The history of smartphones shows how human life is changing. In the 80s, people wanted to carry a communication device in their pocket, but nothing more. Only children played in those days, and their cell phone was not available. The organizer was a paper notebook, and later a separate electronic device like a calculator. A cassette player allowed listening to music on the street. Well, there was no question of videos - they were viewed only indoors, for this a VCR was used. In a word, it is completely incomprehensible why she wanted to combine the functions of a telephone and a personal computer. But, as it turned out, this decision was correct.
But it really didn't start with the Finnish giant. Of course, his engineers were firsthand familiar with PCs - the company released them with might and main, as you can see by reading. But the first to significantly reduce the size of the computer tried a larger player in this market - IBM. At the beginning of the 90s, there were already so-called PDAs - pocket personal computers. IBM decided to try adding communication functions to this device.
I must say that cell phones in those years remained like bricks. Therefore, the product of the computer giant turned out to be very cumbersome. He was named IBM Simonpresenting in 1992 at COMDEX. But then it was only a concept - the creators could not get stable work from their creation. According to their idea, the device combined a mobile phone, PDA, pager and even a fax. A monochrome touch screen was used to control all this functionality. By the way, this allowed IBM Simon become the first touchscreen phone in the world... Sales of the device started only in 1994, and only in the USA - to be precise, in 15 states. The cost was $ 899.
What did IBM Simon do? It had built-in phone and address books, calculator, notebook, calendar, world clock, email, and several games. The smart keyboard was used to enter text. You could press the screen with your finger or, which had to be purchased separately. It also supported PCMCIA. Although there wasn’t much sense in it, the device couldn’t play MP3 music or display pictures. Most importantly, it did not have an operating system to install additional applications. That is why IBM Simon should not be considered a full-fledged smartphone. He only served as inspiration for other companies.
Another interesting experiment was carried out in 1996. It was conducted by Hewlett-Packard and Nokia. The fruit of their joint labors was the CCP called 700LX... You can think of this device as a redesigned version of the HP 200LX, a folding pocket computer equipped with a QWERTY keyboard and monochrome display. The only noticeable difference was the appearance of a special place for installing a cell phone Nokia 2110... This is how the Americans “elegantly” solved the problem of lack of voice communications. Of course, such a product cannot be called a smartphone, since it consisted of two completely independent devices.
Gradually, the size of cellular modules decreased. Mobile phones are no longer like a murder weapon. It's time to try to truly combine the capabilities of a PDA and a cell phone in one device. This is how the famous Nokia 9000 Communicator, it happened in August 1996. The device had a folding case, an external antenna and a comfortable QWERTY keyboard. The information was displayed on a fairly large monochrome display. The device was operated by the GEOS operating system. The dimensions of the communicator were 173 x 65 x 38 mm. The weight was equal to an impressive 397 grams. Interestingly, the device could be used even when closed - for this there was a numeric keypad and a small screen on the top panel. In the future, Nokia will use this form factor more than once. The last time we will see the same number of displays and buttons in Nokia E90.
The disadvantage of this unusual device was the closed operating system. Finnish developers did not have time to introduce the ability to install additional applications here. But even without this, the device was not inferior to the full-fledged PDA that existed at that time. And in addition to this, it allowed making calls. That is why we can assume that it is the very first smartphone in the world, albeit with some reservations.
Interesting fact: in the future, for a long time, any PDA supplemented with a GSM module will be called a communicator. By analogy with MFPs, which for a very long time have been called "copiers", although this word is a trademark owned by the company of the same name.
Development of smartphones
Later Nokia released several sequels to its communicator. From the original 9000i, 9110 and 9110i were not very different. Finns added the ability to access the Internet and some other functionality. But it remained clear that it was necessary to create a complete operating system that would support the installation of applications from third-party developers. But even a large company Nokia could not afford it. But a solution to the problem was nevertheless found - in 1998 a consortium was founded Symbian, which will develop the operating system of the same name. In addition to Nokia itself, the consortium includes Ericsson and Psion. In the future, some other companies joined this community.
Before the first fruits of the consortium's labor, Nokia communicators had no competitors. Of course, interesting products came out in some markets, but for one reason or another they were not in great demand. For example, in 1999 in the United States were sold Qualcomm pdQ 800 and pdQ 1900operating with Palm OS. But buyers were repelled by the heavy weight and high cost. Therefore, the American company soon concentrated strictly on.
In 2000, the Swedish company Ericsson decided to make its answer to Nokia communicators. It released a device with a large monochrome touchscreen and a flip cover that housed a numeric keypad. The model received the name Ericsson Smartphone R380... As you guessed, exactly this device introduced the concept of "smartphone"... He used Symbian OS 5.1 as an operating system. It was still impossible to install third-party applications here. Perhaps that is why Nokia began to use a later version of this operating system in its smartphones.
