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104-501: Hand telephone sets in the Bell System were first designed starting with the creation of the handset is 1927. This series of telephone evolved through several designs in the 1920s and 1930s, to refurbishments in the 1950s. They consisted of a table-top handset stand and a wall- or desk-mounted subscriber set that contained the components to connect the telephone to the telephone line, as well as an electromechanical bell ringer. After

208-606: A disruptive technology that is rapidly replacing traditional telephone network infrastructure. By January 2005, up to 10% of telephone subscribers in Japan and South Korea had switched to this digital telephone service. A January 2005 Newsweek article suggested that Internet telephony may be "the next big thing." The technology has spawned a new industry comprising many VoIP companies that offer services to consumers and businesses . The reported global VoIP market in October 2021

312-463: A hangup telephone , with the handset hanging on one side of the unit in a switchhook fork that cradled only the receiver cup. In use, the B-type telephone base proved unstable during dialing, and was replaced with the type D handset mounting by 1930. A wider, elliptical footprint improved its stability. The D handset mounting was initially deployed with the same electric circuit ( booster circuit ) as

416-483: A subscriber , who had to arrange for a telegraph contractor to construct a line between them, for example, between a home and a shop. Users who wanted the ability to speak to several different locations would need to obtain and set up three or four pairs of telephones. Western Union , already using telegraph exchanges, quickly extended the principle to its telephones in New York City and San Francisco , and Bell

520-437: A water microphone , some had a metal diaphragm that induced current in an electromagnet wound around a permanent magnet, and some were dynamic – their diaphragm vibrated a coil of wire in the field of a permanent magnet or the coil vibrated the diaphragm. The sound-powered dynamic variants survived in small numbers through the 20th century in military and maritime applications, where its ability to create its own electrical power

624-479: A DC transformer which plugs into a wall AC power outlet. A mobile phone or cellphone or hand phone is a handheld telephone which connects via radio transmissions to a cellular telephone network . The cellular network consists of a network of ground based transmitter/receiver stations with antennas – which are usually located on towers or on buildings – and infrastructure connecting to land-based telephone lines. Analog cellular networks first appeared in 1979, with

728-439: A computer softphone application, utilizing the microphone and headset devices of a personal computer or smartphone. While traditional analog telephones are typically powered from the central office through the telephone line, digital telephones require a local power supply. Internet-based digital service also requires special provisions to provide the service location to the emergency services when an emergency telephone number

832-413: A display for caller ID . In addition, answering machine function may be built in. The cordless handset contains a rechargeable battery , which the base station recharges when the handset rests in its cradle. Muilt-handset systems generally also have additional charging stands. A cordless telephone typically requires a constant electricity supply to power the base station and charger units by means of

936-430: A dynamic transmitter or by the powering of a transmitter with a local battery. One of the jobs of outside plant personnel was to visit each telephone periodically to inspect the battery. During the 20th century, telephones powered from the telephone exchange over the same wires that carried the voice signals became common. Early telephones used a single wire for the subscriber's line, with ground return used to complete

1040-488: A hand-held one-piece device that a telephone user would hold against ear and in front of the mouth arose in London shortly after the official invention of the telephone. Although early patents by C. E. McEvoy and G. E. Pritchett did not yield commercial devices in 1877, R. G. Brown of New York succeeded the following year in devising a combined transmitter and receiver handset, that he used in a local telephone exchange system in

1144-417: A handle with the receiver and transmitter attached, now called a handset , separate from the cradle base that housed the magneto crank and other parts. They were larger than the "candlestick" and more popular. Disadvantages of single-wire operation such as crosstalk and hum from nearby AC power wires had already led to the use of twisted pairs and, for long-distance telephones, four-wire circuits . Users at

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1248-415: A handset model essentially free of these problems. The construction of the handset was changed from using hollow metal handles to solid Bakelite , a molded plastic material that was gaining acceptance in the telephone industry. With the solid construction the engineers were able to suppress acoustic feedback from receiver to transmitter to acceptable levels, by elevating the mechanical resonance frequencies of

1352-687: A keypad or dial, affixed to the telephone, to enter a telephone number , which is the address of the call recipient's telephone in the telecommunications system, but other methods existed in the early history of the telephone. The first telephones were directly connected to each other from one customer's office or residence to another customer's location. Being impractical beyond just a few customers, these systems were quickly replaced by manually operated centrally located switchboards . These exchanges were soon connected together, eventually forming an automated, worldwide public switched telephone network . For greater mobility, various radio systems were developed in

