Throughout history, communication has changed a great deal. From the invention of the phone, to the cell phone, and to the smartphone. The revolutions in communication have changed daily life, allowing basically anyone to communicate. In March of 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented his idea for the telephone. Bell was a professor in speech and vocal physiology, as he taught the deaf. That sparked his fascination with the human voice. Graham said, “If I could make a current of electricity vary in intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the production of sound, I should be able to transmit speech telegraphically” (History.com). Elisha Gray impeded upon Bell’s success because he claimed to truly be the inventor of the telephone. After legal work, it was made clear that Alexander Graham Bell was the actual inventor. …show more content…
He proposed that radio towers arranged in a hexagonal pattern could support a telephone network. His design used low power transmitters to carry calls and the calls moved from tower to tower. Young’s phones, called radio telephones, acted like walkie talkies and could weigh up to 80 pounds. It took decades to build cellular networks and lower production costs. AT&T used radio telephones, but only a few calls could be made at a time. Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel, two engineers from Bell Labs, developed technology that could support Young’s design. Bell Labs was AT&T’s rival in the race for cell phones. Martin Cooper of AT&T created the first cell phone, the Motorola Dynatac, in 1973. The Motorola Dynatac was nine inches long and weighed two and a half pounds. The first call on a cell phone was to Joel Engel, Cooper’s rival. This was a revolution in communication because it allowed people to call their friends and family wherever they were ("Who Invented the Cell Phone?" HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, n.d. Web. 02 May