Ericsson R380 is worthless by modern standards. The device had only 4 MB of permanent memory, of which only 1.2 MB were available to the user. The amount of RAM did not exceed 2 MB. Well, its 3.5-inch screen had a resolution of 120 x 360 pixels. The image was displayed on it in four shades of gray. The device was okay only with a weight of only 164 grams. They sold a smartphone for $ 700.
The Symbian era
This is not to say that Ericsson's product is the first touchscreen smartphone. There were similar devices before him. However, it quickly became clear to everyone that touch screens were still far from ideal, and therefore they decided to abandon them for a while. The sixth, seventh and eighth versions of Symbian supported them only in theory, but in practice only Ericsson devices used this opportunity (the mobile divisions of the Japanese and Swedish companies merged at that moment). The heyday of the Symbian operating system happened in the first half of the 2000s. First came the communicator Nokia 9210... The sixth version of Symbian was used here. At the same time, the Finnish company slightly modernized the operating system interface, giving the platform the name Series 80. Along the way, a smartphone was presented Nokia 7650... Outwardly, it was quite simple, but on board was Symbian OS 6.1. It finally allowed third-party software to be installed! However, the device had a drawback in the absence of a memory card slot. This imposed serious restrictions.
Well, then, as they say, off we go. Gradually they began to go off the assembly line the first smartphones that could be called mainstream... People began to understand that these devices could well replace a regular mobile phone - now, to use a smartphone, they did not need to work as a manager or own any serious company. Also, the proliferation of devices based on Symbian contributed to the price reduction. If earlier it was possible to buy a PDA or a communicator for $ 600- $ 700, then smartphones with Symbian operating system were sometimes sold for $ 250- $ 300. In particular, at one time they were very accessible Nokia 6600, Nokia 3230 and some other models. Also Symbian operating system was installed on smartphones from Sony Ericsson, Motorola and, but for various reasons they did not become particularly popular.
On account of Nokia and the first. It is, of course, about Nokia N-Gage... The device was based on Symbian 6.1 and this can be considered the main reason for its failure. The fact is that the operating system in those years developed at an unprecedented pace. As a result, this version became outdated very quickly - it was replaced by the "seven", and then the "eight". The device quickly became irrelevant. Some technical problems also contributed to low sales - for example, no one liked to call on such a smartphone, since for this it was necessary to put it to the ear with its end. However, this problem was eradicated in N-Gage QD.
Remembering the first smartphones, one cannot fail to mention the rulers E-Series and N-Series... Nokia realized that four-digit model names are hard to remember. Therefore, subsequently all smartphones were divided into two series. The E-series includes devices that may be needed by an office worker, a bank clerk and other serious people. Such devices boasted a pre-installed ability to open office documents, and with their help it was possible to make group calls. As for the N-series, it includes the so-called multimedia devices. They sounded better, they had a better camera, and they often had buttons on their bodies to control the music player.
Smartphones with an operating system were also popular in those days. Windows Mobile... Some of them had a touch screen and stylus, while others were adapted for button operation. More actively than other similar devices were produced by a Taiwanese company. Its first smartphones were created for other companies, which then sold them under their own brand. Later, the Taiwanese began to use the Qtek trademark. And only then they switched to the HTC brand. Most of all, this manufacturer was remembered for its proprietary shell. HTC Sense... It made the interface much more beautiful, and the clock widget did not let you take your eyes off. The first smartphone with this shell became HTC Touch Diamond2... It was based on Windows Mobile. The proprietary shell made it possible to abandon the stylus, since all the icons and menu items here turned out to be quite large. Later, the Taiwanese company began to preinstall its interface on smartphones with the Android operating system. It must be said that not least of all this contributed to their popularization. And it was the HTC Sense shell that made live wallpapers popular.
The era of iOS and Android
In 2007, there were a large number of touchscreen smartphones on store shelves. They were united by one thing - their management was not implemented in the best way. The aforementioned HTC products stood out a little against this background. The rest of the Windows Mobile devices required a stylus, which already seemed wildly inconvenient. Symbian-based devices began to receive a touchscreen display at that moment. But here it was immediately clear that this operating system was completely unsuitable for touch control. Strictly speaking, it is because of this that she gradually receded into the past, giving way to her rivals.
The revolution in 2007 was made Apple... We can safely say that she presented the first smartphone with convenient touch control... It is, of course, about. It is interesting that the "apple" company started calling its product a smartphone later. Indeed, in essence, the first iPhone was not one, since it was impossible to install third-party offers on it. But its firmware was endowed with kinetic scrolling, and the touchscreen received multitouch support. It doesn't matter that competitors have implemented all this in their smartphones six months later. What matters is that Apple came first.
