Imagine a world, in which the only way to communicate an urgent message was to send a messenger on horseback with a letter, and wait for the messengers return, hopefully with a reply. Today, may decisions are made in a matter of seconds because we are able to pick up a cell phone anywhere, and talk to anyone.
The telephone is a fairly recent invention. It is about 150 years old. Before this letters were the only form of communication, and it was difficult to make plans with others. Usually, socializing occurred when someone dropped by and hoped the occupant was there. A lot of walking took place. Today, we can call someone and ask them to join you for lunch in 30 minutes. We can then call on the way and say that we are running late.
This infobraphic, found on visual.ly portrays the history of the telephone, Beginning with Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone, all the way up to IOS 6. It gives little tidbits of information about each major innovation in the telephone, and its impact. Explore with your class the technology and science that had to be discovered in order for each new advancement to occur. Also, what were the social demands? There have been plenty of other such inventions, but why did those fizzle out. For instance, ask why we not longer use morse code. Why is it obsolete. What happened to make it obsolete?
Blog: http://visual.ly/evolution-telephone