telephone

Alexander Graham Bell was trying to perform a service for the deaf when he created telecommunications. The simple microphone and wire he gave us has since grown Touch-Tone(R), PBXs, vast banks of digital switches, and a vast amount of money. Once the wires were laid and the monopolies established, we could reach out and touch someone and pay a small fee for the privilege. But the phone lines haven't remained content with their duty of providing voice communications - the modem and the fax machine have given us yet new ways of communicating, and these quasi-digital media are breeding new modes of communication.