The company decided to compete with the "apple" giant Google... She started developing an operating system Android... Like iOS, it was designed for touch control. The first commercial smartphone based on this operating system became Htc dream... It went on sale in October 2008. Interestingly, the first Android smartphone offered a mechanical QWERTY keyboard. For this, the device received a special folding mechanism. After about a couple of years, Google suggested that smartphone manufacturers start saving by reducing the number of physical buttons. So at first the QWERTY keyboard disappeared, and then the three buttons under the display were replaced with touch keys. And in many models there are no more of them - the keys for operating the operating system are highlighted on the screen itself. However, from time to time they still appear, but their circulation rarely exceeds 30 thousand copies.
Summarizing
Since about 2010, the world of smartphones has ceased to amaze with something. The company tried to compete with Google and Apple by releasing an operating system Windows Phone... But its share in the smartphone market could not exceed 4%. Now almost all devices consist of a huge touch screen - they differ from each other only in the rear panel. This causes some sadness, because the first smartphones were much more interesting. However, people are happy with everything - this is evidenced by the fact that hundreds of millions of devices are sold every year around the world.
On February 14, 1876, Scottish American Alexander Graham Bell filed an application with the US Patent Office for an apparatus he invented, which he called a telephone. Just two hours later, another American named Gray made a similar claim.
This happens to inventors to this day, albeit very rarely. Bell's luck was also in the fact that chance helped him make an outstanding invention. However, to a much greater extent, the phone owes its appearance to the enormous work, perseverance and knowledge of this person.
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh on March 3, 1847, into a family of philologists. At the age of 14, he moved to London to live with his grandfather, under whose guidance he studied literature and oratory. And three years later, he began an independent life, teaching music and oratory at the Weston House Academy. In the spring of 1871, the family moved to Boston, where Bell taught at a school for the deaf and dumb using the "visible speech system" invented by his grandfather.
At the time, Western Union was looking for a way to simultaneously transmit multiple telegrams over a single pair of wires to eliminate the need for additional telegraph lines. The company has announced a large cash prize for an inventor who proposes a similar method.
Bell began to work on this problem using his knowledge of the laws of acoustics. Bell was going to transmit seven telegrams at the same time, according to the number of musical notes - a tribute to the music that he loved since childhood. Bell was assisted by a young Boston resident Thomas Watson in his work on the Musical Telegraph. Watson admired Bell.
“Once, when I was working, a tall, slender, agile man with a pale face, black sideburns and a high sloping forehead came swiftly to my workbench, holding in his hands some part of the apparatus that was not made the way he wanted. He was the first educated person I got to know closely, and there were many things about him that delighted me. "
Thomas Watson
about Sin Bella
And not only him. Bell's outlook was unusually broad, which was recognized by many of his contemporaries. He combined a versatile education with a vivid imagination, and this allowed him to easily combine in his experiments such different areas of science and art - acoustics, music, electrical engineering and mechanics.
Since Bell was not an electrician, he consulted another famous Bostonian, the scientist D. Henry, after whom the unit of inductance is named. After examining the first sample of the telegraph in Bell's laboratory, Henry exclaimed: "Under no pretext do not abandon what you started!" Without abandoning work on the "musical telegraph", Bell at the same time began to build a certain apparatus through which he hoped to make the sounds of speech visible to the deaf and dumb immediately and directly, without any written designations. For this, he worked for almost a year at the Massachusetts Otolaryngological Hospital, conducting various experiments to study human hearing.
The main part of the apparatus was supposed to be a membrane, fixed on the last needle, recording curves on the surface of a rotating drum corresponding to various sounds, syllables and words. Reflecting on the action of the membrane, Bell came up with the idea of \u200b\u200banother device, with the help of which, as he wrote, "it will be possible to transmit various sounds if only it is possible to induce fluctuations in the intensity of the electric current corresponding to those fluctuations in the density of the air that the given sound produces" Bell gave the resounding name "telephone" to this still nonexistent device. So the work on the particular task of helping the deaf and dumb led to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe possibility of creating a device that turned out to be necessary for all of humanity and, undoubtedly, influenced the further course of history.
While working on the "musical telegraph", Bell and Watson worked in separate rooms where the transmitting and receiving apparatus were installed. The tuning forks were steel plates of different lengths, rigidly fixed at one end, while the other closed an electrical circuit.
Once, Watson had to release the end of the plate, which got stuck in the contact gap and at the same time touched other plates. Those, naturally, rattled. Further events are described by the writer Mitchell Wilson as follows: “Although the experimenters believed that the line was not working, Bell's subtle ear sensed a faint rattle in the receiving device. He immediately guessed what had happened and rushed headlong into the room to Watson. “What were you doing now? he shouted. "Don't change anything!" Watson started to explain what the matter was, but Bell excitedly interrupted him, saying that they had now discovered what they were looking for all the time. The stuck plate acted like a primitive diaphragm. In all of Bell's and Watson's previous experiments, the free end simply closed and opened the electrical circuit. Now, the sound vibrations of the plate induced electromagnetic vibrations in the magnet located next to the plate. This was the difference between the telephone and all other pre-existing telegraph devices.
