Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: When were telephones first used in homes?
11 February 1876: Elisha Gray invents a liquid transmitter for use with a telephone, but he did not make one. 14 February 1876, about 9:30 am: Gray or his lawyer brings Gray's patent caveat for the telephone to the Washington, D.C. Patent Office (a caveat was a notice of intention to file a patent application. It was like a patent application, but without a request for examination, for the purpose of notifying the patent office of a possible invention in process). 14 February 1876, about 11:30 am: Bell's lawyer brings to the same patent office Bell's patent application for the telephone. Bell's lawyer requests that it be registered immediately in the cash receipts blotter. 14 February 1876, about 1:30 pm: Approximately two hours later Elisha Gray's patent caveat is registered in the cash blotter. Although his caveat was not a full application, Gray could have converted it into a patent application and contested Bell's priority, but did not do so because of advice from his lawyer and his involvement with acoustic telegraphy. The result was that the patent was awarded to Bell.[5] 7 March 1876: Bell's U.S. Patent, No. 174,465 for the telephone is granted. 10 March 1876: Bell first successfully transmits speech, saying "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" using a liquid transmitter as described in Gray's caveat, and Bell's own electromagnetic receiver. 16 May 1876: Thomas Edison files first patent application for acoustic telegraphy for which U.S. patent 182,996 was granted October 10, 1876. 25 June 1876: Bell exhibits his telephone at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where it draws enthusiastic reactions from Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil and Lord Kelvin, attracting the attention of the press and resulting in the first announcements of the invention to the general public. 10 August 1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the world's first long-distance telephone call, over a distance of about 6 miles, between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, Canada. 1876: Hungarian Tivadar Puskas invents the telephone switchboard exchange (later working with Edison). 9 October 1876: Bell makes the first two-way long-distance telephone call between Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. October 1876: Edison tests his first carbon microphone. 1877: The first experimental Telephone Exchange in Boston. 20 January 1877: Edison "first [succeeds] in transmitting over wires many articulated sentences" using carbon granules as a pressure-sensitive varying resistance under the pressure of a diaphragm.[6] 30 January 1877: Bell's U.S. Patent No. 186,787 is granted for an electromagnetic telephone using permanent magnets, iron diaphragms, and a call bell. 4 March 1877: Emile Berliner invents a microphone based on "loose contact" between two metal electrodes, an improvement on Reis' Telephone, and in April 1877 files a caveat of an invention in process. April 1877: A telephone line connects the workshop of Charles Williams, Jr., located in Boston, to his house in Somerville, Massachusetts at 109 Court Street in Boston, where Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson had previously experimented with their telephone. The telephones became No. 1 and 2 in the Bell Telephone Company.[7] 27 April 1877: Edison files telephone patent applications. U.S. patents (Nos. 474,230, 474,231 and 474,232) were awarded to Edison in 1892 over the competing claims of Alexander Graham Bell, Emile Berliner, Elisha Gray, Amos Dolbear, J.W. McDonagh, G.B. Richmond, W.L.W. Voeker, J.H. Irwin and Francis Blake Jr.[8] Edison's carbon granules transmitter and Bell's electromagnetic receiver are used, with improvements, by the Bell system for many decades thereafter.[9] 4 June 1877: Emile Berliner files telephone patent application that includes a carbon microphone transmitter. 9 July 1877: The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint-stock company, is organized by Alexander Graham Bell's future father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a lawyer who becomes its first president. 6 October 1877: the Scientific American publishes the invention from Bell – at that time still without a ringer. 25 October 1877: the article in the Scientific American is discussed at the Telegraphenamt in Berlin 12 November 1877: The first commercial telephone company enters telephone business in Friedrichsberg close to Berlin[10] using the Siemens pipe as ringer and telephone devices build by Siemens. 1 December 1877: Western Union enters the telephone business using Edison's superior carbon microphone transmitter. 28 January 1878: The first commercial North American telephone exchange is opened in New Haven, Connecticut. 4 February 1878: Edison demonstrates the telephone between Menlo Park, New Jersey and Philadelphia, a distance of 210 kilometres (130mi). 14 June 1878: The Telephone Company (Bell's Patents) Ltd. is registered in London. Opened in London on 21 August 1879, it is Europe's first telephone exchange, followed a couple of weeks later by one in Manchester.[11] 12 September 1878: the Bell Telephone Company sues Western Union for infringing Bell's patents. 1878: The first Australian telephone trials were made between Semaphore and Kapunda (and later Adelaide and Port Adelaide) in South Australia.[12]
Burbank's first telephone exchange, or telephone switch, was established in August 1900, becoming the first in the San Fernando Valley. Within 5 years, there were several telephone exchanges in the Valley and became known as the San Fernando Valley Home Telephone Company, based in Glendale. Home Telephone competed with Tropico, and in 1918 both were taken over by Pacific Telephone Company. At this time, there were an estimated 300 hand-cranked telephones in Burbank.
