A Timeline of the history of the telephone.

Contents

1 1849-1875 2 1876-1878 3 1879-1915 4 1927-1995 5 See also

1849-1875

• 1849 Antonio Meucci demonstrates an telephone to individuals in Havana. (It is disputed if this is an electric telephone.)
• 1854 Charles Bourseul publishes a description of a make-break telephone transmitter and receiver but does not construct a working instrument.
• 1854 Antonio Meucci demonstrates an electric telephone in New York.
• 1860 Johann Philipp Reis demonstrates a make-break transmitter after the design of Bourseul.
• 1860 Meucci demonstrates his telephone on Staten Island.
• 1861 The German Philipp Reis manages transfer voice electrically over a distance of 340 feet, see Reis' telephone.
• 1871 Antonio Meucci files a patent caveat (a statement of intention to patent).
• 1872 Elisha Gray founds Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
• July 1873 Thomas Alva Edison notes variable resistance in carbon grains due to pressure, but shelves the discovery.
• 1874 Gray demonstrates his liquid transmitter telephone at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church .
• 2 June 1875 Bell first transmits voice.
• 1 July 1875 Bell first uses a bi-directional capable telephone (Both the transmitter and the receiver were identical membrane instruments.)

1876-1878

• 14 February 1876 Bell files his first patent on the telephone.
  • Two hours later Gray files his patent application.
• 10 march 1876
• 30 January 1877 Bell patents the tro-dynamic transmitter, receiver telephone
• 4 March 1877 Emile Berliner patents telephone exchange in Paris, France.
• January 1878 First North American telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Connecticut.

1879-1915

• 1879 Bell merges with the New England Telephone Company to form the National Bell Telephone Company .
• 10 September 1879 Connolly and McTighe patent a "dial" telephone exchange (limited in the number of lines to the number of positions on the dial.).
• 1880 National Bell merges with others to form the American Bell Telephone Company .
• 1885 American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T is formed.
• 1886 Gilliland's Automatic circuit changer is put into service between Worcester and Leicester allowing for the first Operator dialing allowing one operator to run two exchanges.
• 1899 AT&T becomes the overall holding company for all the Bell companies.
• November 2 1889 A. G. Smith patents a telegraph switch which provides for trunks between groups of selectors allowing for the first time, fewer trunks than there are lines, and automatic selection of an idle trunk.
• 10 March 1891 Almon Strowger patents the Strowger switch the first Automatic telephone exchange.
• 30 October 1891 The Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange company is formed.
• 3 November 1892 The first Strowger switch goes into operation in LaPorte, Indiana with 75 subscribers and capacity for 99.
• 1915 Vacuum tubes used in coast-to-coast telephone circuits

1927-1995

• 1927 First trans-atlantic phone call
• 1935 First telephone call around the world.
• 1941 Touch Tone dialing introduced for operators in Baltimore, Maryland
• 1946 National numbering plan (area codes)
• 1946 First commercial mobile phone call
• 1946 Bell Labs develops the germanium point contact transistor
• 1958 Modems used for direct connection via voice phone lines
• 1960 ESS-1
• 1961 Touch-tone released to public
• 1962 T-1 service in Skokie, Illinois
• 1970 ESS#2 electronic switch.
• 1970 Modular telephone cords and jacks introduced
• 1975 Last manual telephone switchboard in Maine is retired
• 1982 Caller ID patented by Carolyn Doughty, Bell Labs
• 1982 Bone, Idaho gets phone service (last in the US)
• 1987 ADSL introduced
• 1993 Telecom Relay Service available for the disabled
• 1995 Caller ID implemented nationally

See also

• Timeline of communication technology