For the telephone to operate, a continuous electric current is required, the strength of which would change in exact accordance with the vibrations of sound waves in the air. The invention of the telephone happened at the time of the heyday of the electric telegraph and was completely unexpected. At the time, Morse-based Magnetic Telegraph Company in the United States was completing a line from the Mississippi to the East Coast. In Russia, Boris Yakobi created more and more sophisticated devices, overtaking all competitors in reliability and transmission speed. The telegraph was so consistent with the needs of its era that other means of electrical communication were, it seems, not needed at all.
The world's first telephone, assembled by Watson, had a sound membrane made of leather. Its center was connected with a movable anchor of an electromagnet. Sound vibrations were amplified by the horn, concentrating on the membrane, fixed in its smallest section.
Bell's breadth of horizons played as much a role in the invention of the telephone as his intuition. His knowledge of acoustics and electrical engineering, combined with the experience of an experimenter, led a teacher in a school for deaf children to invent an invention that allowed millions of people to hear each other across continents and oceans.
Meanwhile, telephony as a principle of transmission of information by voice over long distances was known even before the new era. For this purpose, the Persian king Cyrus (VI century BC) employed 30,000 people, called "royal ears". Located on hilltops and watchtowers within earshot of one another, they conveyed messages intended for the king and his orders. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) testifies that in a day the news by such telephone was transmitted over a distance of thirty days' march. Julius Caesar mentions that the Gauls had a similar communication system. Indicates even the transmission speed of the message - 100 kilometers per hour.
In 1876 Bell exhibited his apparatus at the Philadelphia World's Fair. Within the walls of the exhibition pavilion the word telephone sounded for the first time - this is how the inventor recommended his “talking telegraph”. To the amazement of the jury, the Prince of Denmark's monologue “To be or not to be?” Was heard from the mouthpiece of this contraption, performed at the same time, but in a different room, by the inventor himself, Mr. Bell.
History has answered this question with an unquestioning “to be”. Bell's invention became a sensation at the Philadelphia Exposition. And this despite the fact that the first telephone set worked with monstrous distortions of sound, it was possible to talk with it no further than at a distance of 250 meters, because it still operated without batteries, by the force of only electromagnetic induction, its receiving and transmitting devices were the same primitive.
Having organized the Bell Telephone Society, the inventor began hard work to improve his brainchild, and a year later he patented a new membrane and fittings for the telephone. Then I used Hughes' carbon microphone and battery power to increase the transmission distance. In this form, the phone successfully existed for over a hundred years.
Many other inventors were working on improving telephone devices, and by 1900 more than 3 thousand patents were issued in this area. Among them, one can note the microphone designed by the Russian engineer M. Makhalskiy (1878), as well as the first automatic station for 10,000 numbers by S. M. Apostolov (1894). But then, after the Philadelphia Exhibition, the history of the telephone was just beginning. Ahead was a fierce struggle with competitors. Bell also faced competition with another famous inventor, Thomas Edison.
Bell's patent was one of the most lucrative ever granted in the United States, so over the next decades it was the target of attacks by nearly every major electrical and telegraph company in America. However, its commercial significance was not immediately understood by contemporaries. Almost immediately after receiving the patent, Bell offered Western Union to buy it for $ 100,000, hoping that the proceeds would enable him to pay off his debts. But his proposal met with no response.
Bell has shown his phone to audiences in Salem, Bosston, and New York. The first broadcasts consisted mainly of playing musical instruments and performing popular arias. Newspapers wrote about the inventor with reverence, but his activities brought almost no money.
On June 11, 1877, Bell and Mabel Hubbard were married at the home of the bride's parents, and the young couple sailed to England. This trip has played a huge role in the history of the telephone. In England, Bell successfully continued demonstrations that attracted a large audience. Finally, a "delicious telephone presentation" was given to the queen herself and her family. The titled persons sang, recited and talked to each other over the wires, interrupting themselves with questions about how well they were heard. The queen was pleased.
The newspapers rang about the success of the telephone in England so much that Western Union had to change its attitude towards the invention. Orton’s president reasoned that if the electric telephone was invented by a teacher for the deaf, then experts like Edison and Gray would be able to create a better device. And in early 1879, Western Union created the American Speaking Telephone Company, which went into the production of telephones, ignoring Bell's patent law.
Bell's supporters, taking loans, created the New England Telephone Company in response and rushed into battle. The result of the struggle, however, was the creation at the end of 1879 of the unified Bell Company. In December of that year, the share price climbed to $ 995. Bell became an extremely wealthy man. Wealth was accompanied by fame and worldwide fame. France awarded him the Volta Prize, established by Napoleon, in the amount of 50 thousand francs (before Bell, this prize was issued only once), and made him a knight of the Legion of Honor. He became an American citizen in 1885.