1456-442: A large steel housing. The new subscriber set was about half the size, was lighter, cheaper to manufacture, and had a cover molded from Bakelite , a material that was becoming fashionable in the era of Art Deco design. For colored telephone sets, the subscriber set was painted in the same color. The type 102 hand telephone set is a desk-top handset mounting with the traditional electric circuit, so called booster circuit , that used

1560-460: A molded dial-in-handset , that was a complete telephone except for the ringer and switch hook functions, which were provided in a plastic base unit that served to cradle the handset when not in use. In 1928, Western Electric introduced the Type C handset mounting for the newly developed combined handset. It was mounted against the side of a desk, or on a wall, without requiring desk top space, and had

1664-528: A new telephone design, the model 302 telephone , to the Associated Companies of the Bell System , a combined telephone set that combined all components into one housing, eliminating the separate bell box. It also featured a new type of handset ( F1 ) with improved transmitter and receiver elements. With this development, the manufacture of the D-handset mountings and the 202 hand telephone sets

1768-408: A part of the sidetone by superimposing a phase-inverted portion of the transmitter signal. This reduced the loudness of the user's own speech in the receiver, but left enough to avoid complete silence in the ear of the user, which might be interpreted as a device failure. With the completion of the anti-sidetone circuit, in 1930 Western Electric began assigning assembly codes to telephones based on

1872-591: A satellite phone is that it can be used in such regions where local terrestrial communication infrastructures, such as landline and cellular networks, are not available. Satellite phones are popular on expeditions into remote locations, hunting, fishing, maritime sector, humanitarian missions, business trips, and mining in hard-to-reach areas, where there is no reliable cellular service. Satellite telephones rarely get disrupted by natural disasters on Earth or human actions such as war, so they have proven to be dependable communication tools in emergency situations, when

1976-660: A series of telephones that were produced from 1927 by the Western Electric Company for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) and the Bell System . The series features the mouthpiece ( transmitter ) and the earpiece ( receiver ) combined into a hand-held unit, originally named a hand telephone , or handset . The handset would be held against the ear and in front of the mouth simultaneously, in contrast to earlier telephones in

2080-404: A short distance from the base station. Base stations include a radio transceiver which enables full-duplex, outgoing and incoming signals and speech with the handsets. The base station often includes a microphone, audio amplifier , and a loudspeaker to enable hands-free speakerphone conversations, without needing to use a handset. The base station may also have a numeric keypad for dialing, and

2184-484: A sideways-oriented cradle for hanging the handset. With the introduction of assembly codes in 1930, telephone sets were coded as the 101 and 201 hand telephone sets , with a sidetone and anti-sidetone circuit, respectively. In 1936, the hangup-type hand telephone set was redesigned as the type G handset mounting to produce the 211 anti-sidetone telephone, as well as a series of other types ( 212 , 213 , 214 ) for special service modifications. This type of telephone set

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2288-429: A single molded plastic handle, which when not in use was secured in a cradle in the base unit. The circuit diagram of the model 202 shows the direct connection of the transmitter to the line, while the receiver was inductively coupled. In local battery configurations, when the local loop was too long to provide sufficient current from the exchange, the transmitter was powered by a local battery and inductively coupled, while

2392-450: A speech transformer , called induction coil , to connect the telephone to the telephone line wiring. The handset mounting is either a desk-top stand to cradle and secure the handset when not in use, or a small box mounted against a vertical surface or wall that featured a switch-hook for hanging the handset. Other American and foreign telephone manufacturers had already produced this type of telephone, often referred to as French phone . In

2496-456: A transformer. The Trimline handset was produced in both rotary dial and Touch-Tone versions. Rotary dial Trimline production began in late 1965 and a Touch Tone keypad was installed in mid-1966. The Trimline base was available in desk-top and wall-mount versions. The handsets and bases were interchangeable. The Trimline was the first US telephone to achieve design recognition in Europe, where it

2600-530: A two-winding induction coil, i.e. a simple transformer , without sidetone compensation. When the designation was created in 1930 the then current handset mounting for this telephone was the B1 handset mounting. The D1 handset mounting was substituted for this assembly code shortly after, when it was released to the operating companies, and documented in the Bell System Practices . For field work, where

2704-514: A wired interface, such as USB or Lightning connectors. Smartphones, being able to run apps , have vastly expanded functionality compared to previous mobile phones. Having internet access and built in cameras, smartphones have made video calling readily accessible via IP connections. Smartphones also have access to a large number of web services and web apps, giving them functionality similar to traditional computers, although smartphones are often limited by their relatively small screen size and

