Volemot" a full-fledged cellular communication. In addition, automatic roaming was supported: the Volemot device, registered in the network of one city, could be used in another. In this case, the same 330 MHz band was used, and each base station could, if necessary, "cover" tens of square kilometers with communications.
Volemot" could become a mass connection for the countryside, a "true friend" of collective farmers, summer residents and tourists. For this purpose, it would have been better suited than the Western cellular systems developed during the same period (AMPS, NMT), since it was easy to operate over a very wide area. But to serve many subscribers in a small area (in the city), Volemot was inferior to AMPS and NMT, however, further development, however, could solve this problem.
Mobile communications could well fit into the Soviet way of life, and into the communist ideology. Initially, telephones could, for example, be installed in villages and summer cottages for collective use and rented out in tourist clubs (for the duration of a trip). Call service from "Volemot" could appear in long-distance trains or buses. And, of course, there was no threat to "state security" - mobile communications without encryption devices are very easy to listen to. Therefore, in the future it could well become available to all citizens of the country.
However, for several years, the Volemot project failed to obtain the necessary funding and the development of the system was very slow. Meanwhile, cellular systems in the West were actively developing and gaining popularity. For the beginning - the middle of the 1980s, the former leadership was lost.
"Volemot" was nevertheless completed by the end of the 1980s and was ready to begin deployment, but at that time the "process had already begun" and there was no longer any talk of the possibility of catching up with Europe and the United States.
Nevertheless, the system was launched in a number of cities in the early 90s and is still in operation, just like Altai. Today their main positioning is professional communications for various services, from taxis to ambulances.
But despite this, a full-fledged cellular communication managed to appear in the USSR. The first operator - Leningrad "Delta Telecom" began its work on September 9, 1991, three and a half months before the collapse of the USSR. This means that work on its installation began six months or a year before this event, when the events that followed in December in Belovezhskaya Pushcha were not predicted even by CIA analysts.
Something interesting. The first cell phones.
Mobile (or rather - car!) phone of the early 80s by Nokia - Mobira Senator. The weight of the apparatus is 15 kilograms.
Mobira Talkman - phone of the second half of the 80s - early 90s. Its weight is only 3 kg.
Motorola's first cell phone, the DynaTAC 8000X, was released on March 6, 1983. Its development cost about 100 million dollars (of that time!).
The phone weighed 794 grams and had dimensions of 33x4.4x8.9 cm. The battery charge was enough for 1 hour of talk time or 8 hours of standby time. He had a memory for 30 numbers and ONE melody.
This phone cost $3995. He has been on the cellular communication market for 10 years.
In the network of America's first commercial cellular company, Ameritech Mobile, the monthly fee was $50, plus one minute of conversation cost users from 24 to 40 cents (depending on the time of the call). A year after its launch, its network had 12,000 subscribers.
A telephone is a device that allows people to talk from anywhere in the world. At the moment, transmission is carried out by means of electrical signals. The term itself comes from the ancient Greek language: “Tele” means “far away”, and “background” means voice, sound.
Who invented the first telephone
Initially, telephones resembled large and bulky devices. They were devices with a lever to switch and a dialer in the form of a dial or large buttons. They used two types of microphones: carbon and electret.
The first was coal powder, which, depending on the value of electrical resistance, acted on the membrane. She transmitted the sound to the subscriber.
The second consisted of a capacitor, one of the plates of which was also a membrane. The sound had an impact on the capacitor, and he transmitted further vibrations to the plates.
Telephone set consisted of more than of 500 mechanical parts and was a bulky device. It could not be taken with you or put at home. To do this, there were social telephone exchanges.
But time passed, technology did not stand still, and today they are more compact and mobile options. 
The progenitor of the telephone is considered electric telegraph, which was invented after the discovery of electricity in the first half of the 19th century. 