In one of his letters to his companions, Bell for the first time in history and at the same time outlined in great detail a plan for creating a telephone network in a large city based on a central switchboard. In the letter, he insisted that for advertising purposes it would be desirable to install telephones free of charge in the central stores of the city.
On a rainy morning on August 4, 1922, all telephones in the United States and Canada were turned off for a minute. America buried Alexander Graham Bell. 13 million telephones of all kinds and designs fell silent in honor of the great inventor.
Ordinary History: Phone
Modern mobile phones are significantly different from what they used 20 or even 10 years ago. Photo evidence is attached.
World's first mobile phone: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
Motorola is not the leader in the mobile industry today, but it is the company that launched the world's first mobile phone. It turned out to be the DynaTAC 8000X. The prototype of the device was shown in 1973, but commercial sales did not begin until 1983. The powerful DynaTAC weighed almost a kilogram, worked for an hour on a single battery charge, and could store up to 30 phone numbers.
First car phone: Nokia Mobira Senator (1982)
In the early 1980s, the Nokia Mobira Senator phone became widely known. It was released in 1982 and became the first of its kind - it was intended for use in a car, while weighing about 10 kilograms.
Gorbachev spoke on it: Nokia Mobira Cityman 900 (1987)
In 1987, Nokia introduced the Mobira Cityman 900, the first device for NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) networks. The device has become easily recognizable due to the fact that Mikhail Gorbachev used it to call from Helsinki to Moscow, and this was not ignored by photographers. The Nokia Mobira Cityman 900 weighed about 800 grams. The price was high - in terms of current money, its purchase would have cost the Americans $ 6,635, and the Russians - 202,482 rubles.
First GSM phone: Nokia 101 (1992)
The Nokia phone with the modest 101 index was the first commercially available device capable of operating on GSM networks. A monoblock with a monochrome screen had a retractable antenna and a book for 99 numbers. Unfortunately, it did not yet contain the well-known Nokia tune ringtone, since the composition appeared in the next model, released in 1994.
Touchscreen: IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
One of the first attempts to create a communicator was a joint development of IBM and Bellsouth. The IBM Simon Personal Communicator phone has been stripped of the keyboard, offering a touchscreen with a stylus instead. For $ 899, customers received a device that could call, fax, and store notes.
First clamshell: Motorola StarTAC (1996)
In 1996, Motorola confirmed the title of innovator with the introduction of the first clamshell phone, the StarTAC. The device was considered stylish and fashionable, it was compact not only for that time, but also in comparison with modern smartphones.
First smartphone: Nokia 9000 Communicator (1996)
The weight of the Nokia 9000 Communicator (397 grams) did not prevent the phone from becoming popular. The first smartphone was equipped with 8 MB of memory and monochrome screens. When opened, a QWERTY keyboard opened up to the user's eyes, making it easier to work with text.
Replaceable sockets: Nokia 5110 (1998)
In the late 1990s, companies realized that mobile phones were viewed by customers as not only communication tools but also accessories. In 1998, Nokia released the 5110, which supported interchangeable covers. The phone has also become popular due to its excellent assembly and good battery life. It featured the famous game "Snake".
First camera phone: Sharp J-SH04 (2000)
Sharp J-SH04 was released in Japan in 2000. This is the world's first camera phone. The camera resolution today seems ridiculous - 0.1 megapixel, but then the J-SH04 seemed like something incredible. After all, the phone could be used as a bad camera, but still.
Mail is the main thing: RIM BlackBerry 5810 (2002)
RIM introduced its first BlackBerry in 2002. Prior to this, the Canadian manufacturer was engaged in the production of organizers. The main drawback of the BlackBerry 5810 was the lack of a microphone and speakers - a headset was required to speak on it.
PDA Meets Phone: Palm Treo 600 (2003)
Palm has long been considered the main PDA manufacturer and in 2003 released the extremely successful Treo 600. The communicator with QWERTY-keyboard, color screen, 5-way navigation key was based on Palm OS 5.
Gaming Phone: Nokia N-Gage (2003)
Nokia has made several attempts to capture the minds of mobile gamers, and not all of them have been successful. The first truly gaming phone is called the Nokia N-Gage. It is similar in design to a portable console and was positioned as an alternative to the Nintendo Game Boy. On the front side there are game control keys, which very few people found convenient. The games themselves were recorded on MMC memory cards. The microphone and speaker in the N-Gage are located at the end, so all users looked like Cheburashkas when talking. There were a lot of disadvantages and the project failed.
O2 XDA II (2004)
O2, like Palm, worked hard on the PDA. In 2004, the XDA II model appeared, offering users a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, office applications. The price then bite - 1,390 US dollars.
