How was the telephone invented?

The telephone has become an indispensable part of our life. Can you imagine your life without the telephone? The telephone is used everywhere, in business, offices, homes and factories. The world ‘telephone’ has been derived from the Greek words ‘tele’ meaning far and ‘phone’ meaning sound. Thus, the word ‘telephone’ means a device that carries sound to distant places. The story of the invention of the telephone is very interesting. Let us go back to June 2, 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell was working along with his assistant Thomas Watson on some problem related to telegraphy. Bell was on the telegraphic receiver in one room, whereas his assistant was in another room. Watson created some vibrations on an iron strip. When Bell rushed to the other room, he found the iron strip vibrating between the poles of a magnet was producing electric current in the connecting wire. It was this historic observation that led to the birth of telephone. Graham Bell first demonstrated the telephonic conversation on March 10, 1876. Do you know how the telephone works? The telephone consists of two main parts — the mouthpiece and the earpiece. The mouthpiece of the telephone works as a transmitter whereas the earpiece works as a receiver. Both are enclosed in one cage and are connected by a line wire. When we speak into the mouthpiece, a diaphragm attached to it starts vibrating. In accordance with these vibrations, a varying current is produced. The telephone line wire to the receiver of another telephone carries this current. This varying current produces vibrations in the diaphragm attached to the receiver, which is then converted into replicas of the original sound waves. As a result, the person at the other end is able to receive the voice of the speaker. The same process is repeated between our receiver and the mouthpiece of the telephone at the other end. In this way, two people can talk with each other on the telephone. Today, each country has a vast network of telephone lines and telecommunication satellites. You can now talk to a person on the other side of the globe because of this invention by Alexander Graham Bell.