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• Preface

• Alexander Graham Bell

• Telecommunications history

• How the telephone works

• Phone FUN facts

• Why the Phone Works When the Lights GO OUT

• FTTP (Fiber to the Prem)

• Future of Telecommunications

• Crossword Puzzle

• Word Search

• Glossary

• Credits

• Speech by Thomas Watson

The History of Telecommunications

If you ask a telephone worker how the telephone works they might respond “It’s magic.” Well it’s not magic, but rather, the power of electricity. Mr. Bell succeeded in inventing the telephone because he understood electricity, speech and acoustics, from his work with the deaf. Acoustics is the study of sound, and speech is essentially - sound in motion - the creation of sound waves. Talking produces acoustic pressure.

For example, when speaking into a tin can and string telephone. As you speak into either can the tightly pulled string that connects the two cans vibrates. The acoustic waves of your voice cause the back of the can and thereby the string to move or vibrate. Sound waves travel on the tight string and duplicate your voice on the other end. Telephones use the same principle but reproduce sounds electrically rather than acoustically. The Victorians called this electrical reproduction of the voice, “talking by lightning.”