James Cromwell, age 10, of Providence, R.I., for his question:
WHO INVENTED THE TELEPHONE?
A Scotsman who came to the United States in 1871 invented the telephone in 1874 and finally succeeded in speaking words over it on March 10, 1876. His name was Alexander Graham Bell.
"Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." These were the first words ever spoken over a telephone. They came from Bell and were directed to his assistant, Thomas Watson, who was in the next room when the first successful test was made.
Bell exhibited the telephone at the centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in June 1876. But the public showed little interest in the new invention until after Bell made his first two way long distance call. He and Watson spoke between Boston and Cambridge, Mass., a distance of about two miles.
Bell was 29 years old when his basic telephone patent was granted in 1876.
Bell had been a teacher of the deaf. His invention of the telephone was the result of many years of scientific training. He gained a knowledge of the way sounds of speech and music are produced and heard.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847, young Bell worked with his father, who had invented "Visible Speech," a code of symbols which indicated the position of the throat, tongue and lips in making sounds. When his two brothers died of tuberculosis, the elder Bell moved the family to Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
In 1872 young Bell opened a school in Boston for teachers of the deaf and the following year he became a professor at Boston University. He became a U.S. citizen in 1882.
The telephone uses electricity to carry sound. The word "telephone" comes from two Greek words: "tele," meaning "far," and "phone meaning "sound."
Today, more than 300 million telephones serve people in every part of the world.
About two fifths of the world's telephones are used in the United States today. Japan ranks second in the number of telephones in service with Great Britain coming up in third place.
Alexander Graham Bell's great invention provides the most common means of talking to people at any distance. And there have been many improvements on the system since Bell's time.
The first communications satellite was called Echo One. It was a 10 story high balloon of aluminized plastic that was launched by the U.S. in 1960. It reflected signals across the U.S. and the Atlantic.
A series of satellites in stationary orbits helped to provide the first global telephone relay network in 1969. The satellites were powered by solar cells. One system is made up of three satellites that can transmit 36,000 telephone calls simultaneously.