Thomas Edison Carbon Microphone/Carbon Transmitter

Thomas Edison Carbon Microphone/Carbon Transmitter

Thomas Edison, “the greatest inventor of his day” is so important to the world that we shall seldom see someone who can equal what his inventions and innovations directly or indirectly led on to. I will be focusing on Thomas Edison’s work in telecommunications and specifically the telephone. This topic is important for me to study because I have grown up in a world surrounded by communications so it is beneficial to see the origins of ideas that created it and it’s also important to study this so we can see whether the telephone and communications had a positive impact.

In this report I ask what Thomas Edison has achieved, how he has personally achieved this and how he has changed the world forever, for us.

I had to go to many sources to get my information because I believe his work has been undervalued. I have used reliable sources such as “National Geographic Publishing”, “How Stuff Works” Website, “The International Telecommunications Union”, and “Inventions That Changed the World” (book). I have ensured my sources are reliable, accurate and reputable by testing and checking for authors that would be non-biased or unreliable or if they could be biased, to cross reference them through other sources. A lot of my sources only gave me a little information but it was necessary to include them. Overall, I feel I have used a balanced range of sources and opinions with authors who have scope on the topic to gather my information.

What Thomas Edison has achieved?

Thomas Edison achieved a lot of things in his life time, mass scale electricity, the light bulb but I believe that his work in telecommunications has been heavily undervalued. In 1877 he invented the Carbon Microphone and Carbon Button Transmitter, the innovations that made the telephone a success. “Alexander Graham Bell may have invented the telephone, but it was Edison who invented a microphone that turned the telephone from a promising gadget into an indispensable machine with real, practical applications.". With his innovation, the Carbon Microphone, he made calls better quality so the voice sounded like it was coming from a human, not a machine. This helps the personality aspect of the telephone, helping its success with people. With his other breakthrough invention, the Carbon Button Transmitter he could make calls go long distance and this was the turning point in telecommunications history.

How Did He Achieve This?

Once Edison heard about Alexander Grahams Bell’s telephone being “crackly and unclear” and that it could only call 6km he set out to invent a telephone that would unite the world.

Thomas Edison faced the exact same problems as other inventors who had tried but he used his amazing perseverance and hard work and endeavored to solve the problem by testing hundreds probably thousands of times. He solved the problem by having an attitude like “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” an original quote from Edison and “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” This is the attitude the brought Edison ahead of the rest and made him go to make the telephone “the most profitable invention is history”.

How Thomas Edison’s achievements have changed the world.

The Carbon Microphone has changed the world because it has connected people in a more personal way. With people being connected, collaboration has occurred and new ideas and inventions are in the world we live in. The telephone has made the world more open and honest; this comes about because people could now share, with the telephone and long distance communication the world is one.

Thomas Edison’s Carbon Microphone/Button was so effective that “Edison's basic design continued to be commonly used until the advent of digital telephones in the 1980s”. This shows how good the invention was and that it did not need to be replaced until about 100 years after it was first invented. Carbon Microphones are still in use today in third world countries and are installed there because they are cheaper. This has changed the world because third world countries can now be involved with first world countries when previously they wouldn’t be able to call them because it was too far away. Thanks to Thomas Edison’s Carbon Microphone, the whole world can be connected, no matter economic or social background.

Perhaps just as important as the telephone, the inventions that were a consequence. This included cell phones, a thing that people would have thought been impossible if not for the invention of the Carbon Microphone and the long distance and improved quality that came with it.

Other inventions that would not be possible without the invention of the telephone would be the diode. Telephones were one of the major factors in inventing the diode but what is important about the diode is that it is an essential part of radios, telephones, computers and other electronics. Without the Carbon Microphone diodes may never have been discovered and we would still be in a world with out electronics.

Another electronic component that owes its life to the telephone is the transistor. The transistor is one of the most important things to ever happen to electronics. Microprocessors in computers use billions of these transistors and it is estimated that 60 million transistors are made each year for each person on earth. A world without the computer today would be very different and maybe without the Carbon Microphone and Thomas Edison, we would never have seen the transistor.

The telephone is to blame for the wonders of social media and the internet. They are founded on the same principals, fast, personal information, something that would not have been thought possible before the telephone could make long distance calls. If you look at how much social media has changed the world in the past year, social media campaigns like Kony 2012 and political candidates having to change the way they campaign and you would say that the telephone has led to some major social and economic changes. With out the telephone how would ideas like the internet been possible?

The Carbon Microphone making the telephone a success has inspired many to dream bigger and make their own inventions into something bigger. The telephone was called “crude and insignificant compared to the telegraph” by many until Thomas Edison could show the telephones real possibilities. With his far fetched invention other people began to think big, and inventions like the cell phone and the video phone came about. Edison changed the world by changing the way we think about new start up companies and inventions.

Despite all the things the telephone has led on to, it is still a household device today. This would be very different if the calls could not go further than 6km as the telephone would be useless. Today worldwide there are four billion mobile/fixed line connected devices with 2.68 billion being mobile phone devices and the amount of great minds connected by the long distance telephone has a serious impact.

We can see the impact of the Carbon Microphone and the fast communication by looking at how newspapers are struggling but social media is thriving at being the first source to report the news. Live television is also popular and this long distance, personal communication is what the telephone founded.

From my investigation I have learned the impact of how one small innovation on the telephone and the quest of one man to connect the world has shaped the way we live today. It makes you think about how small changes can have big consequences and how if we were to change things now, how might that affect the future. Another thing I have learned in my investigation is the moral implications that an invention can have such as the new inventors coming up with ideas like the video phone and how people became inspired and new inventions were no longer looked down upon so much.

References

Beals, G. (n.d.). THOMAS EDISON'S INVENTIONS. Thomas Edison Home Page. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from http://www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm

Carbon Microphone. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_microphone

Great Inventors: Alexander Graham Bell. (1999). .: Kids Can Press.

Grimes, G. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "What did Thomas Edison invent?". HowStuffWorks "Science". Retrieved September 4, 2012, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/famous-inventors/what-did-thomas-edison-invent.htm

Inventions That Changed the World. (0). .: Toucan Book Ltd.

Langone, J. (2004). The new how things work: Everyday technology explained. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Parker, S. (2002). Alexander Graham Bell. London: Belitha.

Telephone. (n.d.). Edison. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from 2010non-amicevski-thomasedison.wikispaces.com/Telephone

The 5 Characteristics of Thomas Edison « Isabelle Dumortier. (n.d.).  Isabelle Dumortier. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from http://isabelledumortier.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/the-5-characteristics-of-thomas-edison/

The Telephones of Thomas Edison. (n.d.). The Telephones of Thomas Edison. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from http://www.bobsoldphones.net/Pages/Essays/Edison/Edison.htm

Thomas Alva Edison - Telephone Transmitter. (n.d.).                             The Franklin Institute - Home - 215.448.1200                       . Retrieved September 4, 2012, from http://www.fi.edu/learn/case-files/edison/telephone.html

Thomas Edison. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_edison

Transistor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 4, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor#Importance