Overview
- On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell sent “Mr. Watson, come here—I want to see you,” achieving the first clear voice transmission.
- The call came three days after the U.S. granted Patent No. 174,465 to Bell, filed on the same day Elisha Gray entered a competing caveat.
- Bell’s early apparatus used a liquid transmitter in which a vibrating needle in acidified water modulated current to carry speech.
- Public skepticism eased after demonstrations at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, including Emperor Dom Pedro II’s astonished reaction.
- Bell and his partners formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, a venture that evolved into AT&T after decades of growth.