The Very Beginning of Telecommunications

Telecommunication is defined as ‘communication at a distance’ by Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc. Publishers, Springfield, MA, 1989.

Telecommunication as we know it today would not exist without electricity, and particularly, the invention of the battery or ‘electric cell’, which was first called the ‘voltaic pile’ after Alessandro Volta who invented it in 1800. (Hmm…now we know where the word ‘volt’ comes from.) The battery allowed the storage and controlled release of electricity⁽¹⁾ and was the beginning of modern telecommunications.

In 1899 Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium rechargeable battery, and in 1901 Thomas Edison invented the alkaline storage battery.⁽²⁾

We still use these today but they are unrecognizable from the earliest versions.

http://library.thinkquest.org/6064/history.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbattery.htm