The very first apparatus for transmitting voice over a distance, which could already be called a telephone, was invented, invented and demonstrated German scientist and inventor Johann Reiss in 1861. The device itself consisted of three main components: a microphone, a speaker, and a galvanic battery. 
The history of the development of the first phones
In 1876, American scientist Alexander Bell patented the very first telephone in the world. entitled"talking tube". The first copy had a maximum range of 200 meters and severely distorted sound at a distance.
During the year, Bell improved his equipment, removing interference on the line. After that, it served in the region of a hundred years for all mankind, until it was modernized.
It is believed that the scientist accidentally discovered the principle of the telephone. During one of the experiments to improve telegraph communication, one of the data transmission plates got stuck. His assistant, seeing the hitch, began to swear. Unexpectedly for himself, Bell heard the indignant words of his partner in the telegraph tube. So, a random event led to the appearance of modern phones.
However, in 2002, the American Congress recognized that Antonio Meucci was the first inventor. But the story that happened to the Italian is quite typical for that time. Italian inventor developed and invented scheme of operation of a device for transmitting voice over a distance independently. Unfortunately, at that point in time, he was a beggar. He simply did not have enough money for a piece of bread. As a result, he sold his development a large Western Union company on the condition that they file a patent for it. When, after a long period of time, there was still no answer, he himself applied for a patent. However, she was rejected.
At the same time, Antonio learns that the telephone was patented Alexander Bell. Such information greatly crippled him. He tried to fight the company to restore justice, but he lacked the financial means. The result of litigation was the recognition of him as the inventor of the telephone only in 1887. By that time, he was already old, and died in poverty and obscurity. It wasn't until 2002 that the US confirmed that he was, in fact, the founding father of the telephone.
To transmit sound to another subscriber, it was also necessary to use special communication lines, which were created only in 1877. first line put into operation in Boston, and a year later, the first telephone exchange was opened in New Haven. In 1878, the American scientist Thomas Edison introduced another model that was more compact. 
As you can see from the photo, rotary phones were the first to appear. They were more convenient to manufacture, so for a long time they mainly used only the model with disks. Mass production began after 1896.
Feature phones first appeared only in 1963. It was another attempt to improve the current model.
Thanks to Edison, landlines began to massively come into use among ordinary citizens. In the fifty years since Alexander Bell's discovery, the voice over distance device became so popular that it was in almost every home.
Cell phone invention
The prerequisites for the emergence of cellular communications are the invention domestic scientist Alexandra Popova under the name of the recorder of electromagnetic waves. He presented it at the Congress of the Physico-Chemical Society in 1895.
After several years, Guglielmo Marconi used Morse code to send a message for almost a kilometer and a half. This was the next step in the development of mobile communications. In 1896, he applied for a patent, and after receiving it founded a company Marconi & Co.
Gradually, more and more scientists invested their research and practical experience in the development of mobile communications. Over time, Popov's first invention was modernized. 
In 1900 Reginald Fessenden sent a voice message from one subscriber to another using the radio wave. After this, research went in a different direction.
In 1921 the first mobile telegraph station. By its principle of operation, it resembled a pager. And only after almost 12 years, a two-way communication vehicle was created, the principle of operation of which is still used. True, improvements have been made.
Almost 30 years later, such cars filled all the cities on the planet. But they had a significant drawback by that point in time - frequency limits. They used the same frequency, which eventually began to affect the quality of communication.
Thus, in 1947, an employee of the organization "Bell Laboratories", Ring - proposed a new method of communication. It's called cellular communication. That is coverage area was divided into "cells", and each had its own frequency.
Also this year, the first transistor was created, which led to a decrease in the size of telephone sets.
Almost a century after Popov's invention, the head of Motorola, Martin Cooper, made first call by mobile phone to their competitors. The event took place on April 3, 1973. This date is the official birthday of mobile communications.
The first representatives were also large and bulky, but relatively mobile. 
After some time, various models of telephone sets began to appear, which became more compact and convenient.
