Happy National Telephone Day! On April 25, we observe this day of tintinnabulation.
Around the world, there are 9.82 billion mobile phones. And while some predicted the landline to be obsolete by 2020, there are still about nine hundred and thirty-one million landlines around the world!
The correct answer to a trivia question like “Who invented the telephone?” is the name on the patent. In this case, the whole world knows the answer is Scottish-born American inventor, scientist, and engineer Alexander Graham Bell.
Had his attorney been delayed by foul weather or poor planning, the answer may be a different name.
On February 14, 1876, American patent attorney Marcellus Bailey, one of Bell’s attorneys, rushed into the U.S. Patent office in Boston to file the patent for what would be the telephone.
He, along with American patent attorney Anthony Pollok, helped prepare Bell's patents for the telephone and related inventions.
Later the same day, American electrical engineer Elisha Gray filed a patent caveat for a similar device. A caveat is an intent to file for a patent.
There was also a third contender. Italian inventor and immigrant Antonio Meucci filed a caveat in November of 1871 for a talking telegraph but failed to renew the caveat due to hardships.
Of course, Bell is the father of the telephone. After all it was his design that was first patented, however, he was not the first inventor to come up with the idea of a telephone.
Meucci, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone in 1849.
He devised an electromagnetic telephone as a way of connecting his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, and thus being able to communicate with his wife.
Between 1856 and 1870, Meucci developed more than thirty different kinds of telephones on the basis of this prototype.
However, because Bell submitted his record first, the patent office awarded Bell the patent on March 7, 1876. Gray contested this decision in court, but without success.
Born March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, Bell, years later, taught at a boys’ boarding school.
The sounds of speech were an integral part of his life. His father developed a “Visible Speech” system for deaf students to communicate.
Bell would later become a friend and benefactor of American deaf-blind author, political activist, and lecturer Helen Keller.
Three days after the patent was approved, Bell spoke the first words by telephone to his assistant. “Mr.Watson, come here! I want to see you!”
By May of that same year, Bell and his team stood prepared for a public demonstration. And there would be no better place than the grand stage of the 1876 World’s Fair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On May 10, in a crowded Machinery Hall, a man’s voice was transmitted from a small horn and carried out through a speaker to the audience.
One year later, the White House installed its first phone. The telephone revolution began!
On July 9, 1877, Bell Telephone Company was founded, and they installed the first public telephone lines from Boston to Sommerville, Massachusetts the same year.
By the end of the decade, nearly fifty thousand phones existed in the United States. In May 1967, phone companies across the country installed the one-millionth telephone!
Celebrate by calling someone and telling them Happy National Telephone Day! Share your vintage telephone pictures on social media using #NationalTelephoneDay to show the different phones that have been used!
In May 1967, the one hundred millionth telephone line was installed in the United States!
On May 11, governors and dignitaries for U.S. territories joined 38th U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson on the largest conference call ever held up to that date. Each governor, dignitary, and the U.S, President were issued gold phones to commemorate the day.
At the same time, a proclamation was issued declaring May 12th as National Telephone Day.
There is no record of the day being observed again on that date. However, National Day Calendar continues to research the origins of this technology day.
