Telephone "voice", together meaning "distant voice". Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed. As with other influential inventions such as radio, television, the light bulb, and the computer, several inventors pioneered experimental work on "voice transmission over a wire" and improved on each other's ideas. New controversies over the issue still arise from time to time. Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell, and Elisha Gray, amongst others, have all been credited with the invention of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by
Tin can telephone as to avoid coming into contact with the object around which the signal is to be directed. Tin can telephone A tin can telephone is a type of acoustic (non-electrical) speech-transmitting device made up of two tin cans, paper cups or similarly shaped items attached to either end of a taut string or wire. It is a form of mechanical telephony, where sound is converted into and then conveyed by vibrations along a liquid or solid medium, and then reconverted back to sound. Before the invention of the electromagnetic telephone, there were mechanical acoustic devices for transmitting spoken words and