The Telephone

Information report4GK 2010

Telephones are

devices for

communicating

sound, especially

speech.

Tele- means long

distances and -phono

means sound, voice

or speech.

The telephones people

use came about from a

device invented by

Alexander Graham Bell

in 1876.

Although Bell is

recognised as the

inventor, many others

attempted to produce

such a device.Image: ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL IN 3-D

By Okinawa Soba under a Creative Commons License Some rights reserved

Telephones are an important invention as they save people time when they need to communicate with someone in a hurry, over long distances.

Mailing a letter may take two weeks to reach another person. A telephone is instant.

Telephones are made using plastic and metal.

They come in many different colours such as black, silver, grey and cream.

The body of the telephone contains numbered keys 0 – 9.

A coiled wire protrudes from the side of the phone and is attached to the handset, which sits on the switch hooks.

At one end of the handset is the receiver and at the other end is the transmitter. Both the receiver and transmitter have holes punched into the plastic.

Inside the body of the

telephone is a circuit board.

Wires from the circuit board

are attached to the handset,

switch hook, keypad and wall

outlet.

Wires from the wall outlet are

attached to the wires in the

local telecommunications

system. In this way, the voice

is transmitted along wires to

another person who also has

this equipment.

When a call has to be made, the handset is lifted from the cradle and the receiver end is placed on the caller’s ear.

The transmitter is placed near the caller’s mouth.

The caller enters the other person’s telephone number by pressing the numbers on the keypad.

This sends an electric signal through the wires to the phone at the other end, which then rings.

Upon hearing the telephone

ring, the person receiving the

telephone call must pick up

their handset in order to

communicate with the caller.

These days are many different types of telephones, for example cordless phones and mobile phones.