The first Russian cell phone appeared in 1957. It was development of a Soviet engineer Leonid Kupriyanov. The device weighed 3 kg, and made it possible to do without changing the battery for 30 hours. 
Unfortunately, the further history of the development of this device is unknown. It was replaced by the Altai telephone complex, which was used on ambulances for operational communication with the hospital.
In Russia, such a development has been going on for a long time in a passive way. It wasn't until 1987, when Gorbachev used a mobile phone to call from Helsinki to Moscow, that development took off.
September 1991 was marked by the following fact: the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, made a call to the United States using the Nokia 1011. This development was presented by Delta-Telecom.
In Moscow, cellular communications appeared after 1992 thanks to the efforts of the Moscow Cellular Communications and Ericsson companies.
The very first touch phone in the world appeared relatively recently - in 1998.
Company "Sharp", from Japan, presented to the world its model of a wireless touch phone - PMC-1 Smart-phone. 
However, the main goal - to knock Nokia's competitor out of the mobile phone market - was not achieved. At the same time, Alcatel, against the background of other manufacturers, is launching the device “ OneTouch". Literally translated from English - one touch.
Unfortunately, at that time, both developments did not interest the mass consumer and were soon forgotten.
In 2003 " Nokia decides to use a sensor to control mobile phones. This is how the Nokia 7700 project was born. But due to constant postponements, the 7710 model is presented to the consumer. 
After that, many vendors launch the production of touch devices.
Development of cellular communication
The development of mobile phones is represented not only by models and different brands, but also by the standards of communication itself.
Initially was the standard NMT-450, which was a joint development of several countries. It appeared at the end of the 70s of the last century. However, this project was closed, and the development of cellular communications at that time was active.
Almost every country began to come up with their own standards, which were not related to others. They were also analog, which imposed certain restrictions.
All of the above led to the idea of creating single protocol cellular communication. The result was the emergence of a global standard - GSM. He was developed in 1982, and became global over a long period of time.
Literally a year later, the Qualcomm organization began to develop its own digital standard, which was later called CDMA.
Further development of mobile communications led to the emergence of a third generation protocol called FPLMTS (Future Public Land Mobile Telephone System). Its main difference from the previous ones is getting free access to the Internet. Also present backward compatibility.
To date, the fourth generation protocol is the standard, and a fifth is under active development.
First smartphone
The development of mobile phones and laptops led to the idea of combining two products into one. So smartphones were created, and then communicators.
The prototype can be developed by IBM - Simon, which was introduced in 1992. However, at that time it was not accepted by the world community, and further research was stopped. 
The next step is a joint project HP and Nokia - Communicator 700LX, which was released in 1996. This is a hybrid of two models: Nokia 2110 and HP 200LX. However, these were two components working independently from each other. 
Therefore, a year later, the Finnish company demonstrates Nokia 9000 Communicator - a full-fledged device. 
In 2000 " Ericsson releases its R380s smartphone. 
In response, Nokia presents a development with color display. This is the first working model that displays information not in black and white. The model was named Nokia 9210. It runs on Symbian 6.0 and was revolutionary at that time. After it, many brands began to produce phones with OS. 
After that, the market experienced an unprecedented rise in the development of smartphones and communicators.
Android and iPhone
Symbian is considered the first OS on mobile phones. This is a joint development of Psion, Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson, which was officially introduced in 1998. Further development of the operating system is associated with the popularity of smartphones, which were described in more detail in the section above.
However, today there is two mobile operating systems that compete with each other: Android and iOS.
The history of the appearance of the first OS originates in the zero years of the 21st century. Unknown to anyone, Andy Rubin decided to develop his own OS for mobile platforms. He kept his idea a great secret, and the result was a shortage of funds. In 2005, Google buys Andy's idea and drawings, which serves as the starting point for the development of Android. The official presentation of the new operating system took place on July 26, 2005.
