History and evolution of mobile phones. The world's first mobile phone

We cannot imagine modern life without the use of a cell phone; it has become an integral part of it. But just ten years ago, not everyone could afford to buy a cell phone; it was mostly considered a luxury item.

Currently, the mobile technology industry is developing dynamically, with more and more new models being created every year. However, the real revolution in this was the one that gained wide popularity among users and practically replaced the usual “push-button” ones from sales.

Creator of the first touch phone

Few people know this, but in fact the first one was invented in 1993 by the IBM Corporation, which devoted most of its activities to the creation of computer equipment.

This company was created back in 1896 by engineer Herman Hollerith. Initially, it had the name Tabulating Machine Company and was engaged in the production of tabulating and analytical machines. In 1911, TMS merged with Charles Flint's companies - International Time Recording Company and Computing Scale Corporation. As a result of this process, Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR) Corporation was formed. In 1917, CTR entered the Canadian markets under the International Business Machines (IBM) brand, and in 1924 the American division changed its name.

It turned out that that same record began to play the role of a membrane that reacts to the sound of the voice. There was a magnet underneath, and the vibrations of the membrane affected the magnetic flux, causing the current in the line to change in rhythm with the vibrations. On the other end of the line the effect was reversed, and Bell heard the voice of his assistant.

For a year he worked on improving the device and in 1986 demonstrated it at an exhibition. Strictly speaking, the telephone has not changed since then: sensitive membranes still convert human speech into speech, which is transmitted through the wires, and at the other end turns them back into sounds.

Only in 2002 did the US Congress recognize that the real inventor of the telephone should be considered the Italian emigrant Antonio Meucci, who back in 1860 published a note in the press about the invention of a device capable of transmitting speech over wires. He filed an application for his patent in 1871, that is, 5 years earlier than Bell, but due to confusion with documents and a conflict with the Western Union company, he was able to defend his claim for the invention of the device only in 1887, when the patent had already expired.

Moreover, the United States admits that Bell also borrowed the main idea, since his work was carried out under the auspices of Western Union. However, in 1889, Meucci died, and in 1893, Alexander Bell’s patent expired, so further clarification was only of historical significance.

Video on the topic

Choosing a phone is a responsible process that requires a certain approach. You need to be very careful when choosing a phone, because it is unlikely that you can change it every week.

Phones

Today on the store counter you can see various phone models that differ from each other not only in color and functions, but also in the presence or absence of buttons. At the moment, the majority of phones on the market are touchscreen models, but push-button models are also quite sufficient. In this regard, you can often hear the dilemma - which phone to choose, touch or push-button?

Phone selection

The final choice must be made based on many different nuances. First of all, you need to understand whether you can live with the new screen and also work well with it. Of course, almost every person has a fear of the new and, first of all, this is due to natural instincts. For the older generation, it is better to choose push-button phones, since working with them is much easier (calls and SMS can be sent by simply pressing buttons), while a touchscreen phone still needs to be sorted out.

The second reason is directly related to the button itself, because it does not always work well, while the buttons always work as they should. Today there are two types of sensors: resistive and capacitive screens. Resistive sensors respond to any pressure. The first touchscreen phones had just such a screen. It is worth noting that such a screen had two films. When you clicked on the top one, a certain signal was sent, which was eventually read by the program. This kind of film often got scratched and dirty because sometimes you had to press very hard on the screen. As a result, the phone lost its original appearance. The new generation of phones has a capacitive screen that reacts exclusively to current conductors (fingers, styluses, etc.). This type of touchscreen is fairly easy to use (you don't have to press hard with your fingers to get the phone to respond), but you need to be aware that these screens have thin glass that can break.

The following reason for choice follows from the latter. A person may drop a touchscreen phone. If its screen breaks, the phone will be impossible to use, which means that such phones need to be treated very carefully. Push-button phones, for the most part, retain their own functions when the screen breaks, and if you need to call such a phone with a broken screen, this can be done simply by pressing the buttons.

The last thing is the inconvenience of using touch phones for people with large fingers. Most often, the touch screen is pre-programmed for a certain size of icons that cannot be changed (unless you reflash or use other special software), and if these icons are small, you can press other icons at the same time, which causes additional inconvenience.

