Title: Watch The Telephone | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
Headings: Newsletter
The Telephone
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American Experience
Newsletter

Content: Watch The Telephone | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
The Telephone
Credits
Transcript
Aired February 3, 1997
The Telephone
Film Description
Thomas Edison called it an invention that "annihilated time and space and brought the human family in closer touch." President Rutherford B. Hayes deemed it "one of the greatest events since creation." "The Telephone," is the story of an invention that forever changed the way the world interacts. From the earliest, most primitive instruments to the first coast-to-coast call, Academy Award-nominated producers Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon detail the wiring of America. Using never-before-seen still photographs and archival sound and film footage to evoke a sense of the nation at the turn of the twentieth century, "The Telephone" conveys the power of the invention and its overarching impact on American life. Alexander Graham Bell reluctantly presented his new device at America's Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He didn't believe the world would be interested in his invention until he witnessed the startled and astonished reactions of the Exposition scientists and judges, one of whom declared Bell's invention the most amazing thing he had seen in America. Within a year of the centennial exhibition, Bell had installed 230 phones and had established the Bell Telephone Company. Four years after its creation, there were 60,000 phones; by the turn of the century there were two million.