[f. Gr. τῆλε afar, TELE- + -φωνία -sounding, forming abstr. sbs. from adjs. in -φωνος, -voiced, -sounding. So mod.Ger. telephonie, F. téléphonie.]
† 1. Name for a system of signalling by means of musical sounds, and for the practice of other early forms of telephone. Obs.
1835. Athenæum, July, 531. M. Sudré, whose new system of telegraphic communication, or telephony (as he calls it) we mentioned some weeks ago.
1835. Mech. Mag., XXIII. 269 (heading). The Telephony, or Musical Telegraph.
2. The art or science of constructing telephones; the working of a telephone or telephones.
[1861. (Dec.) P. Reis, in Jahres-Bericht, Frankfurt. Physik. Verein (title), Ueber Telephonie durch den galvanischen Strom.]
1876. A. Graham Bell, in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sc., 10 May (Title of Lecture), Researches in Telephony. Ibid. (1876), in Boston Advertiser, Oct. Telephony. Audible speech conveyed two miles by telegraph. Prof. A. Graham Bell’s Discovery.
1878. G. B. Prescott, Sp. Telephone (1879), 53. When I commenced my researches in electric telephony.
1884. St. James’s Gaz. 23 Oct., 5/1. The Belgians … have just started a system of public telephony.
1885. Pall Mall G., 18 Sept., 6/2. The solution of the problem of long distance telephony and along with it the much more important question of submarine telephony is said to be within sight.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 20 June, 10/2. Some interesting experiments in wireless telephony are being conducted by the Post Office between the … Skerries Island and Anglesey.