2808-400: Is called. A cordless telephone or portable telephone consists of a base station unit and one or more portable cordless handsets . The base station connects to a telephone line, or provides service by voice over IP (VOIP). The handset communicates with the base station via radio frequency signals. A handset's operational range is limited, usually to within the same building or within

2912-527: The Bell System Practices . However, with the onset of the worst years of the Great Depression , distribution of telephone sets with this new circuit was largely delayed. New and existing telephone service installations in the U.S. were in decline and staffing at Western Electric was reduced by eighty percent. The anti-side tone circuit featured a three-winding induction coil, rather than a simple two-winding transformer. The third winding compensates

3016-663: The Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites , as cellphones do. Therefore, they can work in most geographic locations on the Earth's surface, as long as open sky and the line-of-sight between the phone and the satellite is provided. Depending on the architecture of a particular system, coverage may include the entire Earth or only specific regions. Satellite phones provide similar functionality to terrestrial mobile telephones; voice calling , text messaging , and low-bandwidth Internet access are supported through most systems. The advantage of

3120-572: The Reis telephone , in c. 1860. His device appears to be the first device based on the conversion of sound into electrical impulses. The term telephone was adopted into the vocabulary of many languages. It is derived from the Greek : τῆλε , tēle , "far" and φωνή, phōnē , "voice", together meaning "distant voice". Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed. As with other influential inventions such as radio , television ,

3224-426: The light bulb , and the computer , several inventors pioneered experimental work on voice transmission over a wire and improved on each other's ideas. New controversies over the issue still arise from time to time. Charles Bourseul , Antonio Meucci , Johann Philipp Reis , Alexander Graham Bell , and Elisha Gray , amongst others, have all been credited with the invention of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell

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3328-483: The model 500 telephone in the United States, were developed that permitted larger local networks centered around central offices. A breakthrough new technology was the introduction of Touch-Tone signaling using push-button telephones by American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1963. The invention of the transistor in 1947 dramatically changed the technology used in telephone systems and in

3432-447: The smartphone , the dominant type of telephone in the world today. Before the development of the electric telephone, the term telephone was applied to other inventions, and not all early researchers of the electrical device used the term. Perhaps the earliest use of the word for a communications system was the telephon created by Gottfried Huth in 1796. Huth proposed an alternative to the optical telegraph of Claude Chappe in which

3536-463: The sound waves to electrical signals which are sent through the telecommunications system to the receiving telephone, which converts the signals into audible sound in the receiver or sometimes a loudspeaker . Telephones permit transmission in both directions simultaneously. Most telephones also contain an alerting feature, such as a ringer or a visual indicator, to announce an incoming telephone call. Telephone calls are initiated most commonly with

3640-443: The 1910s, the reasons for these problems became well understood, but remedies remained elusive. After the end of World War I, new efforts concentrated on the resolution of these deficiencies, as new research yielded insight into electric circuit theory for anti-sidetone compensation, and new hope of progress. In the 1920s, developments of non-positional transmitters, which worked in any orientation, permitted Western Electric to develop

3744-658: The 1990s, mobile phones have gained other features which are not directly related to their primary function as telephones. These include text messaging, calendars, alarm clocks, personal schedulers, cameras, music players, games and later, internet access and smartphone functionality. Nearly all mobile phones have the ability to send text messages to other users via the SMS (Short Message Service) protocol. The multimedia messaging service (MMS) protocol enables users to send and receive multimedia content, such as photos, audio files and video files. As their functionality has increased over

3848-512: The 202 was the anti-sidetone version. Initially, this referred to B-type handset mountings, but by the time the 200-series anti-sidetone hand telephone sets were documented in the Practices, the standard base was the D handset mounting. At that time, the 100-series assembly codes were also redefined by use of the D handset mounting, so that the assembly code 102 was no longer used for A- or B-type handset mountings. However, they were covered by

3952-452: The A handset mounting to position the handset properly when placed onto the desk set. The new design became known as the type B handset mounting . The most common variety, was the B1A hand telephone set , which was used for local battery telephones with a wooden subscriber set and magneto box, and for common battery lines with a steel-enclosure subscriber set (No. 534A). In 1930, the designation