Cost-cutting measures resulted in the consumer telephones being redesigned and modernized in 1985, as well as more plastic being used in place of metal in the 500 & 2500 series phones, as well as the Princess. In 1986, the Indianapolis Works telephone plant closed, and US production of AT&T single-line home telephones ended. Business telephones and systems continued production in the Shreveport Works plant until 2001. Home telephones were redesigned, and production was moved to Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Thailand. Western Electric no longer marked housings of telephones with "WE", but continued to mark the modular plugs of telephone cords with "WE".
The Los Angeles area was also served by a competitor, The Home Telephone Co., which began offering automatic (dial) service in 1902. The Sunset Telephone Co. subscribers were able to make local and long distance calls via the Bell System, but Home Telephone Co. customers could make only local calls to other Home customers. To reach both exchanges, businesses were required to pay for a line from each company. In 1916, under pressure from local politicians and subscribers, Sunset Telephone Co. agreed to acquire the Home Company's operations. The new entity was called The Southern California Telephone Co. The two company's operations were fully integrated in 1918.
The earliest telephones had only one wire for both transmitting and receiving of audio, and used a ground return path, as was found in telegraph systems. The earliest dynamic telephones also had only one opening for sound, and the user alternately listened and spoke (rather, shouted) into the same hole. Sometimes the instruments were operated in pairs at each end, making conversation more convenient but also more expensive.
At first, the benefits of a "switchboard" exchange were not exploited. Instead, telephones were leased in pairs to the subscriber, for example one for his home and one for his shop, and the subscriber had to arrange with telegraph contractors to construct a line between them. Users who wanted the ability to speak to three or four different shops, suppliers etc. would obtain and set up three or four pairs of telephones. Western Union, already using telegraph exchanges, quickly extended the principle to its telephones in New York City and San Francisco, and Bell was not slow in appreciating the potential.
Morse Code telegraph had been operating since 1859 but over the next 19 years a workable voice telephone had been introduced overseas and in main cities of Australia and was slowly supplementing and replacing the telegraph. In 1878 trials of voice communication using a telephone were conducted by the Bathurst Telegraph station master. The existing telegraph wires were used for the trials between the towns and temporary telephone instruments connected at each end. The following quote from a contemporary newspaper details the events...
The earliest telephone services were installed as point to point systems. That is from a telephone in one premise of a company to a second telephone in a separate property. The idea of linking multiple telephones via switchboards to become a network was to come later. One such isolated private system was the first use of telephones in Bathurst. The following article in the local newspaper reports of the first telephone.
A/S Københavns Telefonkiosker (old spelling: A/S Kjøbenhavns Telefonkiosker), often referred to as KTK, was an operator of staffed telephone kiosks in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first telephone kiosks were installed in 1896 to an Art Nouveau-influenced National Romantic design by Fritz Koch. A new and somewhat larger model was introduced in 1913 but Koch's original design was again used when a number of new telephone kiosks were installed in 1929.
The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "talk with electricity" by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. The first words transmitted were "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you." 
This event has been called Bell's "greatest success", as it demonstrated the first successful use of the telephone. Although it was his greatest success, he refused to have one in his own home because it was something he invented by mistake and saw it as a distraction from his main studies.
Prior to the invention of the telephone switchboard, pairs of telephones were connected directly with each other, which was primarily useful for connecting a home to the owner's business (They practically functioned as a primitive intercom). A telephone exchange provides telephone service for a small area. Either manually by operators, or automatically by machine switching equipment, it interconnects individual subscriber lines for calls made between them. This made it possible for subscribers to call each other at homes, businesses, or public spaces. These made telephony an available and comfortable communication tool for many purposes, and it gave the impetus for the creation of a new industrial sector.
A strict telephone usage policy was applied rigidly throughout the organization. The pager messages were encoded to prevent easy tracing of the telephones used, all of which were public telephones. When pages were returned with a phone call no names were supposed to be used, and if a name was used, the speaker was rebuked. A separate code was used for resupply signals, which involved turning the pager display upside down. When the police catch on to this method, the Barksdales start using disposable cell phones that are constantly replaced to avoid being wiretapped.