As thin as a blade: Motorola RAZR V3 (2004)
The best selling clamshell is Motorola RAZR V3. The model attracted attention with a slim and stylish design. The creators took inspiration from the "old man" StarTAC and, as a result, released a device dressed in a casing with aluminum inserts, with a VGA-camera (0.3 Mp), Bluetooth, GSM. After the light, they saw the improved RAZR V3x, RAZR V3i and RAZR V3xx with a better camera, 3G, microSD.
First iTunes phone: Motorola ROKR E1 (2005)
In 2005, few people could have imagined that Apple, which specializes in computers and music players, would venture into the mobile industry (and introduce the popular iPhone). The company entered into an agreement with Motorola, and as a result, ROKR E1 was created - a device with support for the iTunes music library. The buyers' expectations did not come true - few people liked the candy bar with Motorola-design, slow USB 1.1 interface, outdated 0.3-megapixel camera and limited storage of songs (100 pieces).
Motorola MOTOFONE F3 (2007)
The Motorola MOTOFONE F3 sold for only $ 60. One of the most affordable machines on the market offered an Electronic Paper Display (EPD) display. The advantages include low weight, small thickness.
Simple finger control: Apple iPhone (2007)
The first version of the Apple iPhone originally came out in the US in 2007. A touchphone with a 2-megapixel camera, a 3.5-inch touch screen, a convenient finger-oriented interface supported only second generation networks. iPhone didn't work with MMS and couldn't record video. In 2008, the iPhone 3G was released, and in 2009 - the iPhone 3GS. The concept has not changed in three years - programs and a user-friendly interface are in the center.
My phone rang. Who is speaking? Elephant! The telephone is an invention that changed the world. Since all our modern activities are so tied to this thing, we decided to trace the history of its development, and at the same time understand how it works.
Do you know a person who does not have a phone? Perhaps these are only very old grandparents. Well, or guys from the Tumba-Yumba tribe. Although they probably already have it. The telephone appeared a century and a half ago, and here is the result: each person calls on the phone about 1500 times a year!
Telephony development
The first telephones had a range of only 500 meters, they had no ring, and the call had to be made with a whistle. After the introduction of a carbon microphone and an induction coil into the phone, the range of the device increased significantly.
The first telephone exchanges could not connect subscribers directly. In order to "call", you had to pick up the receiver and start turning the lever. After connecting with the telephone operator, she was told the number of the subscriber, she stuck the plug into the socket, and only after that the conversation began.
It has become possible to make direct calls since the 1920s, although an automatic switchboard capable of replacing the work of telephone operators was proposed in 1887 by the Russian scientist K.A. Mostitsky.
Now we are used to 7-digit numbers and international dialing codes. And the first telephone numbers consisted of only 2-3 digits.
In 1927, it was already possible to call from New York to London. Telephone networks began to actively cover the globe.
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The principle of the phone "on the fingers"
Why on fingers? Because before you deal with something complicated (for example, the principle of a modern mobile phone), you always need to deal with the simplest things from which everything went.
The signals in the telephone are electrical. Human speech is a sound signal. The phone converts audio signals to electrical signals and vice versa.
We speak into the microphone, the membrane vibrates, its vibrations in the magnetic field create a current in the coil, which is transmitted through the wire to the interlocutor. At the other end, the opposite process takes place: the current flows in the moving coil of the speaker, because of this, the membrane vibrates and "sways" the air. As a result, we hear sound.
Now phones can be divided into:
- regular landline phones;
- radiotelephones;
- cell Phones;
- satellite phones;
- phones working in IP telephony.
The emergence of modern telephones, mobile communications
The significance of the invention of the mobile phone was also revolutionary. And the first mobile ones appeared in 1976. They were huge and the cost was enormous. In the 1980s, it was already possible to buy a mobile phone in America for $ 3,500. For comparison: a new Ford Mustang cost 6500.
It is believed that it was invented in the United States, but there is a version that the first prototype of the mobile was developed in the USSR in 1973. Like many interesting developments, the Soviet mobile phone remained unknown to the world.
In the CIS countries, mobile phones became widespread in the 90s of the 20th century.
Prospects for the development of phones
Scientists, futurists and social researchers believe that in the future, smartphones are likely to supersede such separate devices as computers, laptops and cameras. The capabilities and power of phones will allow you to simply connect a monitor and keyboard to them, turning your smartphone into a full-fledged personal PC.
Even now, the modern telephone is a real research station that collects a huge amount of data. In the future, the quantity and quality of data will increase. The information collected can be used for a wide variety of studies: from the behavior of groups of people to earthquake prediction and weather forecasting. Bank cards will also become a thing of the past. There is already a technology that allows you to pay with a smartphone, using it instead of a card.
But this is all in the future. So far, no matter how smart a smartphone is, it won't be able to write a term paper or checklist for you. This can be helped by a special student service, which provides services of professionals in all fields: from agronomy and accounting to electronics and nuclear physics.
