March 7, 1876: The Telephone is Patented
On this day in 1876, Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell successfully received a patent for his invention, the telephone.
At the time, Samuel Morse’s telegraph had improved communication, but Bell wanted to create a more synchronized and harmonic conversation. Bell sought help from Thomas A. Watson, and both men created the first prototype.
On March 10, the first successful message to have been transmitted via telephone was:
“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
Take a look at American Experience’s photo gallery of telephones throughout the years.
Images: Top: Alexander Graham Bell in 1904 (Library of Congress). Bottom Left: Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook entry from March 10, 1876 describing his successful experiment with the telephone (Library of Congress). Bottom Right: Alexander Graham Bell’s Telephone Patent Drawing, March 7,1876 (National Archives).
It’s amazing to me that anyone is still telling this lie. Alexander G. Bell DID NOT INVENT the telephone. He received a US patent for it. A very clear distinction between the two needs to be made. This PBS announcement only distorts it – such as in the very first paragraph. Shouldn’t there be a basic underlying respect for history (as opposed to his-story)?
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