4056-622: The A3 was for private telephone and residence systems. By the end of 1927, well within a year of introduction of the A1 telephone, William H. Scharringhausen of the Bell Telephone Laboratories streamlined the design and filed a patent application on November 29, 1927. He integrated the short tubular neck into the continuous contours of the base. The circular footprint of the base was retained. The design corrected mechanical failures in

4160-457: The Bell System where only the receiver was held against the ear, while the user spoke into a fixed transmitter mounted on a telephone stand or wall telephone. Hand telephone sets consist of three principal parts: the handset , a handset mounting , and an apparatus box, called variously desk set box , bell box , subscriber set , or just subset . This box is typically mounted on a wall or desk-side, and contains an electromagnetic bell ringer and

4264-400: The Bell System, hand telephones formally replaced the hitherto used deskstand , colloquially called candlestick , by the end of the 1920s, although reconditioned candlestick telephones remained in service for at least another two decades. The shape and styling of these telephones by Western Electric evolved from the candlestick. Three main styles resulted for use on the desk-top, designated

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4368-475: The Trimline version designed for connection to an RJ11 telephone jack, pins 2 and 5 (black and yellow) may carry low-voltage AC or DC power. While the telephone line supplies enough power for most telephones, older telephone instruments with incandescent dial lights (such as the classic Western Electric Princess and Trimline models) needed different voltages and more current than the line could supply. Typically,

4472-412: The acceptance of a common handset model was that audio from the receiver was picked up acoustically by the transmitter and amplified. This resulted in howling tones, due to the hollow handles providing an acoustic channel between receiver and transmitter. The problems were aggravated by the signal boosting circuitry used in the subscriber set which resulted in a strong signal ( sidetone ) at the receiver of

4576-493: The advent of smartphones, mobile phone manufacturers have also included consumer electronics companies, such as Apple , Samsung and Xiaomi . As of 2022, most mobile phones are smartphones, being a combination of a mobile phone and a personal computing device in the same unit. Most smartphones are primarily operated using a graphical user interface and a touch screen. Many phones have a secondary voice user interface, such as Siri on Apple iPhones , which can operate many of

4680-458: The anti-side tone circuit was the type 202 hand telephone set. The anti-sidetone circuit required an additional, fourth conductor in the mounting cord to the subscriber set. For this telephone Western Electric produced a new type of subscriber sets, the No. 684A, which featured the same more compact form factor of the type No. 584, previously. When the 202 was introduced in mid-1931, the U.S. economy

4784-423: The assembly code was not important, the procedures for the 102 specification were extended to the prior A and B handset mountings. The 102 desk set was connected to the subscriber set with a three-conductor mounting cord. When designating anti-sidetone apparatus, the Bell System practice was to add the value 100 to the apparatus code of the corresponding sidetone equipment. Thus, the new hand telephone set with

4888-426: The beginning of the 20th century did not place long-distance calls from their own telephones but made an appointment and were connected with the assistance of a telephone operator. What turned out to be the most popular and longest-lasting physical style of telephone was introduced in the early 20th century, including Bell's 202-type desk set. A carbon granule transmitter and electromagnetic receiver were united in

4992-513: The bell coil to allow the AC ringer signal through while still blocking DC (keeping the phone " on hook "). Telephones connected to the earliest Strowger switch automatic exchanges had seven wires, one for the knife switch , one for each telegraph key , one for the bell, one for the push-button and two for speaking. Large wall telephones in the early 20th century usually incorporated the bell, and separate bell boxes for desk phones dwindled away in

5096-439: The circuit (as used in telegraphs ). The earliest dynamic telephones also had only one port opening for sound, with the user alternately listening and speaking (or rather, shouting) into the same hole. Sometimes the instruments were operated in pairs at each end, making conversation more convenient but also more expensive. At first, the benefits of a telephone exchange were not exploited. Instead, telephones were leased in pairs to

5200-413: The coupling of these elements through the induction coil, which was particularly annoying in a noisy room, because the background noise could overwhelm the speech signal received from the distant party, and when speaking, users would hear themselves very loudly too. This was improved with the anti-sidetone speech circuitry which was finally introduced the following year (1931) in new sections for equipment in

5304-420: The device's functions, as well as enabling users to use spoken commands to interact with the internet. Typically alphanumeric text input is accomplished via an on-screen virtual keyboard, although some smartphones have a small physical keyboard. Smartphones offer the ability to access internet data through the cellular network and via wi-fi, and usually allow direct connectivity to other devices via Bluetooth or

