Who invented the telephone?
Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone. He received the US patent on March 7, 1876, although other inventors, such as Antonio Meucci and Elisha Gray, worked on similar devices.
Bell, a Scottish-born scientist and teacher of deaf students, was experimenting with ways to send multiple telegraph messages over one wire. On March 10, 1876, he made the first successful call to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying: Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.
On the same day Bell's patent application was filed, Elisha Gray filed a notice for a similar invention, which led to years of legal disputes. Italian inventor Antonio Meucci had developed a voice communication device years earlier but could not afford to keep his patent notice active. In 2002, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Meucci's work.
A world-changing invention
Bell founded the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, which grew into AT&T. Within a few decades, telephones spread to homes and businesses around the world, transforming communication. Today, billions of people use mobile phones that grew out of Bell's invention.
Did You Know?
Bell suggested answering the phone with ahoy. Thomas Edison's suggestion of hello became the standard greeting instead.