TelephoneIn 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made what was, in effect, the first telephone call. His assistant, Thomas Watson, located in an adjoining room in Boston, heard Bell's voice over the experimental device say to him, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." This was Bell's first successful experiment with the telephone, which is recorded in the 10 Mar entry of his Lab Notebook. That same day, an ebullient Bell wrote his father of his "great success" and speculated that "the day is coming when telegraph [phone] wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas - and friends converse with each other without leaving home." Bell had received the first telephone patent three days before. Later that year, Bell succeeded in making a phone call over outdoor lines.(NPR audio) |
