-
The First Phone
On March 3rd , 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words in history into a telephone. Even though Graham Bell received the first patent for the telephone, the origin of the phone is complicated with Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci of Italy and Innocenzo Manzetti each claiming to be the phone’s true inventor. -
Invention of the Rotary phone
The rotary phone, invented by Almon Brown Strowgar in 1891, became a very popular phone. To dial, you would rotate the dial to the number you wanted, then release. Later on, push button phones gained popularity and the rotary phone began dying off. -
Invention of the Candlestick phone
Beginning in 1892, the candlestick phone was the most popular. The reason this style died out in the 1930’s was because phone manufacturers started combining the mouth piece and receiver into a single unit. -
Invention of the Answering Machine
In 1898, Valdemar Poulsen invented the answering machine, one of the first phone accessories, allowed people to leave messages when the receiver wouldn’t pick up. These answering machines had cassette tapes. In the past 15 years, mini cassette tapes replaced them and then in the last 10 years and in the coming future, our phone voicemail would replace all. -
Invention of the Push-button phone
November 18th, 1963, the first ever commercial push-button phone was introduced by Bell telephones. This was much better than the rotary dial. These dial tones were subject to spoofing by something called a ‘blue box’. Using a ‘blue box’, you could make free long distant calls. -
Invention of the Portable phone
April 3rd, 1973, Martin Cooper, portable phones were the first model of phone that did not require a cord to connect it to the base of the phone. You could talk on it anywhere inside your house. -
Invention of the Motorola DynaTAC
Released in 1984, the Motorola DynaTAC was the first ever commercially available mobile phone. In 1973, Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call with the call lasting the full time that the phone could, 30 minutes -
Invention of the first phone with camera
Released in 2003, the Sanyo SCP–5300 was one of the first phones to include a camera. By today’s standards, the SCP–5300’s camera is pathetic. The SCP–5300 could take photos and store 10 to 15 of them.