The history of the mobile phone

Back in the middle of the 20th century. the option of making calls using a portable communication device was proposed. In 1963, Soviet engineer L. Kupriyanovich developed the first experimental model of a cell phone. However, this model weighed about 3 kg and came with a special portable base. This option required major revision.

The idea of ​​using a communication device in a car came from Bell Laboratories. And at the same time, Motorola specialists were also considering the option of a compact portable communication device. At that time, this company was already successfully producing portable radio stations.

The man who created the first portable mobile phone

It is worth noting that the first inventor of the mobile phone was Martin Cooper, who was the head of the communications department at Motorola. At first, everyone around this talented inventor was skeptical about this option for a means of communication.

In April 1973, Martin Cooper used his invention to call the boss of Bell Laboratories from the streets of Manhattan. This was the first call in the history of a mobile phone. It should be noted that the choice of subscriber for Cooper was not accidental. At that time, both companies tried to be the first to create a communication device. Cooper and his team were first.

Only in 1983, after much development, was an approximate version of a modern telephone presented to the public. This model was called DynaTAC 8000X, its price was almost $4,000. Nevertheless, there was a huge number of people who wanted to buy a new device, they even signed up for the purchase of the device.

What did the very first mobile phone look like?

It is worth considering the appearance of the first portable communication device, which was significantly different from today's devices:

The length of the tube was about 10 cm, and a fairly long antenna protruded from it;
- instead of the now familiar display, the phone had large buttons for dialing the subscriber’s number;
- the weight of the first cell phone was approximately 1 kg, dimensions: 22.5x12.5x3.75 cm;
- the telephone was intended only for making calls;
- in talk mode the battery worked for 45 minutes - 1 hour, and in quiet mode - up to 4-6 hours;
- it took about 7-9 hours to charge the first mobile phone.

“My phone rang...” I’m sure that none of us today can imagine life without communications. We forget our phone at home and rush back to get it; we can’t find it in our bag or briefcase and always get upset. Who brought into our lives a unique technique that helps connect people at a distance?

Lesson plan:

Is it possible to communicate without a phone?

Of course you can! People lived before, and they didn’t have any newfangled telephone models, but they transmitted information from each other far beyond the borders of their place of residence. The need for communication forced people to come up with different ways to “challenge” and tell the news to comrades located several kilometers away. How was it?

By that time, the first attempts had already been made to create a telegraph capable of transmitting signals over long distances using electricity. The fundamentals of electrical engineering were carried out by scientists Galvani and Volt, and the Russians Schilling and Jacobi made their contribution, who invented transmission codes and a device that converted signals into text.

A little later, in 1837, thanks to the American inventor Morse, the electric telegraph and a special code system of dots and dashes, widely known to everyone under the name “Morse code,” appeared.

But even this was not enough for the scientists of those centuries. They dreamed that it would be possible not only to receive dry text over wires, but also to speak over them!

This is interesting! Archaeologists discovered two pumpkins in the Peru region connected by a rope and concluded that this structure is the thousand-year-old ancestor of the telephone. Indeed, it is very similar to two matchboxes connected by a thread, which we tried to “ring” in childhood.

Who invented it first?

The history of the appearance of the telephone is associated with Alexander Bell from America. But he was not the only one who was actively involved in the design idea of ​​transmitting the human voice at a distance. Let's take a brief look through the pages of history and see how far the invention traveled in the first stages of its birth.

Italian Antonio Meucci

In 1860, Antonio Meucci, a native of Italy, showed the Americans a device that could transmit sound over a wire, but he filed a patent application only in 1871, and to all his questions about the fate of the documents, the company that took them answered that they were lost.

German Philipp Reis

In 1861, German physicist Philipp Reis introduced the public to an electrical apparatus capable of transmitting sound. By the way, from him came the name “telephone,” which we are accustomed to hearing today, which is translated from Greek as “sound from afar.”

Its transmitter was made in the form of a hollow box with holes: sound - in the front and covered with a membrane - on top. But the quality of sound transmission in Reis's phone was so low that it was impossible to make out anything, so his invention was not accepted by those around him.

Americans Gray and Bell

Only 15 years later, two American designers Gray and Bell, completely independently of each other, were able to discover how a metal membrane with the help of a magnet, like the eardrum of our ear, can transform sound and transmit it through an electrical signal.

