Title: The History of the Telephone
Headings: The History of Communication Technology

Content: It could actually be considered the greatest invention of the nineteenth century. It not only made communicating with others who were miles away much quicker, it also spawned the growth of many businesses since it made communication much easier. Surprisingly, there were two people in the running to patent the telephone, not just one person as the majority of people believe. In the 1870s, two relatively unheard of inventors of this time, Alexander Graham Bell and the less known Elisha Gary, both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. This would later be known as the telephone, of course. Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, but Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which as most people know, Bell won. Some of the first telephones
The telephone was actually discovered by Bell accidentally in his attempts to improve the telegraph. The telegraph was a highly successful system with its dot-and-dash Morse code, but it was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time.