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Why do we have telecommunications?
- We all need to tell other people what we’re thinking.
- We use telecommunications to help our thoughts fly to others – almost anywhere.
- If your thoughts had wings, how fast would you want them to fly? How many people would you want to reach? How much would you want to pay?
Travel with us from the mid-1800s to the future to see how
telecommunications changes our lives and our world.
(click to enter the exhibit!)
Interviews and Press
Channel 9 ran a piece on the physical version of this exhibit. Watch it below!
It was also featured in an interview with John Shea for Comcast Newsmakers (note that this is a large file, so it may be slow to load/stream):
NPR interviewed THG Director Jody Georgeson. That MP3 can be found
by clicking here.
Exhibit Photos
We currently have two photo albums available (they open in a new window, offsite):
Honorary Exhibit Committee
Linda Alvarado, President, Alvarado Construction, Chair
Richard D. McCormick President, US West, retired
Dr. Tom Noel, Professor, University of Colorado - Denver
Karen Rokala, President, Denver Library Commission
Larry Satkowiak, President and CEO, The Cable Center
Robert K. Timothy, President, Mountain Bell, retired
Sponsors
We are grateful to our exhibit sponsors:
Contributors to Telecommunications Technology
Artist Allen True created a border for the Wings of Thought mural (pictured) with names of inventors whose work supported the development of telecommunications through 1929, the time of the painting.
Thomas B. Doolittle (1839-1921): Doolittle invented hard copper wire. Copper wire, a good conductor of electricity, is mechanically weak. Iron wire is strong but not a very good conductor. He created the first hard-drawn copper wire made tough-skinned by a simple process. This hard wire, used for line wire, vastly extended the range of telephone transmission.
Charles E. Scribner (1858-1926): Scribner spent 30 years devoted to the creation of the switchboard, the "brain" of the telephone system in 1929. Of the 9,000 switchboard patents, he held 600 or more.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922): Bell invented the telephone in 1876 as a by-product of his intense interest in teaching the deaf to speak. His invention, patented on his 29th birthday, consisted of two instruments similar in principle to 1929 receivers. (See a prototype of his telephone at the end of the exhibit.)
Thomas A. Watson (1854-1934): Watson was Bell’s able assistant when the telephone was invented. He constructed the first telephone instruments and heard the first words ever transmitted by telephone: “Watson, come here. I want you.”
Lee De Forest (1873-1961): In 1906 De Forest invented the Audion vacuum tube that allowed the ability to talk from this continent to almost any point in Europe. It also was used to develop the radio broadcasting industry.
John Joseph Carty (1861-1932): Carty became famous for trouble-shooting technical problems in the telephone system. His solutions include: the first metallic multiple switchboard, a system to mitigate noise and cross talk on telephone lines, the first transcontinental telephone circuit, the Washington-Boston underground cable, and the first wireless transmission from Arlington, Virginia to Hawaii and Paris.
Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931): Among his many discoveries and inventions, Edison developed a relatively powerful transmitter with carbon as the active element. He invented the phonograph and the kinetophone, a form of talking motion pictures.
Michael I. Pupin (1858-1935): Pupin invented the loading coil that extended the range of transmission many times greater than the original circuit, making possible a transcontinental telephone circuit. It allowed a fine copper wire to do the work of heavier and more expensive wire, saving nearly $40 per mile of wire.
Click here to move to the next page of this exhibit, or use the following links to jump to rooms in this exhibit. Hover over the links for short descriptions of each page.
Before Telecommunications, First Telecommunications (1800-1863)
Telephones Invented, Spread (1876-1928)
A Phone in Every Home (1929-1981)
Thoughts Fly Around the World (1984-present)
What's Next?
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