Network effects were a central theme in the arguments of Theodore Vail, the first post-patent president of Bell Telephone, in gaining a monopoly on US telephone services. In 1908, when he presented the concept in Bell's annual report, there were over 4,000 local and regional telephone exchanges, most of which were eventually merged into the Bell System.
Shortly after the invention of the telephone attempts were made to adapt the technology for military use. Telephones were already being used to support military campaigns in British India and in British colonies in Africa in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In the United States telephone lines connected fortresses with each other and with army headquarters. They were also used for fire control at fixed coastal defence installations. The first telephone for use in the field was developed in the United States in 1889 but it was too expensive for mass production. Subsequent developments in several countries made the field telephone more practicable. The wire material was changed from iron to copper, devices for laying wire in the field were developed and systems with both battery-operated sets for command posts and hand generator sets for use in the field were developed. The first purposely-designed field telephones were used by the British in the Second Boer War. They were used more extensively in the Russo-Japanese War, where all infantry regiments and artillery divisions on both sides were equipped with telephone sets. By the First World War the use of field telephones was widespread.
The telephone numbering plans implemented by telephone companies did not follow any standard practice until the North American Numbering Plan was created by AT&T in 1947. The first automated dial exchanges in the Bell System were deployed in 1919. When seven-digit telephone numbers were first assigned in New York in 1920, the three-letter four-number (3L-4N) system had represented the number in the format "PENnsylvania 5000". Similar systems were used in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. By 1930, the 3L-4N system was changed to a 2L–5N system, using two letters and five digits, and "PEN-5000" became "PE6-5000", much like the "BUTterfield" central office became BUtterfield 8.
Comm South Companies grew very quickly, so quickly in fact that their Customer Service department began to remain open 24 hours a day and had very long hold times. The old telephone number for Customer Service was 1-800-936-5223 and the billing address was in Dallas, Texas; their old website was www.commsouth.com. Comm South Companies had established local telephone service for millions of Americans who could not get home phone service due to an outstanding balance with their local telephone company. By the year 2003 so many other companies had been created to "cash in" on this type of service and on people who needed home phone service but were unable to get it that Comm South became just one out of several different choices for prepaid home phone service and Comm South Companies went out of business and filed for Bankruptcy. Their customers were not disconnected when the company went out of business, they were simply transferred to other prepaid home phone service providers such as DPI Teleconnect. Comm South Companies however will always be one of the first telephone companies to provide home phone service to Americans who could not get a home phone with their local telephone company. They created a market and provided service to people when no one else would and will always be remembered as doing so. Comm South Companies, Inc opened the door for this type of service that will be in place for many years to come.
The writers of "All in the Family" continued throughout the series to have the Bunkers and other characters use telephone exchange names when giving a telephone number (most other series at the time, such as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", were using the standard fictitious 555 telephone exchange) at a time when the Bell System was trying to discontinue them. At different times throughout the series, the telephone exchanges Ravenswood and Bayside were used for the Bunkers' telephone number. Both exchanges were and still are applicable names for phone numbers in the neighborhoods of Astoria and Bayside. This may have had to do with the fact that at the time many major cities in the United States, such as New York, were resisting the dropping of telephone exchange names in favor of all-number calling, and were still printing their telephone books with exchange names. Actual residents of the Bunkers' age continued using exchange names into the early 1980s. This fact is referred to in the 1979 episode "The Appendectomy", when Edith, while dialing a telephone number, uses the Parkview exchange name only to correct herself by saying that she keeps forgetting that it is all-number dialing now. However, she comes to the conclusion that the number is exactly the same either way.
Telephone numbers were first used in 1879 in Lowell, Massachusetts, when they replaced the request for subscriber names by callers connecting to the switchboard operator. Over the course of telephone history, telephone numbers had various lengths and formats, and even included most letters of the alphabet in leading positions when telephone exchange names were in common use until the 1960s.
"Essential" phones are defined as "coin-operated telephones, telephones provided for emergency use, and other telephones frequently needed for use by persons using such hearing aids." These might include workplace telephones, telephones in confined settings (like hospitals and nursing homes), and telephones in hotel and motel rooms. Secure telephones, as well as telephones used with public mobile and private radio services, are exempt from the HAC Act. "Secure" phones are defined as "telephones that are approved by the U.S. Government for the transmission of classified or sensitive voice communications."
The gossip bench began as a shelf for the telephone (then a very large and cumbersome non-portable object) to rest upon, usually in the hallway of the home. Naturally, telephone users began using regular chairs to sit on while using the telephone. It was only a matter of time until the two (shelf and chair) were combined into one stylish piece of furniture by opportunistic furniture craftsmen everywhere. A lamp and the telephone would typically be placed on the table top of the gossip bench, while a telephone directory would be stored in the drawer underneath.
