We take telephone services completely for granted these
days. That's because they are so reliable and of such
excellent quality.
You can pick up your telephone, enter some numbers and
very quickly be connected to anyone anywhere in the world.
Once connected, you can hold a two way (or more in
conference) conversation.
Less than 100 years ago it could take several weeks to
have a written message delivered to someone. Now, it's
instant talk! Until you really think about this you won't
realise just how amazing your telephone service really
is.
The technology that makes the telephone possible is
virtually unchanged since it was invented. So much so, you
could even install an early 20th century handset straight
into your current wall connection, and it should work.
A simple telephone handset consists of a switch, a
speaker, and a microphone.
The switch, commonly called a hook switch, is what
connects and disconnects the phone from the telephone
network, and is usually part of the cradle that holds the
hand piece.
The speaker, which is not of a very high quality, is
where you place your ear to listen to both sides of your
conversation, which is projected via your microphone.
There is usually also a bell which rings to notify an
incoming call.
In older telephones it was usual to dial your outbound
number with a rotary device. You could also use your hook
switch to dial by rapidly jiggling it the right number of
times for each digit you want. This is called 'pulse
dialling'.
Pulse dialling, although generally superseded by 'tone
dialling', is still in use in some less developed
countries.
Modern telephones, whilst still rather 'simple' in
concept, employ slightly different components. They still
include a microphone, speaker, and hook. The microphone is
generally electronic and uses an amplifier to improve voice
quality.
To block the annoying sound of your own voice through
the speaker of the older type phones, a duplex coil is
used. The mechanical bell is replaced by a speaker and
circuit board to generate a softer ringing tone.
The touch tone phone includes a keypad on which you
enter your destination number and a frequency generator to
create the tones which are recognised as numbers by the
service switch.
So, whilst the basic components have been improved with
more modern technology, the telephone today remains
essentially the same as when it first made its appearance
over 100 years ago. Isn't that an amazing thing!!
This article was researched
and written by Ron Simonsen, Managing Director of Callsave
Pty Ltd. Callsave is a Telecommunications service
provider of long
distance telephone calls, specialising
in cheap
long distance calls within Australia and cheap calls
to International destinations. Their website is
at http://www.callsave.com.au
You
can email
Ron at
ron@callsave.com.au
© 2008
Callsave Pty Ltd
