Every sound communicates to the reed of the transmitter superimposed vibrations which produce induced currents in the coil, they too superimposed; the latter, on passing through the coil of the receiver, act on the reed, thus generating superimposed vibrations similar to those of the reed of the transmitter.
The oscillations of the reed of the receiver are communicated to the surrounding air and reproduce the original sound with the same pitch and timbre but, obviously, with attenuated intensity. The intensity influences only the amplitude of the oscillations which increases with the intensity of the sound. Owing to the loss of energy that takes place along the line, in the reed itself and in the conversion from mechanical to electrical and from electrical to mechanical, the oscillations of the reed in the receiver are less ample than the corresponding ones of the transmitter's reed.
With Bell's telephone, even the intonation and inflection of the voice could be reproduced.