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5408-618: The district of the New York Gold and Stock Exchange. Having little success in promoting the device elsewhere in the U.S., Brown left for France to become Electrical Engineer of La Société Générale des Telephones in Paris. There, his designs found resonance and adaptations became widely used in Europe, where they became known as French phones . In the following decade, Western Electric experimented with three handset types, which were produced in limited quantities. Derivatives were used in

5512-456: The early 1900s for use as linemen telephone sets, but none were found adequate for use in the Bell System. While already popular in other countries, Western Electric produced handsets for export into the European market, but the Bell System had more stringent requirements than any other administration, due to the long distances of communication involved. Two major technical problems prevented

5616-524: The first digital cellular networks appearing in the early 1990s. Mobile phones require a SIM card to be inserted into the phone. The SIM card is a small PVC card containing a small integrated circuit which stores the user's international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number and its related key, which are used to identify and authenticate subscribers to the cellular network. Mobile phones generally incorporate an LCD or OLED display, with some types, such as smartphones, having touch screens. Since

5720-413: The handset from reaching production stage for use by subscribers in the Bell System. Firstly, the transmitters of the day did not work well unless oriented steadily in a vertical plane. A handset would be used in many positions and orientations. If operated at other angles, carbon granules in the transmitter would shift and move in an unacceptable manner, resulting in poor voice quality. The second hurdle to

5824-427: The handset sufficiently to avoid interference with the speech range. The resulting device was ready for distribution around the start of 1927. Alongside the development of the handset, engineers at Bell Telephone Laboratories also worked on improvements of telephone circuitry that assisted in the quality of speech conversion and transmission. While already used in telephone operator circuitry, this anti-sidetone circuit

5928-423: The handset was in place. A vertical plunger operates an internal switch when the handset is lifted to connect the telephone to its subset and the telephone line. Telephones built with this handset mounting were released in limited supply in 1927, and were known as the A1 telephone, the most common type for local and common battery service. The A2 handset mounting was made for special measured two-party line service and

6032-430: The handset was on the cradle. In the 1930s, telephone sets were developed that combined the bell and induction coil with the desk set, obviating a separate ringer box. The rotary dial becoming commonplace in the 1930s in many areas enabled customer-dialed service, but some magneto systems remained even into the 1960s. After World War II, the telephone networks saw rapid expansion and more efficient telephone sets, such as

6136-456: The handset. The 1927 handset and its telephone stand marked a milestone in AT&;T's telephone development and of the Bell System, as it represented a new design methodology, away from inspired invention and empirical testing and toward theoretical planning and quantitative testing and quality assurance. It became the origin of all later telephone instruments in the Bell System. The concept of

6240-417: The house. The early Trimline and Princess incandescent lamps were rated at 6.3 volts and 0.25 amperes and the transformer output is approximately 6–8 volts AC. Later Trimline versions had LED light sources, powered directly from the phone line, and the last Western Electric-made Princess version had no dial light. Western Electric hand telephone sets The Western Electric hand telephone sets are

6344-507: The introduction of the Princess telephone line, in 1959, the design motivation for the Trimline series was to create an alternative design that was stylish and easier to use than a traditional telephone. This was accomplished by moving the dial from the telephone's base to the underside of the handset, between the earpiece and mouthpiece . The same concept was later used for cellular telephone and cordless telephone models. To miniaturize

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6448-428: The long-distance transmission networks, over the next several decades. With the development of stored program control and MOS integrated circuits for electronic switching systems , and new transmission technologies such as pulse-code modulation (PCM), telephony gradually evolved towards digital telephony , which improved the capacity, quality, and cost of the network. Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

6552-510: The market place to produce colored telephones. The manufacturing processes to produce this new line of 500-type sets in color were not completed yet and those sets were only issued in black until 1954. In 1955, Western Electric reissued the 202 telephone painted in several colors. The Continental line was created from a D1 base with an F1 handset, and was available painted in primarily ivory, green, red, and black, but other colors were made available by special customer order. The Silver Continental

6656-433: The mid-20th century for transmission between mobile stations on ships and in automobiles. Hand-held mobile phones were introduced for personal service starting in 1973. In later decades, the analog cellular system evolved into digital networks with greater capability and lower cost. Convergence in communication services has provided a broad spectrum of capabilities in cell phones, including mobile computing, giving rise to

6760-435: The middle of the century. Rural and other telephones that were not on a common battery exchange had a magneto hand-cranked generator to produce a high voltage alternating signal to ring the bells of other telephones on the line and to alert the operator. Some local farming communities that were not connected to the main networks set up barbed wire telephone lines that exploited the existing system of field fences to transmit

