Telephone Tuesday – September 2

While we often credit Alexander Graham Bell with inventing the telephone in the 1880s, the idea had been floating around for much longer—believe it or not, since the 1660s! Back then, though, no one really knew who first dreamed up the concept. Early versions of the telephone weren’t even called “telephones.” They were known as Mechanical Acoustic Devices—because they transmitted voice data, not sound as we understand it today.

The first actual conversation via telephone happened on March 10, 1876, and it was nothing dramatic. Bell simply spoke into the device and said, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Short, sweet, and revolutionary.

Back in the earliest days of telephone use, there was only one opening on the device—meaning people had to use the same part of the phone to speak and listen. Talk about multitasking! As telephone networks grew, operators were brought in to help connect calls manually. But funny enough, this job was eventually dominated by women—not because of any grand social movement, but because many young male operators were pulling pranks and mixing up calls for fun!

So, women stepped in and quickly became the backbone of early phone exchanges.

Fast forward to 1892, and along comes Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker who was seriously annoyed. Why? Because every time he tried to make a business call, local operators were (allegedly) redirecting his customers to a rival funeral home. In classic entrepreneurial fashion, he thought, “Fine, I’ll do it myself,” and invented the automatic telephone exchange to eliminate the need for human operators altogether.

By 1912, his company struck a major deal with the British Post Office, helping to modernize the UK’s phone system. But, despite all the progress, some rural parts of the UK—like Scotland—still used manual switchboards all the way up until 1976!

Just when phones couldn’t get any cooler, along came Motorola in 1973, unveiling the world’s first mobile phone. It was groundbreaking... and also a bit of a workout. Why? Because it weighed nearly 2 kilograms! That’s right—you had to carry it around like a brick.