Telephone

In a general sense, the name "telephone" applies to any Instrument or apparatus which transmits sound beyond the limits of ordinary audibllity. But, since the recont discoveries in telephony, the name is technically and primarily restricted in an instrument or device which transmits sound by means of electricity and wires similar to telegraphic wires. In a secondary sense, however, being the sense in which it is most commonly understood, the word "telephone" constitutes a generic term, having reference generally to the art of telephony as an institution, but more particutarly to the apparatus, as an entirety, ordinarily used in the transmission, as well as in the reception, of telephonic messages.

Hockett v. State, 105 Ind. 261, 5 N. E. 178, 55 Am. Rep. 201.