On this day in 1880, the patent for Apparatus for Signaling and Communicating, called “Photophone” was granted. U.S. Patent No. 235,199.
The Apparatus for Signaling and Communicating, called “Photophone” was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, of Washington, D.C. This patent application was granted on December 7, 1880 as U.S. Patent No. 235,199.
Mr. Bell’s invention consists in a method of utilizing radiant energy and of applying it by suitable apparatus to produce audible signals and to produce electric signals.
The rays which proceed from the sun and other similar sources, falling upon various bodies, produce effects generally perceived by the senses as heat or as color. Besides this, and notable when they fall upon the substances, the energy which they are to convey produces in those bodies a change which the sense of touch or the sense of sight has not been able to take notice of. This change condition may be fitly called a “state of strain” and he was able to make it manifest in various ways in different substances.
Mr. Bell’s invention of the telephone has overshadowed this invention but the Photophone has paved the way for so many things that we use now and he considered it his most important invention.
The Photophone was the first wireless communications apparatus to be used; it preceded the invention of the radio by almost 20 years. The Photophone is also recognized as the originator of the modern fiber optic telecommunications system that we currently use to transmit telephone, cable and internet signals across large distances. Mr. Bell did have some frustrations with the Photophone; it would not work at night or when there was inclement weather. But I’m sure most of us have experienced this a time or two, the weather will make your phone and internet not work as well so his frustration is still valid today.
http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/photophone.htm