I have heard that there is a lot of hype around the seventh-ish version of Apple’s telephone. I’m sorry to be so frank, but I don’t understand why every technology website (including Gizmodo) is covering it. Actually, telephones have existed for hundreds of years.
Alexander Graham Bell may have invented the telephone in 1875, but the first phone installation didn't come about for another three years. And that's what makes these photos from 1887 so incredible; this tangled mass of telephone wires had already wound itself around New York City's streets just seven years after that…
In 1899, the inventor of the telephone set out to solve another problem: The airplane. He failed miserably. Really, really miserably. But this summer, a team of architects and engineers have resurrected his 106-year-old design for a flying machine for a very different purpose: As a model for floating, solar-powered…
Euphonia was a bizarre sight to behold: a machine bearing a disembodied woman's head attached to bellows that reportedly spoke with a "sepulchral" voice. But it was also the most advanced talking machine of its day, one that may have links to the invention of the telephone.
Researchers from the Smithsonian have restored a 128 year-old recording of Alexander Graham Bell's voice from a wax-and-cardboard disc. It's our first opportunity to hear what the famous inventor actually sounded like.
It's not often you get to hear with the 19th century sounded like, but thanks to 3D scanning and old wax cylinders, it's possible. And now, for the very first time, we know what Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the all-important telephone, might have sounded like when he made that historic call.
National Geographic has launched a new Tumblr, called Found, which showcases some of the most weird and wonderful shots from the magazine's archive—and it has some amazing photographs online already.
Crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great for bands trying to finance an album or independent filmmakers hoping to shoot a movie. But it’s interesting to see these alternative finance tools being used more and more for projects that are often associated with large public institutions — namely,…
In the 1880s, Alexander Graham Bell and his associates at Washington, DC's Volta Laboratory experimented with different methods of audio recording. These 19th century audio engineers immortalized snippets of nursery rhymes and a Shakespearean soliloquy to wax discs.
Alexander Graham Bell, father of the telephone, was also a huge fan of tetrahedrals—building everything from boats to planes out of the pyramid-shaped structures. This massive kite—built by the Queen and Crawford design house—brings Bell's tetrahedral ideals into the 21st Century.
Alexander Graham Bell. Genius. Father of the telephone. Hardcore tetrahedral nut. Our friends at Oobject have assembled 12 of his best pyramid-shaped wonders.
When you get through here, check out these famous laboratories, these nine odd Edison inventions, and these 15 myths about the founding fathers' inventions.
I'm so depressed. I google one of the most important technologies ever invented, and I get a video of 25-year-old wearing sunglasses made out of cigarettes. Two versions of it before Alexander Graham Bell is even mentioned.
The ostensible topic of Seth Shulman's new book, The Telephone Gambit, is how Alexander Graham Bell cheated his way into owning the phone patent. Apparently Bell copied research from his chief rival for the lucrative patent, Elisha Gray. This revelation isn't particularly stunning in our era of patent litigation and…
