We had one of these Magnetos from an old phone back in the 60s. We would hold on to the live wires and crank it and see who could last the longest from electrocution Thats how boring our lives were with no TV or Internet...

In an era where "amplifiers" did not exist (i.e., tubes and transistors), all electrical signals had to be send over wires via "transducers," which are devices that convert energy from one form (sound pressure) to another (electricity). The race was to see who could build the better transducer. It all seems so easy now, but back then, no one had the answers. They had to be invented, as this fantastic documentary ably demonstrates.

When I see these old instruments, I'm impressed by the amount of work it took to make prototypes. Laborious wood and metal working in the hopes that it might possibly work. It was always a long shot. No test equipment to quantitatively evaluate the results either. They were so clever to try different combinations of basic materials. Making batteries was a chore too. I think that Bell spilled some acid on himself when he made his famous first telephone call for Watson to come help him.

When I was a little guy I would ask a lot of questions of my great-grandparents. They were born in the 1800's. Seeing the evolution of the telephone alone has been nothing short of mind-boggling. I always called it 'living' history.

Australia's farms used wire fences on mostly hardwood posts. The top wire of this was constructed as private party lines. These were in use into the 1930s.

When I was a scientist at Bell Labs in the 1980s, the labs had in their employ a man with the surname Watson, who was the grandson of old Tom. I don't know what he did; maybe was just part of the museum.

This might have been only 33 minutes but it felt longer than any other single episode documentary. Absolutely jam packed with excellent pics and information for every second.

My late father said that they got their first phone in the 1920's & it had no dial. You would pick up the receiver & speak for the operator saying "Hello, give me central." Then you'd tell who you wanted to speak to.

If you think about it, these types of telephones would have seemed like space age technology to people back then!

13:30 - The carbon microphone. Yep, used on most telephones, well into the 70s. When the carbon granules packed, you whacked the handset on the table, too loosen them up.

Magneto crank signalling systems were used on military field phones and ship's phones right into the 21st century.

My grandmother was a manual switchboard operator. We had one of the last manual switchboards in the country. They still had the old switchboards in the old library when I was a little kid. I remember my grandma showing me what to plug in where to connect my house to hers.

"Mr Watson, come here I want you" Mr Watson doesn't like to talk about what happened next.

At my childhood home we had two of the wall mounted L.M.Ericsson phones. One was for my parents and the other one for my great grandmother. When the big batteries had to be replaced, I got the used ones for satisfying my curiosity. The interesting part was the big, hard carbon element, maybe 1/2" thick, 2" wide and over 6" long. I had been told that soot was carbon. But how could carbon also be as hard as these electrodes were? Somehow I saved a few of them, until many years later I got from somewhere a transformer taken from some radio -- I guess -- and started playing with it. The secondary was probably about 250 V AC and quite adequate for generating an arc between two of these carbon electrodes. I could not burn the arc for very long, as both the carbon electrodes and the transformer got too hot. My first electrical experiment, with thousands -- and more practical experiments -- followed. Actually continuing, with much more modern items. But I guess, I owe a thanks to Lars Magnus Ericsson at least for part of my career .

My grandmother had one of those phones, I was just a toddler at the time and I remember my mother picking me up to speak into the piece (mic?) that was sticking out of the front of the box that was mounted on the wall at the bottom of the stairs ..then someone put a handheld listening device to my ear that had been sitting on a cradle towards the bottom of the phone box ..I remember them trying to get me to listen and talk into the box but I don't remember who it was on the other end. I also remember the crank that was on the right hand side that they cranked whenever they wanted to chat with someone ...it sounded like a bicycle bell whenever they cranked it ..and I loved it but it was mounted much too high for me to ring it for myself ..I remember feeling disappointed that I couldn't reach it ...darn! ..good thing I guess because I would have cranked it incessantly! ..good memories though.

That is a huge collection of history, no CGI, only real macoy.

It's just nuts: voice being reproduced by pellets of carbon rattling around with current running through it

The first telephone I remember was the Western Electric tank style phone. It had no dial. When a call was to be made you would pick up the receiver and click the receiver button to get the operators attention. You would then give her the prefix, number, and or the name of the person you were trying to contact.

No mention is made of the purpose of the "generator" (which was more commonly called a "magneto" here). It was used to create the much higher voltage/power levels needed to ring the bells on distant switchboard and telephones. One would turn the crank a few times to alert the operator, then pick up the receiver in order to make the proper connections for the voice circuitry.

