Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Telephone

• History
• Operation of the telephone
• Wireless telephone systems

The word telephone comes from two Greek words, tele, meaning "distant," and phone, meaning "sound." Thus, a telephone is a device for carrying sounds over long distances. Many children are familiar with toy telephones that can be made with two tin cans joined by a taunt string or thin wire. When one person speaks into one can, sound vibrations are carried along the string or wire from the speaker's can to the listener's can. If the listener then places his or her ear next to the receiving can, the sound vibrations are converted back to an audible signal.

History

The first working telephone appears to have been invented by German inventor Johann Philipp Reis (1834–1874) in 1863. Reis...