Why did Bell get all the laurels of fame? It's simple! On February 14, 1876, he submitted his application to patent the invention he discovered - the “talking telegraph” - a couple of hours earlier than Gray did.

I can imagine how upset Gray was.

Bell presented the telephone at a technical exhibition in Philadelphia.

The new technology did not have a bell; the subscriber was called by the attached whistle, and the only handset both received and transmitted speech at the same time. The first telephones had to generate electricity themselves, so the telephone line only worked at a distance of up to 500 meters.

This is interesting! In 2002, the American Congress made a decision that turned the telephone world upside down: it recognized the Italian Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone.

Evolution of the phone

Since the first telephone was presented to the public, inventors and designers have put a lot of effort into making a modern means of communication out of a primitive device.

Thus, engineers were able to replace the whistle for calling a subscriber with an electric bell. In 1876, a switch was invented that could connect not only two, but several telephones with each other.

A year later, inventor Edison contributed to the development of the telephone - his induction coil increases the distance of sound transmission, and a carbon microphone, which improves the quality of communication, was used until the end of the 20th century. At the same time, in 1877, the first telephone exchange appeared in America, through which those wishing to call someone were connected to the desired number of the telephone operator through plugs.

Thanks to the contribution of the Russian inventor Golubitsky, centrally powered stations were able to serve tens of thousands of subscribers. What is noteworthy is that the first telephone conversation in Russia took place three years after the advent of the telephone, and in 1898 the first intercity line was built between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

This is interesting! The first telephones were not very convenient. It was difficult to hear through them, so they came up with special tubes of different sizes and shapes, into which you just had to stick your nose so that the subscriber could understand what the conversation was about. At first they were made separate: one - to speak into it, the second - to listen from it. Then they began to be connected with a handle, like a modern telephone receiver. Telephone sets were made from ivory, mahogany, and cast metal. The bell cups were chromed to a shine. But one thing remained unchanged: the body, the tube and the lever on which it was hung after the conversation.

By leaps and bounds towards modernity

The inventive world did not stop there. Having received a telephone at home, people wanted to use a modern means of communication on the street, in transport, and communicate on the way to work or home.

Such communication, independent of the premises, was initially available only to special services - walkie-talkies under the nickname “walkie-talkie”, or “walk-talk”, became a tempting idea for ordinary users. Knowing the secrets of the device, the craftsmen tried to connect the devices to the line using such radio communication. So in the 80s, radiotelephones appeared that operated at a distance of up to 300 meters.

But the main advantage of recent years has undoubtedly been cellular communications, which operate on a signal moving from one station to another.

The modern “honeycomb” appeared in 1973 at Motorola. Their firstborn worked without recharging for no more than 20 minutes and was the size of a brick and weighed as much as 794 grams!

These are our modern “mobile phones” now, small and compact, capable of taking photographs, sending mail and messages, playing music and even thinking for their owner! They have become real helpers for children and their parents - you can always call and find out how they are doing!

This is interesting! Singapore resident En Yang can write SMS the fastest - he needs a little more than 40 seconds for a message of 160 characters to appear!

Interesting facts about mobile phones

This video contains 23 more interesting facts about our phones. They can be added to your project, so look carefully.

Now you know everything about the appearance of the telephone. Make a report and tell your friends, they will be interested! And I say goodbye to you, but don’t forget to look into new projects and stay in touch!

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

Its release provides an answer to the question: the first mobile phone in the world?

What year did it appear?

The historic call on the world's first mobile phone took place on April 3, 1973, when its creator, Motorola employee Martin Cooper, called Joel Engel, head of the research department at Bell Laboratories.

Who invented it and how it started

The idea of ​​the mobile phone in its modern version was born from a less mobile prototype - the car radiotelephone. These devices were extremely bulky, weighing about 15 kilograms, but, nevertheless, their popularity grew every day.

Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer who was involved in this area, proposed modifying the phone, reducing the weight so that people could carry it with them without any problems. Some companies also worked on reducing the weight of the phone, but Motorola was far ahead of all competitors. It took Cooper 15 years and $90 million to implement Cooper's idea.