In 2007, after the phone sensor boom, Apple unveiled its vision for the iPhone. It was the first device that supported the function"MultiTouch", that is, touching with your finger in several places on the touch screen at once. The OS that was used in the company's devices was called iOS. The kernel of the system was taken from the sources of Unix-like systems and brought by the developers to the end user.
At the current time, Android and IOS are the biggest competitors in the mobile OS space.
Almost no modern person can imagine his life and work without a phone.
However, quite recently, on a historical scale, there were times when the phone was considered a luxury. Who invented and introduced the telephone to the general public?
Content:Fixed line
As everyone knows, the era of telephone communications began with wired telephones that could transmit voice messages using technologies that were significantly different from modern ones.
Such a device was a major breakthrough and the first "ring" of an active scientific and technological revolution, which began almost immediately after the creation of such an innovative device.
Story
The first telephone was created in an era when the telegraph was the only way to more or less quickly transmit messages over long distances.
At that time, the telegraph was considered a perfect and fully functional means of communication with remote regions.
However, the invention of the telephone revolutionized the use of the telephone rather quickly.
It is worth noting that the invention of the telephone could not even be conceived until the moment when electricity was discovered.
When electricity became more or less widely used, the telegraph appeared - morse presented to the public in 1897 not only his alphabet, but also a broadcasting device.
The appearance of the world's first device capable of quickly transmitting information without a physical carrier over a greater distance proved that such a method of transmission is possible in principle, and gave the scientists of that time an impetus to develop methods for its improvement.
First apparatus
And at the end of the 19th century, scientists managed to significantly improve the method of transmission, give it a new format. It is believed that the telephone was invented by Alexander Bell, but this is not entirely true.
The appearance of the device would be impossible without Philip Rice- German scientist.
It was Rice who created the very basis of the future telephone.- a device capable of transmitting a recording of a human voice over some (quite large for that time) distances using galvanic current conductors. Rice's development saw the light in 1861, and during this period Bell took it as the basis for his future invention - the telephone, in the form in which it is known to us now.
So, 15 years later, namely in 1876, the first telephone based on galvanic current appeared, the inventor of which was considered Alexander Graham Bell.
At this year's World's Fair, a Scottish researcher presented his apparatus for transmitting voice messages at a distance, and also applied for a patent.
Specifications
What technical characteristics did this first device have?
It was significantly inferior not only to devices that spread in the 20th century, but also to subsequent models created by Bell a few years later.
However, at that time, its characteristics were considered premium.
The distance that the device could transmit sound was 200 m, which was a lot.
Initially, he had a strong sound distortion, but with the next improvement, Alexander Bell eliminated this problem.
And in this form, the device, invented and improved by him, existed for almost 100 years.
History of creation
Like many famous inventions that changed not only the course of scientific and technological progress, but also the course of history, this was created by accident.
Initially, Alexander Bell's goal was not to create a device that transmits a voice message, but to create a telegraph machine capable of transmitting several telegrams simultaneously.
In the process of experiments on such an improvement of the telegraph apparatus, the telephone was created.
The telegraph worked using pairs of records, and for their experience, Bell and his assistant prepared several pairs of such records, which were tuned to work at different frequencies.
As a result of a slight violation of the technology of the experiment, one of the plates got stuck.
The inventor's assistant began to express his opinion on what had happened, while Bell himself at that moment carried out some manipulations with the receiving device of the telegraph apparatus.
A few seconds later, scientists heard sounds coming from the transmitter and resembling a voice recording, albeit with very strong distortion. From that moment the history of telephone communication began. After Alexander Bell presented his device to the public, many eminent scientists began work to improve the existing device.
The Patent Office issued hundreds of patents for devices that could modernize and improve the created phone. The most significant of them are:
1 Call T. Watson, which replaced the whistle that was originally installed on Bell's apparatus, which appeared in 1878;
2 Carbon microphone M. Michalsky, which allowed to improve the quality of transmission, and created in 1878;
3 Automatic telephone exchange for 10,000 S. Apostolov numbers which appeared in 1894.
The importance of Alexander Bell's invention can also be assessed in terms of financial parameters.