6864-424: The new hand telephone set uncovered mechanical flaws, so that a new base was designed to replace the shortened candlestick. The result was the type B handset mounting introduced later in 1927. It still retained a circular footprint of the base, but improved on the esthetic appearance. The B-type desk set was followed by a wall-mounted hand telephone set, designated as the type C handset mounting , also referred to as

6968-495: The operators in the signaling towers would shout to each other by means of what he called "speaking tubes", but would now be called giant megaphones . A communication device for sailing vessels, called telephone , was invented by Captain John Taylor in 1844. This instrument used four air horns to communicate with vessels in foggy weather. Johann Philipp Reis used the term in reference to his invention, commonly known as

7072-471: The power came from a transformer plugged into a power outlet near the telephone jack, wired to supply power to just that telephone, or to all jacks in the house, depending on local telephone company practices. It is now usually recommended that only the one local jack used by such older telephones be wired for power, to avoid any potential interference with other types of service that might be using pins 2 and 5 (black and yellow pair) in jacks in other parts of

7176-427: The previous palette: ivory , gray-green , old rose , Pekin red , and dark blue were now in fashion, in addition to the metallic hues called old brass , dark gold , statuary bronze , and oxidized silver . Along with the new look of the telephone, the effort complemented it with a new subscriber set in 1930, the type 584. It formally replaced the larger, but electrically equivalent type 534, which had featured

7280-412: The prior models. This new style of telephone also prompted a modernization in style of the subscriber sets, yielding updated, smaller, and less costly units. While the construction of the handset with a solid Bakelite handle had eliminated the howling by mechanical (acoustic) feedback from the receiver to the transmitter, it did not reduce the electrical feedback from the transmitter to the receiver due to

7384-409: The receiver was included in the local loop. The coupling transformer and the ringer were mounted in a separate enclosure, called the subscriber set. The dial switch in the base interrupted the line current by repeatedly but very briefly disconnecting the line one to ten times for each digit, and the hook switch (in the center of the circuit diagram) disconnected the line and the transmitter battery while

7488-583: The rotary dial sufficiently to fit in the Trimline handset, the designers invented an unusual moving fingerstop. Like in the Princess line, the dial was lit when the handset was removed from the base. The Trimline was also one of the first phones to use the predecessor of the now-ubiquitous RJ11 modular phone plug and jack. Field trials for the first iteration of the Trimline, nicknamed the "Shmoo", started in 1959 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Based on

7592-458: The same specifications and maintenance procedures. The first version of the new hand telephone sets was marked by AT&T as D-76869 , a specification type for small quantities of new equipment. The device was described by George K. Thompson of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in United States patent No. 1508424 of 1924, without showing the handset that was still in development. During 1927, it became known and labeled as

7696-403: The signal. In the 1890s a new smaller style of telephone was introduced, packaged in three parts. The transmitter stood on a stand, known as a " candlestick " for its shape. When not in use, the receiver hung on a hook with a switch in it, known as a "switchhook". Previous telephones required the user to operate a separate switch to connect either the voice or the bell. With the new kind, the user

7800-510: The size of their keyboards. Typically, smartphones feature such tools as cameras, media players, web browsers, email clients, interactive maps, satellite navigation and a variety of sensors, such as a compass , accelerometers and GPS receivers . In addition to voice calls, smartphone users commonly communicate using a wide variety of messaging formats, including SMS, MMS, email, and various proprietary messaging services, such as iMessage and various social media platforms. In 2002, only 10% of

7904-422: The sound to the receiving user. The term is derived from Ancient Greek : τῆλε , romanized :  tēle , lit.   'far' and φωνή ( phōnē , voice ), together meaning distant voice . In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be granted a United States patent for a device that produced clearly intelligible replication of the human voice at a second device. This instrument

8008-405: The speech of the user. Sidetone is the reproduction of sound through a local path from the transmitter to the receiver in the telephone. It is desirable only to some fraction of volume so that the user has the assurance that the telephone is working correctly. Strong sidetone may cause users to lower the voice to unacceptable levels, so that the recipient receives insufficient signal level. During

8112-573: The standard base for the 202. However, type B handset mountings continued to be produced until c. 1932, and installation of 202-type telephones with the anti-sidetone circuit were delayed due to the economic conditions of the Great Depression. Telephones based on the D handset mounting were made available in more colors than the previous types. In 1930, consultants to the Bell Laboratories suggested changes and additional colors to

