Overview
- On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent application about two hours before Elisha Gray submitted a caveat.
- Bell was granted U.S. Patent No. 174,465 on March 7, 1876, for a method and apparatus to transmit speech by electrical waves.
- Historians still dispute allegations that Bell gained improper access to Gray’s filing or relied on Gray’s liquid transmitter for the March 10 “Mr. Watson” demonstration.
- Bell’s design carried continuous analog variations and enabled two‑way speech, unlike Johann Philipp Reis’s earlier interrupter‑based device that worked only one way.
- Gray’s work went to Western Union, which lost patent fights to Bell, clearing the path for AT&T’s dominance, Bell Labs breakthroughs like the transistor and Unix, and a 1984 breakup.