On March 10, 1876, the first successful voice transmission* over Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say: “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.”

A pioneer in the field of telecommunications*, Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He moved to the United States, settling in Boston, before beginning his career as an inventor.

Throughout his life, Bell had been interested in the education of deaf people. This interest lead him to invent the microphone* and, in 1876, his “electrical speech machine,” which we now call a telephone.

News of his invention quickly spread throughout the country, even throughout Europe. By 1878, Bell had set up the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut. By 1884, long distance connections were made between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City.

Since his death in 1922, the telecommunication industry has undergone* an amazing revolution.