Alexander Graham Bell and the Evolution of Communications

This year, March 3rd marks the 175th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s birth and a fine time to explore his multiple contributions to science, technology, and most of all, communications. Thanks to Bell, who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone, the ways in which we communicate and conduct business have evolved. From the wired telephone to mobile devices, and from locally managed communication solutions to cloud-based, on-demand technologies. We can attribute much of the technologies available to us today to this one man.

According to a report from Statista, there were almost 15 billion mobile devices worldwide in 2021, which is more than the number of people on the earth. And that number is expected to reach more than 18 billion by 2025.

The latest smartphones are millions of times more powerful than the Apollo 11 guidance computers that landed Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969. Today, mobile technologies are heavily depended on by most people in the world. And the effects of the use of mobile devices and enabled communications on manufacturing, for example, have been staggering.

Who was Alexander Graham Bell? 

According to History.com, PBS, BBC and related sources, Alexander Graham Bell first embarked on his technology journey when he worked on his father’s “visible speech” system, which used symbols to represent speech sounds to teach deaf children. It was this work that eventually led to the development of the telephone.

Bell had a life-long relationship with Helen Keller, supporting her education and encouraging her progress. Keller dedicated her first autobiography The Story of My Life to him, writing, “To Alexander Graham Bell, who has taught the deaf to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies.” He recalled his work with the deaf as “more pleasing to me than even recognition of my work with the telephone.”

Other inventions from Bell include the metal detector (first used to locate the bullet that killed President Garfield), a graphophone that could record and playback sound, and a precursor to modern air conditioning technology. His final patent, which he received in his 70s, was for a hydrofoil. He later took over the presidency of the National Geographic Society and turned what was a dry, unheard-of journal into one of the world’s most beautiful and best-known magazines. Bell died in 1922, at the age of 75. During his funeral, every phone in North America was silenced for one minute to pay tribute to him.

A Brief History of the Telephone

While Bell is credited with the invention of the telephone, debate has raged over whether others, including Antonio Meucci and Elisha Gray, got there first. The fact remains that Bell received a patent for the telephone on March 7, 1876, and he made the first call saying something along the lines of, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.”  Bell eventually won the subsequent legal battles over the invention.

Some important milestones in telephone history followed:

• The first phone line was operated between New York and Philadelphia in 1885
• 1900 saw the first coin operated telephone installation
• The first transatlantic transmission from New York to London occurred via radio waves in 1927
• The first commercial mobile phone service started up in 1946, linking moving vehicles to a telephone network
• Transatlantic telephone cables were installed in 1955
• Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call on April 3, 1973, from midtown Manhattan to Bell Labs in New Jersey, saying something along the lines of “I’m just calling to see if it sounds good on your end.”
• The first text message was sent in 1992

The Evolution of Communications in Manufacturing

Just as it’s hard to imagine what life was like before the telephone, or there being a cell phone in every pocket for that matter, try to think back to the manufacturing shop floor before mobile technology. As we describe in another blog post, 5 Things to be Thankful for in Manufacturing, before mobile phones and tablets came along, production reporting, for example, was paper-based, often illegible, easy to lose and made quickly obsolete. Inventory took time and physical resources and relied entirely on paper-based methods. Machine breakdowns on the shop floor resulted in days of idled operations and lost orders. Mobile devices changed that.

The digital transformation happening in the manufacturing industry has a lot to do with the ways in which communication itself has evolved. One example of a software solution or system that utilizes on-demand, data-driven communication is ERP. For manufacturers today, an adaptive ERP solution that operates entirely in the cloud can ensure operations are streamlined, efficient, and no longer dependent on paper-based, error-prone manual processes.

Why Adopt an ERP Solution in the Cloud?

There are many reasons why manufacturers should consider an ERP solution. Here are five key benefits of adopting an ERP solution in the cloud:

• A cloud ERP solution allows for differentiating business processes with options to personalize features and modules, add or eliminate steps, and create unique screens and fields to meet user requirements.
• As a cloud solution, it is available 24/7—to meet the demands of a 24/7 global supply chain. Downtime equals lost business and revenue, even if it’s “only” two minutes a month.
• It allows each user to see screens, data and help text in a chosen language, unlike traditional ERP which applies one language across an instance.
• It offers built-in support for business processes, including localizations and taxation structures stakeholders require without adding a third-party solution or bolt-on.
• It delivers flexible reporting options for manufacturers to base decisions on real-time data in the format needed without additional coding. It also offers predefined KPIs and output formats that users can personalize.

The extensive personalization and extensibility capabilities help manufacturers achieve their desired digital transformation.

We wish Alexander Graham Bell—inventor, scientist, and engineer—a Happy 175th Birthday and thank him for his contributions to the evolution of communications.

“The inventor looks upon the world and is not content with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.”  — Alexander Graham Bell