Telephone

The Story:
Probably no means of communication has revolutionized the daily lives of ordinary people more than the telephone. Simply described, it is a system which converts sound, specifically the human voice, to electrical impulses of various frequencies and then back to a tone that sounds like the original voice. In 1831, Englishman Michael Faraday (1791-1867) proved that vibrations of metal could be converted to electrical impulses. This was the technological basis of the telephone, but no one actually used this system to transmit sound until 1861. In that year, Johann Philip Reis (1834-1874) in Germany is said to have built a simple apparatus that changed sound to electricity and back again to sound. A crude device, it was incapable of transmitting most frequencies, and it was never fully developed.
A practical telephone was actually invented independently by two men working in the United States, Elisha Gray and Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell. Incredibly, both men filed for a patent on their designs at the New York patent office on February 14, 1876, with Bell beating Gray by only two hours!  Although Gray had built the first steel diaphragm / electromagnet receiver in 1874, he wasn’t able to master the design of a workable transmitter until after Bell had. Bell had worked tirelessly, experimenting with various types of mechanisms, while Gray had become discouraged.

According to the famous story, the first fully intelligible telephone call occurred on March 6, 1876, when Bell, in one room, called to his assistant in another room. “Come here, Watson, I want you.”

Watson heard the request through a receiver connected to the transmitter that Bell had designed, and what followed after that is a history of the founding of the Bell Telephone Company (later AT&T), which grew to be the largest telephone company in the world.

The first telephone system, known as an exchange, which is a practical means of communicating between many people who have telephones, was installed in Hartford, Connecticut in 1877, and the first exchange linking two major cities was established between New York and Boston in 1883. The first exchange outside the United States was built in London in 1879. The exchange involved a group of operators working at a large switchboard. The operators would answer an incoming telephone call and connect it manually to the party being called. The first automatic telephone exchange was patented by Almon Strowger of Kansas City in 1891 and installed in 1892, but manual switchboards remained in common use until the middle of the twentieth century

Obama eyes history

As voters in the last two states, Montana and South Dakota, wrapped up the gruelling coast-to-coast Democratic nominating marathon, Clinton faced the demise of her own historic quest to be the first woman president.

The only questions remaining in the Democratic race were whether Obama would reach the mathematical winning post of 2 118 delegates by late on Tuesday and whether Clinton would formally fold her campaign and endorse her fierce rival.

Regardless, Illinois Senator Obama (46) planned to train his full fire on potential general election rival John McCain, with a raid into the same Minnesota sports arena where Republicans will crown their nominee in September.

Clinton was, meanwhile, headed back to her home state in New York, prompting speculation she would abandon her campaign, which has garnered nearly 17-million votes, at a “celebration” event in Manhattan on Tuesday night.

Obama, the former community organiser who has scaled the heights of United States politics after just three years in the Senate, already had an eye on healing his party after a nominating duel that cleaved it down the middle.

He divulged some of the content of his congratulatory telephone call to the former first lady, after her thumping win in the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday, which boosted her morale but could not dent his control of the race.

“I emphasised to her what an extraordinary race she’s run and said that there aren’t too many people who understand exactly how hard she’s been working — I’m one of them,” Obama told reporters in Michigan.

He said he told his 60-year-old rival that “once the dust settled” he was ready to meet her at a time and place of her choosing.

Crime Report

NEW YORK (AP) — The mother of a 7-year-old girl was convicted of manslaughter Friday for doing nothing to help as the tiny malnourished child lay dying on the floor of their apartment, severely beaten by her stepfather.

The verdict closes a case that hastened reforms in New York’s child welfare agency and made the girl’s name, Nixzmary Brown, synonymous with child abuse.

Nixzaliz Santiago was convicted of the same charge as her husband, Cesar Rodriguez, even though he delivered the fatal blow that killed the girl, punished after she was caught stealing yogurt.

Brooklyn jurors deliberated three days before convicting Santiago in the January 2006 death.

“The journey for justice for Nixzmary Brown is almost over,” said Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh, who prosecuted both of Nixzmary’s parents. “Today is a good day for the children, because this jury said loud and clearly that parents have a duty. … It’s not just what you do; it’s what you don’t do.”

Santiago, like her husband, was acquitted of murder but convicted on several lesser counts, including assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Rodriguez was convicted in March and is serving 29 years in prison.

Both trials raised questions of whether mothers should be held to a higher standard than fathers. Prosecutors argued that Santiago shockingly failed to protect her child and didn’t seek help until hours after the girl had died.