»Mr. Watson – come here, I want to see you.« With these words, Alexander Graham Bell is said to have called his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876. Although Watson was not in the same room, he could hear Bell’s voice and understand what he was saying. This was a defining moment in the development of the telephone, for which Bell had been granted a patent just days earlier and it also marked a crucial step in the race to secure the rights to the new technology. After all, the idea of transmitting speech by using electricty over long distances was anything but new.
Many paths, one goal
The story of the telephone began long before Bell entered the race. In the first half of the 19th century, Italian inventor Innocenzo Manzetti is said to have envisioned a »speaking telegraph«, although he did not develop a corresponding device until the 1860s. Antonio Meucci had also been working on a voice-transmission device since 1849. In 1871, he filed a patent caveat in the United States, but was later unable to maintain the legal protection for his work for financial reasons. German physicist Johann Philipp Reis also made an important contribution. While developing a device designed to transmit speech over longer distances, he even coined the term »telephone«. The decisive breakthrough, however, was ultimately to come from the United States. Alexander Graham Bell, who had moved from Scotland to the United States, had been exploring the connection between speech and technology for years. But Bell’s challenge was no longer simply to achieve a technological breakthrough – he also had to secure his idea legally before his competitors did.
The invention becomes a million-dollar business
»Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds«, Bell is said to have remarked at one point in history – a statement that is particularly fitting when talking about the invention of the telephone. When it came to the decisive step, timing was everything.
On February 14, 1876, Bell filed his application for the patent. But he was not alone: On February 14, 1876, Bell filed his patent application. But he was not alone: That same day, inventor and telegraph expert Elisha Gray also sought a patent for a similar invention. Bell, however, came out ahead. Just two hours made the difference, and on March 7, 1876, he was granted the patent. But that was not the end of the story: Gray and other inventors challenged Bell’s claim, triggering a series of legal battles that dragged on for years. At last, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Bell’s patent rights.
On July 9, 1877, Bell and his business partners founded the Bell Telephone Company. Before that, they had attempted to sell the patents to Western Union for $100,000 – an offer the powerful telegraph company turned down. The technology that had initially been dismissed as commercially unpromising would soon turn its inventor into a millionaire.
Bringing the world closer together
Bell’s changing financial fortunes were only one part of the story. As the telephone took off, it also transformed the way people communicated. For the first time, conversations could take place across great distances, making it easier to maintain both business and personal relationships. It would take almost another century, however, for the technology itself to become mobile. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first public call on a handheld mobile phone in New York. Around ten years later, Motorola launched the DynaTAC 8000X, the first commercially produced mobile phone. The arrival of the smartphone eventually turned the telephone into an everyday companion that could serve as a navigation system, camera, calendar, bank branch, news portal and entertainment device all in one. Today, many tasks can be handled regardless of location.
Ironically, the original purpose of the device appears to be losing ground: According to a recent study by German digital association Bitkom, smartphones are used for an average of 180 minutes per day– but only 26 of those minutes are spent making phone calls. Yet the original idea behind the telephone remains unchanged – bringing people together regardless of distance or location.
