Alexander Graham Bell
Photo Courtesy of The Library of Congress
On March 7, 1876, Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell secured the patent that would define modern communication.
The document, titled “Improvement in Telegraphy,” outlined a method for transmitting “vocal or other sounds telegraphically,” a simple description for what would become the telephone.
Bell conceived the idea in 1874, while conducting acoustics experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His in-depth study of hearing and speech strongly influenced his work, as he sought to invent a device to help deaf people. He taught music and elocution and, in 1868, began teaching speech to deaf children in London.
But the road to that patent was not easy. On Feb. 14, 1876, Bell and fellow inventor Elisha Gray each filed paperwork describing devices capable of transmitting sound electrically. This sparked one of the most fiercely contested intellectual property battles of the 19th century. Bell ultimately prevailed, but that approval ignited decades of legal disputes and conspiracy theories.
In June of that year, Bell demonstrated the telephone for Sir William Thomson and Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. One month later, Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders and Thomas Watson (Bell’s assistant) formed the Bell Telephone Company, the precursor of the Bell System.
The telephone wasn’t Bell’s only patent; he was granted 18 in his own name, along with 12 shared with collaborators.