Free levelled English reading practice. Read for meaning first, then use the full Speed Reading tool to time yourself and track your progress.
For centuries, people could send written messages over long distances, but they could not send a live human voice. During the nineteenth century, several inventors experimented with ways to transmit sound electrically. Alexander Graham Bell became closely associated with the development of the telephone. Bell was interested in sound and speech partly because his mother and later his wife were deaf. He worked with assistant Thomas Watson on devices that could carry vocal sounds through wires. In 1876, Bell received a United States patent connected with the telephone. That year, he famously called Watson in another room and asked him to come over. Other inventors were also working on similar technology, and the history of the telephone includes important disputes about invention and patents. However, Bell's company played a major role in developing telephone services. Early telephones were very different from modern smartphones. Calls were often connected manually by operators at switchboards. Over time, telephone networks spread between towns, countries and eventually continents. The basic dream was simple but powerful: people far apart could speak and hear each other almost immediately.
Comprehension questions
What could people not send live over long distances before the telephone?
Who worked with Bell?
When did Bell receive a US telephone-related patent?
