

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be granted a United States patent for a device that produced clearly intelligible replication of the human voice at a second device. A common short form of the term is phone, which came into use early in the telephone's history. The term is derived from Greek: τῆλε ( tēle, far) and φωνή ( phōnē, voice), together meaning distant voice. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces the sound to the receiving user.

AT&T push button telephone made by Western Electric, model 2500 DMG black, 1980Ī telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly.
