Telephone Facts e The inventor of the telephone in 1892, opens long-distance service between New york and chicago over 800 miles of open wire line. Only 14 years before, in 1878, he had predicted that some day a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant placeTelephone Facts The inventor of the telephone in 1892, opens long-distance service between New York and Chicago over 800 miles of open wire line. Only 14 years before, in 1878, he had predicted that some day "a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place