Category Archives: technology

Telephones

Technology through the ages.

As part of our topic on ‘Technology through the ages’ we looked at the invention of the telephone.

We learned about the life of Alexander Graham Bell  including where he lived and when he was born. We discovered that he invented the telephone in 1876 with the help of his assistant Thomas Watson.

We made string telephones to see how the sound vibrations can pass from one person to another.

We discovered that when one person talks their cup vibrates, the sound energy from these vibrations passes along the string into the second cup which also vibrates. These vibrations pass through the air particles into our partner’s ear and they can actually hear what we are saying!

We experimented by using longer pieces of string, by whispering, by leaving the string ‘loose’ instead of ‘tight’ to see if there were any differences.