Excerpt:
The telephone was first introduced at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and was an instant success. Although first rented only to "persons of good breeding" and seen as an expensive luxury for doctors and businessmen, the telephone soon transformed American life. Trees gave way to telephone poles as operators known as "hello girls" began to connect a sprawling continent.
Annotation:
A web presence for the American Experience's documentary about the telephone. Online resources include capsules on Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, Thomas Alva Edison, Thomas A. Watson and their relationship to the development of the telephone; accounts of significant events in the development of the telephone; and gallery of phones from different eras. The site also has a more general "Technology Timeline," a page devoted to forgotten inventors, and links to other American Experience sites.