On that memorable day, April 3, 1973, a bell rang in the office of the head of the Bell Laboratories design bureau, Joel Engel. He picked up the phone and heard the voice of his sworn enemy - Martin, who said: “Guess where I'm calling from?.. I'm calling you from a real cell phone.” Cooper later recalled: “I don’t remember what he answered then, but, you know, I thought I heard his teeth grinding.”

Joel Engel can be understood - the era of new communications was beginning, and Bell Laboratories was rapidly flying into the ditch of history. Later, life put everything in its place - Bell did not go into oblivion, but proved itself in mobile communications no less than Motorola.

How much did he weigh

The world's first mobile phone, Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (prototype), weighed about 1.15 kg and had dimensions of 22.5 x 12.5 x 3.75 cm. A small LED display showed the phone being dialed. The battery charge lasted for 30 minutes of conversation, but it took about 10 hours to charge it.

A total of 5 DynaTACs were manufactured until 1983, and from 83 an improved commercial version of this model was produced, which weighed 850 grams and sold for $3,995. During the first year of sales, 12 thousand Americans acquired mobile phones.

My phone rang. Who's 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 someone who doesn't have a phone? Perhaps these are only very old grandparents. Or the guys from the Tumba-Yumba tribe. Although they probably already have one. The telephone appeared a century and a half ago, and here is the result: every person makes about 1,500 phone calls a year!

Telephony development

The first telephones had a range of only 500 meters, they did not have a ringer, and calls had to be made using a whistle. After introducing a carbon microphone and telecoil 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 phone and start turning the lever. After connecting with the telephone operator, she was told the subscriber's number, she plugged the plug into the socket, and only after that the conversation began.

Direct calls have become possible since the 20s of the last century, although an automatic switchboard capable of replacing the work of telephone operators was proposed back in 1887 by the Russian scientist K.A. Mosticki.

Now we are accustomed to 7-digit numbers and international telephone 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.

By the way, call us any time! For our readers there is now a 10% discount on

How the phone works on your fingers

Why on the fingers? Because before you deal with something complex (for example, the principle of operation of a modern mobile phone), you always need to deal with the simplest things, from which everything started.

The signals in the telephone are electrical. Human speech is a sound signal. The telephone converts sound signals into electrical signals and vice versa.

We speak into a 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 occurs: current flows in the moving coil of the speaker, which causes the membrane to vibrate and “ripple” the air. As a result, we hear sound.

Now phones can be divided into:

• regular landline phones;
• radiotelephones;
• cell phones;
• satellite phones;
• phones operating in IP telephony.

The emergence of modern phones, mobile communications

The significance of the invention of the mobile phone was also revolutionary. And the first mobile phones appeared in 1976. They were huge, and their cost was also huge. In the 1980s in America you could already buy a mobile phone for $3,500. For comparison: a new Ford Mustang cost 6,500.

It is believed that it was invented in the USA, but there is a version that the first mobile prototype 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 replace individual devices such as the computer, laptop and camera. The capabilities and power of the phones will allow you to simply connect a monitor and keyboard to them, turning your smartphone into a full-fledged personal PC.

Already, a 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 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 technology that allows you to pay with a smartphone, using it instead of a card.

But this is all in the future. For now, no matter how smart a smartphone is, it will not be able to write a coursework or test for you. A special student service can help with this, providing the services of professionals in all fields: from agronomy and accounting to electronics and nuclear physics.

The life of a modern person is closely connected with mobile phones, and there is a lot of evidence of this. Imagine, for example, a situation where you accidentally left your beloved, irreplaceable and precious smartphone at home. How will you feel at this moment? It's uncomfortable to say the least, isn't it? However, there were times when people did not have phones at all, and not only mobile phones, but also landlines. How did they manage without them? Read our article.

Life without phones

Just some 200 years ago, people did not even know what telephones were. Previously, whistles, gongs, ringing bells and drumming were used to transmit messages over a distance.

However, all these methods were imperfect.

By the way, in order to transmit the signal as far as possible, it was necessary to create intermediate points at which people were on duty. In this case, the sound came to the recipient through a chain. We all understand that this was a very long process. Of course, it was possible to solve this problem, for example, transmit information through water and metal. In this case, the signal would travel faster and fade out much later. But for some reason this was not done, at least everywhere.