8216-517: The telephone switch, which allowed for the formation of telephone exchanges , and eventually networks. In the United Kingdom, the blower is used as a slang term for a telephone. The term came from navy slang for a speaking tube . In the U.S., a somewhat dated slang term refers to the telephone as "the horn," as in "I couldn't get him on the horn," or "I'll be off the horn in a moment." Early telephones were technically diverse. Some used

8320-408: The telephone to work a fluctuating current reproduced sounds the best. The fluctuating currents became the basis for the working telephone, creating Bell's patent. That first patent by Bell was the master patent of the telephone, from which other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed. In 1876, shortly after Bell's patent application, Hungarian engineer Tivadar Puskás proposed

8424-480: The trials, Western Electric modified the design several times, ultimately resulting in the Trimline, which was eventually introduced in 1965. The Trimline included a lighted dial and was encased in a sleek, curved molded-plastic housing that took up less space than earlier Western Electric telephones. However, the glass-smooth and shallowly-curved plastic handset proved difficult to retain between cheek and shoulder for hands-free communication without slipping. This problem

8528-454: The type A handset mounting, embodied in the A1 , A2 , and A3 telephones. This type was directly derived from the candlestick telephone. The vertical tube shaft of the deskstand was shortening in height to about one and one half inches. Mounted on top of this was placed a cradle device that held the combined handset in a horizontal position. It incorporated a switch bar that would be depressed when

8632-465: The type A, type B, and type D handset mounting. A and B had a circular base, while type D is identified by its elliptical footprint. The most notable examples of telephones constructed from the handset mountings, are the model 102 and the model 202 telephones, variants which differed in their electric circuitry, with improvements of speech performance. In addition, the type C, and later type G, handset mountings were small wall-mounted units for hanging up

8736-421: The type of electrical configuration. Until then, the hand telephone sets were primarily referred to by the handset mountings used to construct them. With the new circuit variant, this became insufficient, resulting in the distinction between 100-series and 200-series hand telephone sets. Thus, the type 102 was the new designation for a handset mounting when used on common battery lines with a side-tone circuit, and

8840-456: The world's population used mobile phones and by 2005 that percentage had risen to 46%. By the end of 2009, there were a total of nearly 6 billion mobile and fixed-line telephone subscribers worldwide. This included 1.26 billion fixed-line subscribers and 4.6 billion mobile subscribers. A satellite telephone, or satphone, is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting

8944-517: The years, many types of mobile phone, notably smartphones, require an operating system to run. Popular mobile phone operating systems in the past have included Symbian , Palm OS , BlackBerry OS and mobile phone versions of Windows . As of 2022, the most used operating systems are Google's Android and Apple's iOS . Before the era of smartphones, mobile phones were generally manufactured by companies specializing in telecommunications equipment, such as Nokia , Motorola , and Ericsson . Since

9048-481: Was $ 85.2 billion with a projection of $ 102.5 billion by 2026. IP telephony uses high-bandwidth Internet connections and specialized customer premises equipment to transmit telephone calls via the Internet, or any modern private data network. The customer equipment may be an analog telephone adapter (ATA) which translates the signals of a conventional analog telephone; an IP Phone , a dedicated standalone device; or

9152-570: Was crucial. Most, however, used the Edison/Berliner carbon transmitter , which was much louder than the other kinds, even though it required an induction coil which was an impedance matching transformer to make it compatible with the impedance of the line. The Edison patents kept the Bell monopoly viable into the 20th century, by which time the network was more important than the instrument. Early telephones were locally powered, using either

9256-412: Was ended in 1939. The new handset became the new standard in the Bell System and was used in refurbishing existing hand telephone sets for reissue as 202-type sets for almost another two decades. In the 1950s, large quantities of old telephones were retired in favor of the popular new model 500 telephone , creating a stock pile of still usable parts. At the same time, popular demand provided pressure in

9360-439: Was further developed by many others, and became rapidly indispensable in business , government , and in households . The essential elements of a telephone are a microphone ( transmitter ) to speak into and an earphone ( receiver ) which reproduces the voice at a distant location. The receiver and transmitter are usually built into a handset which is held up to the ear and mouth during conversation. The transmitter converts