This patent became one of the most profitable in the world, it was he who made Bell a world-famous and very rich man. But was it deserved?
Meucci's contribution
In 2002, the US Congress recognized that this patent was issued undeservedly, and the true discoverer of telephone communications should not be considered the Scottish scientist Alexander Graham Bell, but the Italian inventor Antonio Meucci, who created his device for many years of Bell's dot phone.
In 1860, he actually created the first apparatus capable of transmitting sound over wires. Meucci's device was called the telextrophone.
At the time of the creation and improvement of the invention, Meucci lived in the USA, was already almost an elderly man and was in a very poor financial situation.
At this stage, his invention and interested in a large company Western Union.
Its representatives offered the scientist to sell all his developments for a substantial amount, and also promised to assist in obtaining a patent.
The poor financial situation forced Meucci to give in to the company's demands. He received his money, but he did not get any help in obtaining a patent, so he applied himself, but was refused. And in 1876, Alexander Bell received a patent for an almost completely similar device.
This was a serious shock to Meucci, and he tried to challenge the decision to award the patent to Bell in court.
During the first stages of the proceedings, Meucci did not have enough finances to deal with a huge corporation.
As a result, the right to the patent was nevertheless returned to him in court, but only when the term of this patent had already expired.
Important! It was only in 2002 that a resolution of the Congress of the United States of America came out, according to which it was Meucci who was officially recognized as the inventor of the telephone.
Twentieth Century
Apparatuses similar to those invented by Meucci were used throughout most of the twentieth century.
They were constantly improved, and if the first models that became widespread could only communicate with the called subscriber through a telephone exchange where manual connection was necessary, then later these stations became automatic, subscribers were able to communicate almost directly.
The advent of such an automatic communication system was a big step towards the invention of the telephone as users know it today.
The first telephone that brought scientists closer to the invention of cellular communications was the radiotelephone.
After that, the first cell phone appeared, and relatively recently, satellite telephony.
The newest of the existing developments can be called, which already has little in common directly with the phone, but performs the same functions.
mobile connection
The history of cellular communications began with radiotelephones, the first tests of which were carried out in 1941 by G. Shapiro and I. Zakharchenko in the USSR, and by AT&T Bell Laboratories in the USA.
The system worked on the basis of radio communication and was supposed to be used for communication between cars (in the modern sense, it was more like a walkie-talkie than a telephone).
In both superpowers, the tests were successful and the system fully met the expectations of the inventors.
And already in 1947, the concept of using hexagonal cells for communication was first proposed in the United States. It was proposed for use by Douglas Ring and Ray Young, inventors working for Bell. The tests were also successful, and it was on the basis of this technology that mobile communications were further developed (and it was on the basis of this technology that it got its name).
But the real birthplace of mobile communications is still considered not the USA or the USSR, but Sweden.
Here, in 1956, a communication system between cars was launched and successfully operated, which became the first such system in the world.
Initially, the project was implemented in the three largest cities of the state - Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
Telephone sets of Kupriyanovich
The first telephone set that could be truly mobile and used in field devices was invented in the USSR.
The subscriber could carry it with him, it did not need to be built into cars and transported, like earlier models.
The apparatus was presented to the public by L.I. Kupriyanovich, a Soviet engineer, in 1957.
The weight of the device was 3 kg, which was very small by the then standards, while it operated over fairly long distances - up to 30 km, depending on the terrain.
The operating time of this device without replacing the batteries was 20-30 hours, depending on the operating conditions. The inventor received a patent for the engineering solutions of the device in 1957.
This engineer continued to work in this direction until 1958.
This year, he created a more compact mobile phone that works on the same principles as the previous device.
The new device weighed only half a kilogram, and did not exceed the size of a cigarette box.
Kupriyanovich does not stop his work in 1961.
