The world we live in today speedily evolved into a digital age. There is virtually nobody who is not connected one way or the other to the tide of the moment through activities in the social media and other necessary interactions in the society, octogenarian, teenagers even the most primitive people in the interior parts of Africa are not left behind. And the smartphones are principally the major item that has brought technology to our doorsteps. In fact, in some situations, it is almost becoming a problem. The average youth in our time is pitiably entangled with this technological piece. I once heard someone say ‘’my phone is my best friend and companion, take it away from me for a day and I will fall sick!”. The smartphone today simply put is very addictive, such that we find people fixated at it while driving, at the dining table and even while cooking. In this article, we would delve into the origin of this amazing masterpiece that has revolved our world to a digital age.
History Of Telephone
According to Wikipedia, ‘’ the early history of the telephone became and still remains a morass of claims and counterclaims ‘’. This was because, at the time of Bell’s invention of the phone, several other people were designing the phone- like models simultaneously and independently. Notable of them were Elisha Grey who produced a telephone by using a water microphone in 1876. Another person considered to have made a similar invention at that time was Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant, who at the boom of telegraph messaging sent a telephone-like model to the then-popular telecommunication company; the western telegraph company. Unfortunately, he wasn’t given a response. In fact the company misplaced the models he sent to them. In all, there were about six inventors working on the voice transmitting device that would soon be known as the telephone.
Antonio Meucci– He was the Italian immigrant who first submitted a telephone-like model to the western company in 1874.
Thomas Edison– He made the carbon microphone a device which produced a very strong telephone signal.
Elisha Grey– Of the others, this inventor’s creation clashed with Graham Bell’s. In 1876, Gray used a water microphone to create a phone. She and Graham Bell had to fight a fierce battle in court after Bell was given the patent.
Johann Phillip Reis– He created the Reis construction company in 1860 but he stopped midway in his research in making the device practicable and working.
Twadar Puskas – He was the Hungarian inventor who made the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876.
Despite all these the US patent salvaged the situation by determining which was from a practical standpoint, thereby endorsing Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone.
Bell is traditionally known as the father of the telephone. But the truth is, the telephone was actually a disruption from what Alexander Bell intended to create. As a deaf-mute teacher, who was married to a deaf woman and had a deaf mother, Alexander Bell sought a means of transmitting sound to the deaf-mute from a distance. In fact, he had come from a long family line of elocutionist. His father, grandfather, uncle and brother were all reputable elocutionist. In his experimentations, he stumbled on the mechanics of telephone. After a lifelong experience of continuous experimentation, he perfected the telephone.
The decades that came afterwards experienced the wide use of telephones. The first designs were primitive, they were boxes made of simply of wood. They had a speaker and mouthpiece that served as a connection to the initial box design. These kinds of phones were otherwise known as the candlestick phones. By the late 19th century the telephones became an indispensable tool in the society. Inventors had to think up ways on improving the landline phones to a more mobile model that would enable users to transact business and travel distances while making calls. The first Mobile network to be experimented on were collectively known and designated as 0G. Later were the 1G cellular phones, which were very expensive and could handle few calls.This was the like of the Motorola Dyna tac 8000X, first launched in the USA in 1983 which cost a whopping $4000.
Next was the generation of cellular networks known as 2G. This was based on the GSM communication (global system for mobile communication)first released in Finland in 1991. This was the first telephone with a digital and cellular network. These model of phones were later produced in commercial quantity in models of Nokia 1011.
Sooner other companies were to join the market but Motorola and Nokia remained top players in the industry for a long time.
The Emergence Of Cellular Networks
With the indispensable use of telephones at the time, the telecom industry had to seek out ways to optimize the network technologies for a larger amount of data. In 1984, The personal digital assistant emerged. It was a computing device that helped organize business life by providing memo functionality, agenda, calculator, books etc. One of the early hybrids of the PDA was the Simon personal communicator, founded by IBM in 1994. It was the first mobile phone with a touch screen and the multi-functions of the PDA. It is paramount to note that the emergence of the smartphones was as a result of the need to modify the mobile phone and the personal digital assistant.
Today we find astonishing capabilities of the phone the smartphone serves as a computer adjunct, a document viewer, a gaming platform, web client, music player, television, wallet, digital camera and so many more. Indeed, the phone is a multipurpose device that humanity would forever remain grateful.
