The history of the phonethe same as the invention of a light bulb or a typewriter. The same idea almost simultaneously struck several worthy gentlemen in the head - Americans Alecandra Bell and Elisha Gray, Englishman Charles Wheatstone, Swiss Charles Boursel, German Johann Ries ... However, only Bell entered the story. On February 14, 1876, he was just two hours ahead of his rival Elisha Gray, the first to patent the "music telegraph", transmitting a human voice over long distances using an electrical impulse. By the way, the first telephone conversation took place much earlier: March 10, 1875. Sitting in the attic, Bell said to his assistant, who was in the office: “Mr. Watson, I want to see you,” and was heard! The first telephone station earned in January 1878. She connected twenty one subscribers to the city of New Haven.
“Hello, young lady!”
The first "telephonists" were not ladies at all, butboys But the work, which required perseverance and considerable patience, did not appeal to teenagers. They played, bullied and messed up equipment. In 1878, the Boston telephone company decided to accept the first woman, a certain Emma Nutt, for a trial period. For some twenty years, the entire industry has completely switched to women's work. The girls were paid a penny - more precisely, seven dollars a week, and the requirements for admission to work were incredible. The pretender was supposed to be single (an attempt to arrange personal happiness ended in dismissal), 17-26 years old, have a height of at least 175 centimeters, and a wide arm span. In Russia, the young lady, moreover, was supposed to be of noble origin! The working day of telephonists lasted 10-11 hours, they worked six days a week. For an hour the young lady had to connect up to 600 calls. 
The first phones were leased out in pairs.Users had to order and pay for the laying of the wire between their houses themselves. Each line connected only two subscribers. In order to call someone third, I had to rent a couple more phones and lay another line. Initially, it was possible to speak only in turns - there was only one wire, and the phone itself looked like a box with a hole in the middle, to which lips were applied in turn. Soon, manufacturers figured out how to lay two wires. Now subscribers could interrupt each other for their pleasure!
Mobile world
Develop cellular technologyThe US military began shortly after World War II. The first mobile call was made in 1973 by an employee of Motorola, which always worked closely with the US Army. However, the first commercial cellular network did not work in America, but in Tokyo. For Americans, mobile communication became available only three years later - and all thanks to the intrigues of bureaucrats! The Federal Communications Commission has delayed the issuance of permits for the use of radio frequencies. The first Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone in the free sale cost $ 3,995. Its memory was designed for 30 numbers, the talk time was 30 minutes, while the time between battery recharging was eight, and the charge time itself was ten hours. Vintage lovers can pamper themselves with this gadget today: the brand new Motorola DynaTAC 8000X in factory packaging can be bought for only $ 400.
XVII — XVIII centuries. Self-respecting lady of the worldcould be published without a fan, which she used both for cooling and for transmitting secret signals. If she touched with an open fan to her left ear, it meant “Be careful, we are being watched,” if she made a closed fan move to the side - “I don't love you!”, Etc. I millennium BC The Egyptians began using pigeons to forward messages. Birds easily traveled 200–300 km. And during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, when telegraph and postal communication with Paris was interrupted, the French completely switched to pigeon mail. The Germans used specially trained hawks to fight pigeons. The 968 year Beijing newspaper (yes, in the 10th century there were already newspapers in China!) Informed its readers about the novelty - a bronze long pipe that allowed people to communicate, even if separated by thick walls. This pipe became the prototype of the modern telephone. The 18th — 19th centuries American Indians transmitted information through the smoke of campfires. Two columns of smoke - victory in battle, one warned that strangers appeared on the tribal territory. However, the generally accepted smoke signal codes did not exist. The 1850s The major of the American Army, Albert Meyer, has developed a signaling system, which is still used by sailors for negotiations between ships. The Mayer system is based on different positions of the hands of a signalman with flags or lanterns in relation to the body: each gesture corresponds to a specific letter.
Telephone passion
Who and when came up with the service "phone sex"unknown In antique shops you can find advertising cards dated by the beginning of the century, on which a young man at one end of the wire asked a playful girl at the other to “tickle” him. Today, phone sex brings the owners of this business about $ 4.5 billion dollars a year. In the 1980s, most American telephone companies were active in this market, taking up to 45% of the cost of a call to themselves. However, in twenty-five years, the Puritan mores in America have become tougher, so most of the operators have abandoned such a tasty business.
Death tube
Good news! Cell phone radiation cannot cause brain cancer: the signal is too weak to cause changes in tissues. But in the plane is better to still listen to the request of the crew and turn off the mobile phone. Cellular signal may disrupt equipment installed on board. For the same reason, it is forbidden to use telephones in the cardiological and surgical departments of hospitals. They do not recommend using mobile people who have a pacemaker sewn in - the bell interrupts the electrical impulses that the device sends to the patient’s heart.
The phone is not for everyone
Nowadays, the phone is not only a meansconnection, but also a landmark accessory, the price of which can reach a million euros. True, choosing a luxurious mobile phone, the buyer pays not so much for the wonders of technical thought, as for a hand-carved of precious wood and a case studded with precious stones. So, Nokia's Vertu mobile phone has long become an indispensable attribute of social status, such as real estate on the Cote d'Azur and the Impressionists collection. Not so long ago, Vertu, together with the jewelry House Boucheron, released a new product - eight Signature Cobra series phones decorated with diamonds and rubies at a price of $ 310,000 per piece. The Swiss company Goldvish, which had long dreamed of pressing Vertu on the market, launched a series of phones with platinum, gold and diamonds, which cost ranges from $ 20,000 to a million euros. Canadian company Mobiada shoves Nokia’s “stuffing” into Honduran rosewood cases. 
However, one of the top managersT-Mobile network recently revealed a terrible secret: super-expensive models, as a rule, are sold poorly and do not bring profit to companies! They, as collections of high fashion, only fuel consumer interest in the brand. Real money brings more affordable prices, albeit not diamond-trimmed novelties - LG phones from Prada, Samsung from Armani and gold Motorola from D & G. Experts predict a great commercial future for the works of famous designers - a soft-touch machine from Timo Wong, futuristic fantasies of Mark Newson, a flexible Nokia 888 from Tamera Nakiski ... Even the stars were noted as phone designers: the manufacturer of handheld computers Palm ordered the design of the top model phone Claudia Schiffer. True, the device did not have commercial success: it turned out that consumers were not ready to overpay for an extra rhinestone on the case.
Eh, apple!
Separate topic - developed by AppleCommunicator iPhone, which Russian users instantly renamed "yablofon." His appearance literally drove crazy American lovers of advanced gadgets, which began to besiege stores a week before the start of official sales. People spent the night in tents, sat for days on folding chairs. Particularly enterprising traded places in the queue at $ 1,200 (with the cost of the apparatus itself $ 600). Lucky only singer Madonna, who first received a communicator as a gift. The apotheosis of the mass insanity was the sale of an empty cardboard box from the iPhone on eBay online auction, which “went away” for $ 305. However, after the first wave of excitement subsided, and users have studied the new product, it became clear that the rumors about the steepness of the iPhone are somewhat exaggerated. It turned out that it is almost impossible to put other programs on it, it is impossible to use any keyboard other than the touchscreen on the screen (therefore, stitching SMS and sending emails is not as easy as we would like), and the device itself is rigidly tied to a specific cellular operator. The hackers came to help the consumer, who quickly made it so that you could insert SIM cards of different operators into your device. Now you can buy a gadget without any queues for only $ 400
