Telephone
the telegraph had limitations |
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Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish/Canadian) |
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1870s - Bell becomes intrigued with the possibility of sending voice over a wire |
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"telephone" |
As Bell works on the harmonic telegraph he works on the telephone on the side |
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experiments in 1875 lead to moderate success in sending voice |
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1876 "Bell" files for a patent and the patent is granted |
Elisha Gray also filed for a patent on a telephone but filed his patent hours after Bell! |
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with patent in hand, Bell has trouble raising additional financing |
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Bell offers to sell his patent to Western Union for $100,000 |
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Western Union had Gray working for them and Thomas Edison on retainer |
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a media footnote: Bell would later work on the "photophone" in 1880 - an attempt to use light as a medium for sending information! |
Bell and Hubbard find enough financing to form the New England Telephone Company (later the Bell Telephone Company) |
1878 - first telephone system operational (New Haven, CT) |
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Western Union continues to work on its telephone system |
1878 - Bell sues for patent infringement |
1879 - the case is settled |
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with patent stability, the Bell Telephone Company is poised for growth |
1880 - 138 exchanges, 30,000 subscribers |
1885 - name change to American Telephone and Telegraph |
1887 - 787 exchanges, 110,000 subscribers |
how did this growth (diffusion) occur? |
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by 1894, AT&T had turned 17 years of patent control into a national telephone monopoly |