JAKARTA - The telephone is one of the most useful things in human life. How could I not, because of the telephone, humans can communicate even though they are far away. Along with the development of the times, the types of telephones also developed. Now we have a mobile phone that can be carried everywhere or we often call it a mobile phone. But have you ever thought how the telephone was invented?

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was 29 years old. He succeeded in patenting his revolutionary new invention and until now we really feel its usefulness, namely the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland, then worked with his father, Melville Bell, in London. Alexander and Melville Bell then developed a system called Visible Speech, a written system used to teach speaking to deaf people. In the 1870s, Alexander and his father moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a teacher at the Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf.

Unexpectedly, Alexander met his mate at the school. The ITU woman is a student named Mabel Hubbard. He then married Mabel on July 11, 1877. Mabel was the son of Gardiner Hubbard, one of his investors when he made the phone. He was deaf since childhood.

But the process of being able to come up with a patentable phone is not a smooth one. Prior to that, in 1871 Alexander began working on a device known as the multi or harmonic telegraph (the telegraphic transmission of multiple messages tuned to different frequencies) while moving to Boston. He has financial support from local investors Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard.

Quoted from Biography, Saturday, March 7, 2020, between 1873 and 1874, Alexander spent days and nights perfecting his harmonic telegraph. But during the course of the experiment, he became interested in another idea, namely the transmission of the human voice over a cable.

The diversion frustrated his donors and Thomas Watson, a skilled electrician, was hired to bring Bell's focus back to the harmonic telegraph. But Thomas Watson got hooked on Alexander's idea of voice transmission and the two made a great duo. Alexander Graham Bell became a man of ideas and Thomas Watson had the skills to make Alexander's ideas come true.

During 1874 and 1875, Bell and Watson worked on harmonic telegraphs and sound transmission devices. Although initially frustrated by the diversion, donors saw the value in voice transmission and filed a patent on the idea. The concept is protected, but the tools still have to be developed. In 1876, Bell and Watson finally succeeded.

One day Alexander nudged the container filled with transmission fluid and screamed. That shout has become a legend until now, namely, 'Mr. Watson, come here, I need you'. It turned out that the voice was transmitting to the wire and was heard by Thomas Watson. This was the first time the phone was used.

With this success, Alexander began promoting the telephone in a series of public demonstrations. At the Centennial Exhibition held in 1876 in Philadelphia, he demonstrated the telephone to the King of Brazil, Dom Pedro, who at that time immediately exclaimed "Oh my God, this can speak!"

In January 1915, Alexander Graham Bell was invited to make the first transcontinental telephone call. From New York, he spoke with former colleague Thomas Watson who was in San Francisco.

Alexander Graham Bell died peacefully on August 2, 1922, at his home in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Shortly after his death, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in honor of his genius who brought more modern life.


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