Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs. It was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.
Back in 1881 when Alexander Graham Bell invented twisted pair cables he could never have imagined they would still be in use today and that we owe so much of our high speed IT cables to his invention.
A short history lesson: After the invention of the telephone, the rapid use of electricity started to create new problems. People started to notice that where telephone lines ran next to electric tram lines the quality of the signal dropped markedly.
The problem was caused by electrical interference, called noise, which effectively reduced signal quality and length range of cables. Alexander Graham Bell solved this problem by creating twisted pair cables. A simple yet effective solution to the problem and one that led to the balanced circuits.
The benefit of twisted pair cables is the extended length they can run and the quality of signal they can produce, bringing us right up to date with Twisted Pair cabling used in IT cables (and many others).
