The History of the Telephone

By twelton

  • 1870 - Bell

    Alexander Graham Bell invents a device that can transmit speech electrically.

  • FIrst Telephone Line

    In 1877, construction of the first regular telephone line from Boston to Somerville, Massachusetts was completed.

  • First telephone company created

    The first Bell telephone company started in 1878. This is now known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company

  • Telephone lines grow in numbers

    By the end of 1880, there were 47,900 telephones in the United States. The following year telephone service between Boston and Providence had been established.

  • First Payphone

    In 1889, the first coin-operated telephone or pay phone was patented William Gray of by Hartford, Connecticut. Gray's pay phone was first installed and used in the Hartford Bank.

  • First cordless phone

    In the 1970s, the very first cordless phones were introduced.In 1986, the Federal Communications Commission or FCC granted the frequency range of 47-49 MHz for cordless phones. Granting a greater frequency range allowed cordless phones to have less interference and need less power to run. In 1990, the FCC granted the frequency range of 900 MHz for cordless phones.
    http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone_3.htm