Great video and fabulous collection of historic phones Hilbourne Roosevelt, cousin to Teddy Roosevelt was a pipe organ builder, with his younger brother Frank. They were one of the more important organ firms of the late 19th century, and pioneered the use of electrical key controls to operate the mechanism which let air into the organ pipes, as well as one of the first practical "combination" actions, where the organist could pre-select any combination of stops, store the combination in a mechanical memory, and when desired, while playing an organ piece, hit a small door bell like button on the strip of wood below the keys and those stops, pre-selected would pop on, and the other would turn off. Similar to a car radio where radio stations can be stored and at a press of a button a new station is activated and the old station turned off.

I have some of those Ericsson phones 100 years old and they still work!

That was quite wonderful. Thank you, and your team.

Telephone technology improved by tiny incremental steps over a long time. The overall jump is almost incomprehensible when you compare the original to a cell phone. When people don't understand the process they can jump to conclusions such as "ancient aliens" gave us the technology or other technologies. I've had two different people suggest such ideas to me. What they are thinking is "It's so complicated, nobody normal could think of it".

Thank you for your very informative video. I have ever only seen a few of these designs and did not realize the many different designs over that 30 year span.

Man, awesome documentary. Gets right to the fucking information and doesn't stop until the end.

Thank you for posting this!

A very interesting documentary. I just found this by chance, and am so glad I did. I am going to watch more now. Thank you for your excellent and articulate delivery.

My uncle owned a motel in the late 60's and had one of those switchboards. Man, I had SO much fun playing with it.

Thanks folks. Wonderful encapsulation of early telephone development. Especially since you show the actual equipment along with the commentary.

This guy's voice and pronunciation is impeccable.

Excellent documentary....greatly appreciate your posting this!!

This was OUTSTANDING! Easy to follow, detailed, Judy WONDERFUL!

The true inventor of the telephone was an Italian-American called Antonio Meucci. In 1854 Meucci built the first telephone to communicate some rooms of his house, beacuse his wife suffered from rheumatism. In 1860 he presented his invention in New York, but he didn´t have enough money to pay the patent expenses.

I like how you speak clearly and slowly. And that you don't have music over everything.

This excellent work. You have filled a huge gap in my mind on this subject. Thank you so much!!!

the images are fabulous! Thank you very much for the education.

Fascinating! Uncovered every question I ever wondered about old phones.

Imagine being the first person in history to tell someone else that they won a free vacation.

Spectacular graphics and pictures, with a hyper-interesting historical account. Very well done!

Thanks for sharing this very interesting documentary. :)

"utilizing a tiny moisture-resistant capsule", today our phones can be submerged in pools. What an amazing time to be alive. Wish I could live back in 1900s.

Born in 1950 in a very rural place, We actually had a wooden telephone when I was little. Also no indoor plumbing. We got the plumbing first.

Excellent video. Great to see so many original units still in existence.

The Ericsson firm went on to invent one of the best computer programming languages for handling realtime requirements.

Excellent Video 5 stars.... Thankyou

Excellent film, thank you for sharing this.

My father worked for Bell telephone for 35yrs.My sister and I had a lot of old phones.

Magneto era didn't end in 1900. Improved magneto equipment continued up to the 1960s, mostly in rural areas.

i'm 79 so my memory goes back to my first "scrapping" job sorting the old wall hanging phones...brass this box screws in the jar etc. still have a couple of magineto desk phones. selective ringers etc. nothing this old though.

I have an old magneto phone at home. I tried it out about twenty years ago and it worked. the main difference was the sound quality while talking & listening, putting out a hollow but intelligible sound. Friends of my parents had such telephones including a candlestick one in Vermont when I visited them in the 1950s.

Now I need to hear how all these different models actually sounded.

The truth is that Antonio Meucci was really the one who invented the telephone and it would be good for us to begin to recognize it. On the other hand, I understand that the video was made at a time when little or no knowledge was known about this information.

Early technology absolutely amazes me. We have a working 1960 Bell Rotary hooked via a Dialgizmo into our Spectrum modem. I do however recall getting into trouble as a child in an antique store when my Mom caught me showing my brother "Tune in Tokyo" with one of the old double bell phones. Obviously knew what I was referring to.

Great exposition of the initial development of the telephone before amplification was possible!

Very interesting. Thirty years seems to be how long many new inventions take to become generally accepted. Have you any plans for a similar video on the fax machine?

Thanks to these guys they played a huge role in transforming the world in communication technology unto what we are nowadays.

Excellent video!

It is fascinating seeing telephones stripped down to their mechanical essence. it makes me realise how peculiar and magical they are. It is easy to forget when it is a tiny plastic box.

