1870-19201876 - Telephone is patented by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell wins the patent, but his model was an improved one over Italian designer Antonio Meucci's very basic version from 1849. See Video at bottom.
1877 - Phonograph (Record Player) is patented and brings a wider variety of music to the home. Prior to this concerts and playing instruments were the few venues available for listening to music. 1879 - Modern version of the light bulb is patented in 1879 1885 - American Bell Telephone Company becomes AT&T. AT&T starts aiming for a monopoly, criticizing American infrastructure and communications in order to lower stock prices of communications companies. This allows AT&T to purchase them at a lower rate. 1890's - Guglielmo Marconi comes up with the idea of being able to transmit messages over the airs, basically creating a wireless telegraph service. 1895 - Marconi creates a working prototype of his radio and is able to send messages to places over a kilometer away. 1897 - Marconi manages to be the first person to patent his device, despite competition from U.S.A. and Russia. 1900 - 600,000 Telephones Networked to Bell/AT&T. This demonstrates the massive boom for Bell's business. 1905 - 2.2 Million Telephones Networked. 1910 - 5.8 Million Telephones Networked. This represents nearly all of the Telephones networked in the United States as AT&T establishes a near monopoly. 1913 - AT&T is granted a "regulated" monopoly on telecommunications in U.S.A., which will be paused during World War I (when telephone lines are nationalized) but resumed during the period of 1934-1984. 1914 - Reginald Fessenden develops radio that can broadcast voices over long distances. This is quickly picked up by the U.S. Military and the patents are held by the Navy. 1915 - The transcontinental telephone line is set up, allowing calls from New York to San Francisco. 1919 - Marconi's resources are sold off and RCA (Radio Corporation of America, later NBC) was formed. By early 1920's there were well over 500 broadcasters in the U.S., the radio boom had begun. Return to Home |