Even in the myth of ancient Greek times about Theseus, there was the first mention of how information can be transmitted. Aegeus, the father of this hero, when he sent his son to the island of Crete to fight the monster Minotaur, asked him, upon returning, if successful, to raise a white sail on the ship, and in case of defeat - black. Unfortunately, the inventor of the telephone had not yet been born, and the colors were confused, and Aegeus, deciding that his son was dead, drowned himself. The sea where he did it was called the Aegean.
Continuation of the story with communication
For some time, people did not pay special attention to solving the problem of transmitting symbols and signals over long distances. For a long time, birds and people remained the most reliable way to ensure high-quality communication. When the weather was disgusting and there were no people willing to escape, they used fire, smoke, voice, or other conventional signs.
Although, in all fairness, there was a proposal in the 16th century, by Giovanni della Porta, an Italian scholar, to use negotiating pipes for communication. A similar method operates on ships for communication between the engine room and the captain. So, the proposal to lay such pipes throughout Italy did not meet with understanding, and the first telephone was not invented at that time.
Revolution in France and a breakthrough in communications
The mechanic Claude Chappe in 1789 proposed to the Convention to resolve the issue of communication as follows: they intended to cover the whole of France with a network of towers and install devices made of slats on them. Moreover, they should have been clearly visible at a distance. In the dark, lanterns were lit at the ends of the slats. Inside the tower was a telegraph operator changing the location of the planks. The landmark for him was the tower in sight. The telegraph operator sitting in it copied the message and sent it on. And so it went - from the start point to the end. It was possible to get about 200 combinations by changing the position of the bars.
A cipher was compiled, which consisted of a notebook of 92 pages, each of which had the same number of words. The telegraph employee transmitted the word and page number, they did not know the cipher at the intermediate points, but simply passed on the received combinations. Claude Chappe is not yet the inventor of the telephone, but his big fan, Napoleon, introduced his method of communication to almost all of Europe. By the way, the transfer rate was quite high. For example, the communication from St. Petersburg to Warsaw took about 45 minutes, if only the weather was normal.
and communication
When electricity was invented, at first, scientists could not find practical use for it. The first experience was the transmission of information over a distance. Austrian scientists, seeing the dependence of Schapp's telegraph on weather conditions, created its electric version. A member of the Munich Academy of Semmering in 1809 invented a device that was connected by thirty-five wires, each of which corresponded to the numbers and letters of the alphabet. The message came to a bath filled with water, there was a closure of the electrical network, in which gas bubbles were released, information was read on them. The design was very complex, it did not take root right away, only in 1832 an electric telegraph was made suitable for use. It was invented by Schilling, a scientist from Russia, and later improved by the Englishmen Cook and Wheatstone. So, gradually, we will get to what happened, briefly dwelling on important points.
Morse's invention
He demonstrated his telegraph alphabet and Morse transmission apparatus to the public in 1837. From that moment on, the electric telegraph began its triumphant march around the world. In literally 10 years, his lines have entangled most of North America and Europe. His triumph was the laying of a communication cable along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, carried out in 1866 with the help of the Great Eastern ship, specially built for this. When radio was invented, it got over the air.
And now, despite the massive spread of satellite, cellular and other sophisticated communications, the Internet, there are people, and there are many of them who prefer to send telegrams. And not only in villages, but also in big cities. Now we are quite close to such a significant date as the year of the invention of the telephone.
When the telephone was invented
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the telephone became the main means of communication. He was born much later than the telegraph, his predecessor. Even at the time when this predecessor was the main one, Philip Rice, a German scientist, in 1861 invented a device that, using a galvanic current, transports a human voice to any distance. Fifteen years later, Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher at a school in Philadelphia, demonstrated the first electric telephone at the World's Fair. Remember: 1876 is the date the telephone was invented. But Elish Gray, another inventor, was only a couple of hours late with a claim for the same invention. Therefore, the primacy in this matter is purely conditional.
connections
Literally five years later, a new means of communication, which was much simpler than the telegraph, firmly entered human life. Have you seen the photo of the first phone? So, the famous one has improved this device, and it has become a truly everyday means of communication. And the telegraph was and remains public. There was also a field telephone option. Due to its speed of deployment and ease of handling, it has become indispensable for the army and the military.
The first telephone exchange opened in 1878. This means of communication, like the telegraph, acquired the status of inviolable. Neither revolution nor war could interfere with their normal functioning. From the films about those times, it is clear that one of the favorite activities of the military commanders of both the White Army and the Red Army during the Civil War was abuse by telephone.
Briefly about the first phone
You have already understood who is the official inventor of the phone. What was this first phone like? By the way, the invention happened by accident, like many others in this life. During experiments and experiments, the stuck plate began to act as a primitive diaphragm, and it was already a matter of time to think out further. As a result, Bell's phone became a real sensation at the exhibition.
