Telephone History

1. Connect to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/gallery/gallery1.html

2. You are about to enter an online history museum. Here, you will see the first telephones, and watch how telephones have changed over the years. Right now, you are on page one, looking at a phone from 1877. How do you think it worked?

3. Look at the page numbers at the bottom of the page. Click on 2 to continue to the next page, which will show you a phone from the year 1913. Continue to click through the pages one by one to see how the telephone has changed over the years. Stop when you reach page 10.

4. The telephone's design changed the most when the headset was invented, and when the cordless telephone was invented. Look back at the pages to figure out which year the headset was invented, and which year the cordless phone was invented.

5. Write a paragraph explaining how the online photographs support your answers.

For additional information on the history of the telephone, go to: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/kidszone/history_cellphone.html