This year he creates a device with the same principles of operation as the previous two, but weighing only 70 grams and fits in your pocket. It is capable of communicating over a distance of up to 80 km.
According to the inventor, this device could well be adapted for mass production in order to mass-equip heads of departments and enterprises with it. Some time later, in one of his interviews with periodicals, he announced his readiness to design 10 automatic TV stations for portable phones throughout the country. But this project was never carried out in reality.
Bulgarian developments
Although Kupriyanovich himself will soon stop working, his system, in various variations, continues to be improved by other companies.
So, in 1965, the Radioelectronics company from Bulgaria presented at the Inforga-65 technology festival a system from the main telephone exchange for 15 subscribers, and 15 telephones themselves.
At the same time, they mention that the project was developed precisely on the principle of Kupriyanovich's equipment.
Work on such technology in this organization continues into 1966. At the scientific exhibition Interorgtekhnika-66, they present a set of mobile phones and a station designed to work with six devices. An industrial model is presented, ready, to a greater or lesser extent, for mass production.
In the future, the company works with this particular model, which is already significantly different from Kupriyanovich's devices.
They first create a station for 69 numbers, and then for 699.
The system became widespread, became a substitute for intercom and was widely produced by industrial enterprises to equip departmental institutions with communications, and was actively used in the country until the beginning of the 90s.
Car phones
At the same time, the development of radiotelephones for cars is being actively carried out.
They are implemented using a different technology, different from the technology of Kupriyanovich, but they are relatively popular and widely distributed in the USSR and the world at the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century.
In 1958, work began on the design and creation of mobile phones designed to equip civilian departmental vehicles.
These phones are called "Altai" and could only be used in a car.
In 1963, the Altai was already introduced into more or less mass production and relatively widely used, the technology is so far only distributed in Moscow, and then begins to be used in St. Petersburg.
Only by 1970 it was put into operation in 30 more large cities of the Soviet Union.
Commercial Cellular
The first steps towards the widespread introduction of cell phones and the commercialization of the industry were taken in 1982 by the British company Pye Telecommunications.
They demonstrated an automatic mobile phone that works as a set-top box for a walkie-talkie. Pocketphone 70. Theoretically, the device could be introduced everywhere.
Motorola
In 1983, Motorola introduced the first model of a truly commercial mobile phone, intended not only for organizations and departments, but also for individual users who simply could afford to buy a device.
The model of the device was called DynaTAC 8000X, and it took the company almost 16 years to create it.
At the same time, a huge amount of money was invested in it, according to some sources - more than 110 million dollars.
The device weighed almost 800 grams, had a length of 33 cm, a thickness of 4.5 cm, and a width of almost 9 cm.
The battery could work autonomously for up to 9 hours of standby time or 1 hour of talk time, and it was the first phone with a battery charged from the mobile network.
The device was sold at a price of almost 4,000 US dollars.
Spreading
The technology quickly became popular despite the fact that the first devices were very expensive for the average user.
But already in 1984, more than 300,000 subscribers used such phones (and the mobile communication format).
In 2003, this figure exceeded one billion two hundred million subscribers - it is generally accepted that it was in this year that the technology really became widespread throughout the world and firmly entered the life of an ordinary user.
And on July 1, 1991, the first call made in the GSM format was made in Finland. And it is this date that is considered the birthplace of a common format that we use to this day. Even with the introduction of other wireless communication technologies and networks of other types, it is this communication format that still remains the most widespread and is characterized by the largest coverage area on the globe.
In 1998, a prototype of the first device of this type with a touch-sensitive screen appeared.
This was an important step towards a qualitatively new type of mobile devices for communication, including smartphones.
This first touch phone, in fact, became the progenitor of the devices that we use today.
During the 80s and 90s, the price of mobile phones fell, and by the early 2000s, although still expensive, they were becoming available to most users.
And after 7-8 years, mobile communication almost completely replaces the stationary one.