On March 10, 1876, the first understandable speech was transmitted by telephone when inventor Alexander Graham Bell summons his assistant in another room by saying, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.” Bell had just that week received a comprehensive telephone patent.
If Bell had only known what his invention would lead to a century plus later!
Bell began the journey to the invention of the telephone via his work as a teacher of speech to the deaf, and he became a professor of vocal physiology at Boston University.
On March 10, 1876, Bell conducted the famous test of his telephone for the first time in his Boston home. In the following months, he publicly demonstrated the invention before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston, and at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. That fall, he successfully tested his telephone over a two-mile distance between Boston and Cambridgeport.
In 1877, Alexander Graham Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company with two investors, and the first commercial applications of the telephone took place.
I wonder what Bell would think of cellular telephone service, and video phones? What would he make of the average guy talking on his telephone while he walks down the street, or drives in his car (being developed about the same time as the phone). I think maybe the most remarkable thing about those two inventions today is that they are ubiquitous in our society, in use by the rich and poor alike, and everyone in between.
Stella's Place 
When I saw the headline, my thought was, “Yeah, so? Trump does this all the time.” {snort} Now I get it. 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
You must have missed the “today in history” part.
LikeLiked by 2 people
No, it just didn’t register. 🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
To put this in another perspective, the 1870’s was the gold rush period of Western Medicine. Everyone was trying to “invent” something to make it big with and become fabulously rich. Product after product was invented for which here was no actual aliment for, or was completely unrelated to the symptoms. Bell was trying to invent a “hearing aid”, not the long distance voice communication device. He was one of thousands of opportunistic hucksters from that time period. The difference in his case was that the failed device had another application.
There are a lot of other factors involved in the ubiquitous nature of personal communications. Much of it has to do with marketing and sales. But if anyone could be directly linked to technology we see and ignore today, it would be Nikola Tesla. Outside of the speaking and listening, technically,the cellular “smart phone” has more to do with Tesla’s work than Bell’s.
LikeLiked by 2 people
True enough. Bell’s wife was deaf, his father was a teacher of the deaf, and so was Bell. He had an interest in helping the deaf, but fell into the telephone thing. I have a lot of admiration for Tesla, who was cheated out of a lot because he was more interested in the development of his ideas than enriching himself.
Tesla builtThere is an alternating current power station in Ames, Colorado, which uses Tesla-designed equipment (one of my favorite parts of the world, which is why I know about it) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Hydroelectric_Generating_PlantAnyway, I included the Bell post because of the “Day in History”. Get it?
LikeLiked by 2 people
P.S.: Don’t be so serious.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was trying to be conversational, but I’m in the middle of other things so it came out blunt. I’m sorry. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person