A long time ago, before we had phones, people had to send messages or letters to talk to other people far away. But then a smart man named Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, which is a device you can use to talk to someone far away without having to write a letter or send a message.
The first telephones were very different from what we have now. They looked like big boxes with a big horn on one end where you talked into and a smaller horn on the other end where you listened. To make a call, you had to turn a crank to make the device work and get connected to the person you wanted to talk to.
When the telephone became more popular, companies started popping up to provide phone service. They laid telephone wires across the United States so people could call each other from faraway places.
As time passed, telephones got smaller and more advanced. Now, we have phones that can fit in our pockets and can do many things besides just making phone calls. We can use them to take pictures, play games, and send messages, all without having to write a letter or send a message like people did a long time ago.