Invention of the first telephone

We traditionally associate the appearance of the telephone with the name of the American inventor Alexander Bell. The famous researcher actually took a direct part in the development of the revolutionary apparatus. However, other people also played a vital role in the creation of the first telephone.

In 1860, naturalist Antonio Meucci published an article in an Italian newspaper in New York, in which he talked about his invention that could transmit sounds through electrical wires. Meucci called his device Teletrofono. In 1871, he decided to patent the Teletrofono, but was unable to do so due to financial problems.

A year later, in 1861, the German physicist and inventor Johann Philipp Reis demonstrated his “mobile phone” at a meeting of scientists of the Physical Society. The device could transmit musical tones and human speech over wires. The device had a microphone of an original design, a power source (galvanic battery) and a speaker. Reis himself named the device he designed Telephon. Many sources from the time claim that the first message the physicist sent on his telephone was the phrase “Das Pferd frisst Keinen Gurkensalat” (“The horse does not eat cucumber salad”). The absurdity of this information made it possible to verify that the words were heard correctly, from which it follows that the transmitter was working as it should.

Despite all these inventions, the laurels of the discoverer still went to Alexander Graham Bell.

So, on February 14, 1876, Bell filed an application with the Washington Patent Office, and on March 7, 1876, the American received a patent. He called his device a “talking telegraph.” The Bell tube could alternately transmit and receive a signal. The American scientist’s telephone did not have a ringer; it was invented a little later, in 1878, by Thomas Watson. When someone called the subscriber, the telegraph began to whistle. The range of such a line did not exceed 500 meters.

Note that Alexander Bell was officially considered the inventor of the telephone for a long time. And only on June 11, 2002, the US Congress, in resolution No. 269, transferred this status to Antonio Meucci.

Converting a talking telegraph into a landline telephone

Bell's talking telegraph went through many metamorphoses before becoming the modern smartphone.

So, in 1877-1878. American inventor Thomas Edison improved the device. He introduced an induction coil into the circuit, and in the microphone he replaced the carbon powder with a carbon rod (such microphones were used until 1980). This made the communication clearer and louder. Now telephones, unlike public telegraphs, have become household devices.

In 1878, the first telephone exchange appeared in New Haven. The following year, Paris took over the baton. Since 1881, telephone exchanges began to open in Berlin, Riga, and Warsaw. In Russia, namely in Moscow and St. Petersburg, they appeared in 1882.

It is worth noting that the first telephone exchanges were manual - the connection was made by a telephone operator. But in 1879, American engineers Connolly and McTite invented an automatic switch. Now people could reach each other by simply dialing a number.

Beginning of the 20th century marked by a real telephone boom. All over the world there was active construction of telephone exchanges, of which there were more than 10 thousand by 1910, and long-distance lines serving more than 10 million telephones.

It turns out that in just about half a century the telephone has gone from a pipe dream of inventors and enthusiasts to the most widespread phenomenon, allowing millions of people to communicate at a distance. It is from this time that humanity can no longer imagine life without this device. But when did it finally begin to turn into a smartphone?

The advent of mobile phones. The history of the modern smartphone

In 1969, world leaders in the telecommunications market began to think about improving the wired device. They wanted each subscriber to have their own number, which would be relevant not only in the country where it was issued, but also abroad. Stockholm Technical School graduate Esten Mäkitolo was one of the first to come up with such an idea. However, for the practical implementation of the Myakitolo concept, powerful technologies were required, which appeared only in the 1980s.

Therefore, it was only in 1983 that Motorola was able to release the world's first cell phone. Although experimental calls from a prototype were made in the 1970s.

It was a handset weighing about 0.8 kg and measuring 22.5 x 12.5 x 3.75 cm. The battery allowed communication for as long as 35 minutes, but it took a little more than 10 hours to charge it. Of course, it cannot be compared with modern devices, but for that time it was a huge breakthrough.

Motorola very quickly had competitors who began to release more and more advanced and intelligent models each time. So, over time, a calculator, alarm clock, calendar, camera and many other applications and functions appeared on the phone. In the 2000s. Phones with an operating system began to appear, which turned them into personal computers. Today, using a smartphone, you can do more than just call a friend or send a message. For him it is primitive. It can communicate with satellites, take large-scale pictures, play music, not to mention reading books, watching movies and multitasking.

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