Although the first device only worked at a distance of up to two hundred meters, with monstrous sound distortions, the transmitting and receiving devices were very primitive. The inventor created the Bell Telephone Society and began to actively improve it. As a result, within one year he patented an armature and a new membrane for his device. A little later I used a carbon microphone (to increase the transmission distance) and power from separate batteries. A little more than a hundred years, almost in this form, the phone existed.
Development of telephone communications in the twentieth century
How did the further development of the invention, the author of which was Alexander Bell, go? The telephone, created by him, soon surpassed and began to develop by leaps and bounds. In 1956, the first transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1 was laid between Canada and Scotland. And after that - more than one hundred thousand kilometers of such cables. Including - Washington - Moscow, the famous government special wire for communication between the American president and the leader of the Soviet Union. No one else had access to it. Such wired, cable telephone communication, of course, is much more expensive than radiotelephone communication, especially if you count the amount of sunken and buried copper, but it is not going to give up its positions. If only because of its greater reliability and the ability to intercept the conversation.
Phone today
Bell - the inventor of the telephone - most likely could not have imagined the progress that communication has made to date. It would seem that the development of cellular communications should slow down wired, but the latter continues to move forward, especially in large cities: thanks, as already mentioned, to its reliability, as well as the introduction of the latest technologies, for example, fiber-optic communications.
Have you forgotten what wires the Internet is transmitted over? According to the very ones that our grandfathers and grandmothers used to communicate, and in the central part of Moscow - great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. Thanks to the latest technologies, the telephone has mastered the air and has turned from a stationary object into a very convenient and advanced human companion.
Another version about the inventor of the telephone
Disclosing the topic of the invention of this communication means, one cannot fail to mention another version, according to which the inventor of the telephone is Elijah Gray, and not at all Alexander Bell. In 2007, a book was published by the famous researcher, journalist Seth Shulman, in which he wrote that the latter had stolen a competitor's invention and passed it off as his own. The main piece of evidence is Bell's notebook, access to which was very limited until 1976. It turns out, among other things, that Gray applied for a patent first, but his competitor, thanks to bribery and aggressive lawyers, managed to register a patent earlier. But that's not all.
There is a version that Philip Rice, a German scientist, can also be considered the inventor of the first telephone. His device, created in the 1860s, was capable of transmitting speech over a distance, but it worked on a different principle. By the way, Gray started his work as a carpenter, while studying at Oberlin College. Then he experimented with telegraph technology and electricity, invented a hotel warning device, a telegraph switch, a direct-printing apparatus and other devices. He lost the court for the right to be considered the inventor of the telephone, and it was Bell who has since been considered the first.
Further prospects for the development of communications
The inventor of the telephone, whoever he was, could probably imagine what the future prospects for communication means. They are a little out of the realm of fantasy, but, nevertheless, they have a right to exist. This is telepathy, or, in other words, the transmission of thoughts over a distance. Back in the seventies of the last century, the Soviet academician Glushkov formulated this perspective. He noted that the human thought process will be sent to a computer, it will remember it, and over time a complete symbiosis of a machine and a person will turn out. And I was sure that in 2020 full compatibility of the computer and the human brain will be achieved.
Considering how computer communications are replacing traditional means by distance, the academician's forecast does not seem very fantastic. After all, many seemingly unrealistic fantasies have come true. For example, a home that is fully computerized, helmets connected to a PC that convey visual sensations. Once upon a time it was fiction and Ray Bradbury. Or computer printing at the command of a human voice. When the transmission of thoughts to a distance is in demand, then this issue will also be resolved. It's just that no one really needs it yet.
A little about other inventions of mankind
Although the invention of the telephone is one of the most important, all the inventions of mankind do not end there. Now we will briefly list a dozen of the most basic ones.
Short biography of Alexander Bell
Since we talked about the invention of the great scientist, then we need to briefly outline his biography. He was born in Edinburgh (Scotland) on the third of March 1847. Many of his relatives were professional rhetoricians - uncle, grandfather and father. The latter even wrote a treatise on eloquence. Alexander at first also followed their path, finished the corresponding school and became a teacher of music and eloquence. He studied for a year at the University of Edinburgh, then moved to Bath (England). In 1870, the family moved to Canada and settled in Ontario. Here Bell continued to deal with the issue of signal transmission via telecommunications, which became interested in Scotland. He created, for example, an electric piano that transmitted music over wires. Soon, in 1873, Alexander became a professor of speech physiology at the University of Boston. And three years later he received a patent No. 174465 for the invention of the telephone. He also worked with light rays, which later contributed to the creation of fiber-optic technologies. In 1877 he married Mabel Hubbard, his student, in 1882 - became a US citizen. He died on August 2, 1992. In the country for a minute, in order to honor his memory, all telephones were turned off.