Fantastic video.

Excellent professional and informative.

Very educational, thanks.

It's a nice reminder that we had digital technology- telegraph- before analogue technology- telephone- and now we mimic analogue using digital.

Amazing! I worked for AT+T for many years...very intresting.

During long distance calls, my wife still SHOUTS like this... circa 2021.

My uncle had a pair of “crank” telephones. One in his work shop and one in the kitchen so his wife could “call” him for dinner.

3:42 still a better love story than Twilight

Crazy good, editing and script. Of course it’s an old video, quality like this is only behind paywalls if at all.

In many areas ADSL and VDSL connections still run over sections of 100+ year old telephone wire. Where I live, local telephone engineers commented on certain sections of the city still having lead-sheathed, paper insulated telephone wires underground. Knowing this, ADSL and VDSL seem somewhat miraculous, being able to eek dozens of megabits per second of bandwidth over these century-old (or more) cables.

Its so ironic that his name was “Bell” and we associate that name with the ringing bells of a telephone. Bells were used by educators to signal their students to come to class or when it was time to eat, so it certainly is a fitting term to apply to the greatest device ever invented for communication.

Wonderful video! Thank you. Wish that I stilhad our Princess telephone. Had a nice night light inside.

In the 1960s we paid 10 cents to make a phone call if we were outside our home far away.

Very clear audio. What year was it recorded?

This made me remember the rotary phone I used to use as a kid in the 80's. We lived in a small town in a small state, so for local calls we only needed 4 digits. We had to dial 7 before we upgraded. After a while my friends thought it was weird that we still had such a primitive phone, but it worked for us. Eventually the phone system stopped supporting it and we had to upgrade. Compared to these early phones it was a modern technological marvel.

no one who was older than a lil kid during this period is still alive... i wonder if there's a single person who remembers the invention of the "magneto-generator-crank" 😍

Family bought my Gramps house about 1954. We still had a 20 party line with hand crank phone 19F4, which means we were the 19th party on the line and our ring was "fast 4" I was 6, now 73

The narrator made a boo-boo! The segment (@ ~29:24) where he states that the Ericsson Skeletal phone was introduced in 1992. I'm sure he meant to say 1892.

My grandma told me a lot about the party line.

A few years back I had just learned about Skype and had a phone that could use it. I was at the museum of electricity in Bellingham where they have one of the phones that Bell used for the first intercontinental calls. I stood in awe of the difference between the candlestick phone with no dial that at least at some point had Alexander Graham Bell's fingerprints on it and my Samsung that I could do video calls all around the world. So much change in a short time.

I had heard from someone that the last central office to switch from magneto crank to step by step was in 1983! Which I think is kinda surreal.

Why does his voice sound like that one widely used robot voice but... realistic

Thanks ... well done.

Before this era we used 2 cans and a string.

I was born in 1946, and we had a magneto phone in the early 1950's. Party line--I think our ring was three long and two short. It was a moderately remote hamlet.

Nicely done. Thank You : - ))

Seeing this, I can imagine that in about 1898 if you traveled to places outside your local area, you had to be versed in the operation of many models. Not to mention maybe local calling protocols.

It was one of the most comprehensive videos on telephones I have ever seen Ericsson still makes cell phones today I believe the only reason that Alexander Graham Bell got the patent because he was first to the patent office or is that a rumor

Haha nice one bill proper aussie ingenuity :D

The best, the best, the best, so much knowledge of the progression of technology. Don 't let the knowledge of this technology be lost to time. This is information of the ages, and it should be savored and studied. Enough of this feeble mind. Great information and thank you.

William Thomas of Victoria: "Made a call on a phone down under!"

FYI Bell is a popular Satellite TV service, and cell phone company Canada wide as of 2021

Boy do I remember those mags, dad had one and could it shock 😲 YA🤭🤔🤫

I wish there were dates shown with each model

I’m watching this on my Apple I phone.

6:09 Admission to one of his demonstrations was 35 cents and 50 cents. That was seriously expensive for that time and place. That would have been around 10 bucks and 15 bucks respectively.

Faraday was working and writing about electricity and magnetism in the late 1830s. 40 years later we had telephones....

13:02 Does anyone know what kind of 'crashes' the narrator is referring to?

and now i watch this video on my phone.

@Montagraph was a PBX operator & 1 of 12 original anons "if you can believe that"

Very well presented.

I knew people that use to use the mags for fishing and or getting worms out of the ground for fishing. Bell would be dumbstruck with how far communications have come if he could experience what we are using now.