Post 2: The telephone

It seems that we often take the mystery of the telephone for granted. Like most technologies that we grow up with, we accept them as if they were just as natural and normal as the act of speaking itself. However, to look at the telephone from the perspective of those people who were around at the telephone’s conception, this piece of everyday technology is quite interesting.
Before the telephone was the telegram. Before the telegram there was the simple act of writing letters and sending messages via the written word. Now we have cell phones, text messaging, and email that instantly send information from one point to another in what seems to be no time at all. All of these developments are a part of our society and culture, but, if viewed from the perspective of those living before these advancements, these inventions would seem like they have come out of an out of this world novel by some crazy writer.
The telephone seems like such a simple device. It transmits audio from one area to another. This seems so simple and even natural to those living today. Everyday we verbally communicate over small and great distances. We find nothing fantastical about speaking with a person who may be located on the opposite side of the globe. However, from those living around its debut, even from the perspective of the telephone’s inventor Alexander Graham Bell, being able to communicate from one room to another using this device was absolutely astounding.
As this technology changed and evolved, people kept being amazed at this piece or equipment. Soon people were being able to speak to each other from different parts of their town. Then after that, people were able to go to special booths to make long-distance calls, which had the best technology that could connect people who were many miles apart. From there, the telephone developed and changed shapes into the integral communication device that we are familiar with today.