In residential telephony, an extension telephone is an additional telephone wired to the same telephone line as another. In middle 20th century telephone jargon, the first telephone on a line was a "Main Station" and subsequent ones "Extensions". Such extension phones allow making or receiving calls in different rooms, for example in a home, but any incoming call would ring all extensions and any one extension being in use would cause the line to be busy for all users. Some telephones intended for use as extensions have built in intercom features; a key telephone system for a small business may offer two to five lines, lamps indicating lines already in use, the ability to place calls on 'hold' and an intercom on each of the multiple extensions.
When telephone numbers were first used they were very short, from one to three digits, and were communicated orally to a switchboard operator when initiating a call. As telephone systems have grown and interconnected to encompass worldwide communication, telephone numbers have become longer. In addition to telephones, they have been used to access other devices, such as computer modems, pagers, and fax machines. With landlines, modems and pagers falling out of use in favor of all-digital always-connected broadband Internet and mobile phones, telephone numbers are now often used by data-only cellular devices, such as some tablet computers, digital televisions, video game controllers, and mobile hotspots, on which it is not even possible to make or accept a call.
Until the early 1960s, many local telephone companies, as well as the North American Numbering Plan of 1947, prescribed telephone number formats that included the name of the central office to which each telephone was connected. Traditionally, these names were often the names of towns, villages, other locally significant names, but larger communities that required more than one central office, may have used other names for each central office, such as "Main", "East", "West", "Central". Names were convenient to use and reduced errors when telephone numbers were exchanged verbally between subscribers and operators. When subscribers could dial themselves, the initial letters of the names were converted to digits as displayed on the rotary dial. Thus, telephone numbers contained one, two, or even three letters followed by up to five numerals. Such numbering plans are called 2L-4N, or simply 2-4, for example, as shown in the photo of a telephone dial of 1939 (right). In this example, "LAkewood 2697", indicates that a subscriber dialed the letters "L" and "A", then the digits "2", "6", "9", and "7" to reach this telephone in Lakewood, NJ (USA).
Telephone Newspapers, introduced in the 1890s, transmitted news and entertainment to subscribers over telephone lines. They were the first example of electronic broadcasting, although only a few were established, most commonly in European cities. These systems predated the development, in the 1920s, of radio broadcasting. They were eventually supplanted by radio stations, because radio signals could more easily cover much wider areas with higher quality audio, without incurring the costs of a telephone line infrastructure.
The introduction of the telephone in the mid-1870s included numerous demonstrations of its use for transmitting musical concerts over various distances. In one particularly advanced example, Clément Ader prepared a listening room at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition, where attendees could listen to performances, in stereo, from the Paris Grand Opera. The concept also appeared in Edward Bellamy's influential 1888 utopian novel, "Looking Backward: 2000-1887", which foresaw audio entertainment sent over telephone lines to private homes.
In 2018, there were 368,243 main telephone lines in use in Uganda, making Uganda one-hundred and eighth in terms of countries having the most main telephone lines. In 2016, there were 22.838 million mobile telephones in use, making Uganda fifty fourth in terms of countries having the most mobile telephones in use. This was an increase from 2006 when there were 108,600 main telephone lines in use in Uganda, and from 2007 when there were 4.195 million mobile telephones in use. By June 2018, the total number of mobile telephone users in Uganda, was 23.6 million, or 57.6% of the 41 million population, according to the Uganda Communications Commission.
Telephone wiring is required between the telephone company's service entrance and locations throughout the home. Often a home will have telephone outlets in the kitchen, study, living room or bedrooms for convenience. Telephone company regulations may limit the total number of telephones that can be in use at one time. The telephone cabling typically uses two pair twisted cable terminated onto a telephone plug. The cabling is typically installed as a daisy chain starting from the point where the telephone company connects to the home or outlets may each be wired back to the entrance.
The Cowherd family were friends and associates of the scientist and telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Bell used the Cowherds' tinsmithing services to help produce new prototypes for the telephone, and to open Canada's first telephone factory (possibly the world's first such plant). Bell also called on them to string telephone lines made from common stovepipe wire, and to assist in demonstrations. Thomas spent many hours speaking with Alexander on the telephone between the Cowherd home in Brantford and the Bell Homestead, Canada's first point-to-point telephone line which ran approximately 3 miles (5 km) between the two homes. The two were said to be "great chums".