This Day in History: Alexander
Graham Bell Patents the Telephone March 7, 1876 Born in Scotland,
Bell relocated to Boston after he
worked with the deaf in London. Through his work at Boston's
Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf,
Bell began to develop the ideas that
would lead to the invention. Seeking to improve upon the
then-cutting edge telegraph technology,
Bell sought to create a "harmonic telegraph." Essentially, he wanted to combine
the long distance communication abilities
of the telegraph with the sound
producing abilities of the record player. Working with Thomas A. Watson,
the inventors created a device that
used an electric current to transmit sound. Days after the patent approval,
the first message carried by telephone was Bell's
famous request, "Mr. Watson, come here, I need you."