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Søren Guldbrand Pedersen
2i
English
Alexander Graham Bell
Rolf
08-03-2003
The story about Alexander Graham Bell and his Telephone.
Well, here I was about to choose a subject for our next paper, and I looked at the choices, that were
given, of course I could come up with one myself, but I thought Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, was a
very good choice, because not only did he come up with the invention of the telephone, (well I
know some people might say it was Elisha Gray, who did, but it was Bell who got the patent), but
he made a revolution in the way that people communicate.
Who the man was.
Alexander Graham Bell, Aleck as his family called him, did in a young age get an interest for
helping the hearing-disabled, because of his deaf mother, as everyone else people was talking in to
her ear tube, Bell found out that he could “talk” to her, by speaking with low sonorous tones close
to her forehead, and this way he thought that his mother would be able to “hear” him, from the
vibrations that the tones would make, in her head.
He did also learn how to visible speak, and did also teach visible speaking at the Boston School for
Deaf Mutes.
It was this way, (and some others things – that would take to many pages to tell about) that got
him started on developing a hearing aid, which would lead to the invention of the telephone.
How he invented the Telephone.
In 1876 Mr. Watson, Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, heard Bell’s voice in a Telephone. What
he heard, was Bell calling for help, because he had dropped acid on his pants. But the incident was
quickly forgotten. What was remembered was that Watson had heard the voice shouting through a
microphone, some wires and a hearing tube. And this was the principle of a Telephone.
And this was the start of a revolution, because now people can make conversations over very long
distances. But like many News papers wrote at that time “It’s a funny toy for private people, but
telephony don’t have a future.” And even Bell didn’t seem to believe in his own invention, he said it
could be used for telegraph operators to tell it’s other that they have sent a telegram.
In 1877 the first phone connection was established in Denmark, it belong to Industry man C. F.
Tietgen, and went between his house and his office, the numbers was 1 and 8.
But now we know it went a different way. The first Phone Company’s were soon to be formed. In
1881 the first Phone central was made in Denmark with 22 subscribers, it was in the Copenhagen
Phone Company, later known as KTAS, now TDC. In 1910 there was 47.000 subscribers and in
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Alexander Graham Bell
Rolf
08-03-2003
1960 half a million, and 1978 one million. And today every house hold at least got one phone line
in to the house.
Here as a little side notice, I can tell that the Telephone got Patent number 174,465, on March 7,
1876.
The effect on communication, after the invention of the Telephone.
After the Telephone has been know, it wouldn’t take long for wireless communication to take
effect, wireless communication can be traced back to 1880’s by the invention of the radio, made by
Nikola Tesla, and it was only natural that these two inventions will go “hand in hand”. Officially
presented by a young Italian Guglielmo Marconi in 1894.
And in 1973 the first cell phone saw the daylight, it was presented by Marty Cooper, also known as
the Cell Phone Daddy, at that time a Motorola executive, but he was challenged by the colleagues,
who said that cell phone users never would use it outside the car.
The first cell phone network for commercial use was set up in Tokyo in 1979. And then 2000
cellular phone users tested the system in Chicago later in 1979 by the Bell Labs. And in 1983 the
first regular cell phone system was introduced by U.S. Cellular Telephone. The development came
in 1992 when the first digital cellular system was introduces in the U.S.
The first cell phones were the size of a shoebox, and the latest models are the size a matchbox –
almost. So today, the cell phone is one of those things that we buy a new of, every second year,
because most people want the latest technology, and smallest.
But before the cell system was known, there was another big development in communication,
headed by phone technology and it was sending and receiving emails. It has just had its 30 years
birthday, in 2001.
In 1971 Ray Tomlinson wrote the first email, and sends it from one computer to another. And in
2001 he was celebrated as the father of the email.
But unfortunately Ray can not remember what he wrote in the first email, or whom he sent it to, so
that is a blank page in the electronically history book, because we know what Bell said the first
time, there was talk on the phone, that was a shout for help:”Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see
You”, and we know, what Samuel Morse wrote 32 years earlier in, in 1844, in the first
telegram:”What hath God wrought”, which is older-English for “What God had written”.
But Ray knows it was a email written in capital letters.
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Søren Guldbrand Pedersen
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Alexander Graham Bell
Rolf
08-03-2003
dB – decibel – a unit named after Mr. Bell
Well the phone isn’t the only thing that Graham Bell is the originator of. The unit dB, the
abbreviation for decibel. And it is a unit of measurement, for sound level, and thereby amplification
or loss.
And as the last thing in this paper, I’ll just explain a little bit about what dB is.
Decibel is like the word says, a tenth of a Bel, which is an old and rare used unit for sound level.
The unit is named after Graham Bell. The decibel-scale is made, so that 0 dB is that level of sound
that the human ear just can hear. The pain tolerance is about 120 – 140 dB. The sound level in a
normal home is just about 40 dB, and a ordinary conversation is about 60 dB, typically music at
home we listen to at about 85 dB, and loud rock music has a sound lever about 110 dB. For
comparison is the sound level for a Jet motor 150 dB.
The last word.
I must admit this was a bigger subject that I have thought, when I picked it, so I had to shorten it a
lot I think, but I think I have the most important things are included in this paper.
The reason it’s such a big subject, is that Mr. Bell have had such a big effect on a lot of things, in
our society I think.
But of course if he hadn’t made the telephone, then some other inventor would, because I think, a
lot of inventions are of it’s time, by that I mean that, the time has to be right and ready for an
invention, e.g. the Telephone, but that is whole different story.