Why was the telephone invented?

Why the Telephone Was Invented

Here are opinions and answers from FAQ Farmers:

• The straightest answer to the literal form of this question would be 'Because we could'. From the Latin 'tele'(at a distance) and 'phon'(sound), we might deduct that someone thought it might be a good idea to either hear sounds at a distance, or to make someone at a distance hear a sound they made. Not merely sounds, but speech... to talk to someone at a distance. Conveying a message over great distances has always been of interest to anyone controlling an army or anyone else wanting to know what was going on somewhere else. Of course, these days, it's hard to imagine a time when we could concentrate on something or simply 'chill' without being interrupted by some idiot trying to sell us something on the phone, or drive along a highway without some glassy-eyed soccer mom weaving in and out of traffic while babbling mindlessly on a cellphone. Waaay back there, though, there was a time when a telephone call was important.

• This depends a lot on who you credit for the invention of the telephone. It is my personal belief that the telephone was first invented by Antonio Meucci somewhat serendipitously; Meucci worked in an electroplating workshop and experimented with the use of electro shock therapy in treating headaches, legend has it that during a treatment he heard the patients screams transmitted along the copper wires.

• Mrs. Bell was deaf and Mr. Bell was allways trying to help those who could not hear. The telephone was one of his attempts to create a device for the deaf, to assist their ability to hear.

• Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone so that people can communicate with other people anywhere in world.

• He discovered the possibility of the telephone by mistake. Bell was working in his office, most likely with electrical wires, with his helper working in the office next to him. He happened to hear or notice the vibration of his helper's voice waves from the wires he was working on and that was the birth of the idea for the telephone.

• Bell did not invent the telephone. It was invented by Elisha Grey, Bell was just the first to submit his "invention" for a patent.

• To facilitate verbal communication over long distances.

• In 2002, the US Congress recognised Antonio Meucci as the inventor of the telephone and not Alexander Graham Bell. Bell found fortune and fame by stealing another man's work. He had access to Meucci's materials and took out a patent 16 years after Meucci demonstrated his invention. Meucci could not afford the $250 needed for a definitive patent for his "talking telegraph" so in 1871 filed a one-year renewable notice of an impending patent. Three years later he could not even afford the $10 to renew it. He sent a model and technical details to the Western Union telegraph company but failed to win a meeting with executives. When he asked for his materials to be returned, in 1874, he was told they had been lost. Two years later Bell, who shared a laboratory with Meucci, filed a patent for a telephone, became a celebrity and made a lucrative deal with Western Union.

• Google search for the answer.

• He invented the telephone because he is an inventor and he wanted to find a way how to communicate with other people apart from talking to them face-to-face.

• Bell did to invent the telephone.

• Bell originally started looking into the telephone as a way to speak to the spirit world. As with many inventors and inventions of the age, there seemed to be a great belief in spirits and the need to communicate with them so that items such as radio waves, telephones and televisions all started out as a means of communication with the other world.

First answer by Mike. Last edit by Sh0151. Contributor trust: 74 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 194 [recommend question]