9464-402: Was indicated by numeric suffices to the assembly code. In 1929, the Bell System sought to improve the appearance of their telephone apparatus, particularly in subscriber's homes and offices. After a design contest failed to produce useable ideas, by year-end engineers had redesigned the desk-top handset mounting into a new, wider, elliptical shape that also recessed the casing of the dial, which

9568-521: Was launched in the 1980's, providing businesses and consumers with access to digital telephony services such as data, voice, video , and fax services. The development of digital data communications methods made it possible to digitize voice and transmit it as real-time data across computer networks and the Internet , giving rise to the field of Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, also known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP has proven to be

9672-406: Was less likely to leave the phone "off the hook". In phones connected to magneto exchanges, the bell, induction coil, battery and magneto were in a separate bell box or " ringer box ". In phones connected to common battery exchanges, the ringer box was installed under a desk, or other out-of-the-way place, since it did not need a battery or magneto. Cradle designs were also used at this time, having

9776-467: Was necessary because of the power demands of the incandescent light bulb. Years later, Western Electric redesigned the Trimline to use a low-power green light-emitting diode (LED) to backlight the dial, which was powered by current from the telephone line, eliminating the need for the transformer. Always eager to re-use its older stocks of turned-in rental phones, AT&T later repainted and sold early-model non-LED Trimlines as "non-lighted" models, without

9880-431: Was never corrected over the life of the model line. Third-party manufacturers offered cushioned clamp-on adaptors to make it easier to cradle the handset, but these add-ons were unsightly. The first Trimline models used incandescent dial lights powered by a power transformer plugged into a standard electrical outlet. The bulky transformer and the need for a conveniently-placed outlet was criticized by many consumers, but

9984-441: Was not ready for the first hand telephones, but had to wait for the early 1930s. The completed handset was paired with a stand that had been in used for several years in the development stages of the handset. It was essentially a candlestick base with a shortened shaft of approximately one and one half inch in height, topped with a new cradle for the handset. It was later referred to as the type A handset mounting . The release of

10088-407: Was not slow in appreciating the potential. Signalling began in an appropriately primitive manner. The user alerted the other end, or the exchange operator , by whistling into the transmitter. Exchange operation soon resulted in telephones being equipped with a bell in a ringer box , first operated over a second wire, and later over the same wire, but with a condenser ( capacitor ) in series with

10192-573: Was plated in silvery rhodium, and the Imperial was sprayed with gold lacquer. Both were issued with an ivory painted Bakelite or ivory thermoplastic handset of the type F1 . In the 1960s, AT&T introduced a very different design, a departure from the traditional hand telephone set, the Trimline telephone . Formally, it was referred to by its apparatus code, the No. 220 hand telephone set . It comprised

10296-495: Was previously simply mounted on top of the front slope of the base. While using the same handset, the telephone's overall dimensions now conformed to the Golden Section . This design was referred to as the type D handset mounting . Service-specific telephone models were again designated by numerical suffices (D1, D2, etc.). In 1930, it formally replaced the B handset mounting in 102-type telephones, and in 1931 it became

10400-544: Was produced well into the 1970s, and is often colloquially referred to as a space-saver telephone. Telephone A telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone , is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound , typically and most efficiently the human voice , into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces

10504-430: Was referred to as the "Manhattan" model or the "Gondola". Today, similarly designed telephones are sold by many companies. AT&T retained the Trimline name for the later "Trimline III", a more compact successor featuring squared corners and straight lines. In the 21st century, Advanced American Telephones produces the Trimline models 205, 210 (based upon original design), and the 265, under license from AT&T. In

10608-472: Was still in deep recession, and installations of new equipment was generally delayed until conditions improved. When the Bell System introduced the Type 302 combined telephone set in 1937, with a newly styled handset, the hand telephone sets, including the 202 were manufactured or refurbished with this new handset of type F1. The F1 contained more efficient transmitter and receiver elements. In 1937, Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric began shipping

10712-462: Was superseded by 102 type hand telephone set . Manual (no dial) instruments were indicated by the letter suffix A (i.e. 102A) and dial instruments received the suffix B , C , or D , depending on the style of digit and letter display on the dial. The B-type hand telephone sets were typically installed with a black finish (suffix -3 ), but sets in ivory, gray, old brass, statuary bronze, and oxidized silver tones could be ordered by customers. Color

10816-550: Was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in March 1876. Before Bell's patent, the telephone transmitted sound in a way that was similar to the telegraph. This method used vibrations and circuits to send electrical pulses, but was missing key features. Bell found that this method produced a sound through intermittent currents, but in order for

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