The Telephone Patent
Next: March 7, 2027
Call someone you want to hear.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 7 March 1876, when the United States Patent Office issued Patent No. 174,465 to Alexander Graham Bell for transmitting 'vocal or other sounds telegraphically'. Three days later, on 10 March, in his Boston laboratory, Bell spoke through his instrument to his assistant Thomas Watson in the next room. His notebook, now in the Library of Congress, records the first words heard over the telephone: 'Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.'
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but it is the perfect day to do what Bell made possible: ring someone you have not heard from in a while, rather than send a message. The Library of Congress has put Bell's notebook pages and letters online, free for anyone to read, and science museums often show early telephones.
Did you know
- Bell filed his application on 14 February 1876, only a few hours before the inventor Elisha Gray filed a notice for a similar device; the courts later upheld Bell's patent.
- The same day as his first call, Bell wrote to his father that one day wires would be laid into houses like water and gas, and friends would talk without leaving home.
- In 1915 Bell, in New York, and Watson, in San Francisco, made the first transcontinental telephone call across the United States.
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