Who ACTUALLY Invented the Telephone?

Did Alexander Graham Bell actually invent the telephone? How about Elisha Gray? Or what about Antonio Meucci who both Italy and even U.S. Congress at one point acknowledged as the true inventor of the telephone... But is there any actual truth to his story, or was it a major flub by Congress? And what about the oft' forgotten Johann Philip Reis who there was even a bonafide conspiracy to suppress his part. Well sit back and relax as we dive into sorting through this mess and determine who actually invented the telephone.

“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”

Along with “What Hath God Wrought?”, the first U.S. telegraph message sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844; and the letter S, the first transatlantic radio signal sent by Guglielmo Marconi on December 12, 1901, these are perhaps the most consequential words in the history of modern communications. Spoken by Scottish-American inventor Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876, they are widely believed to constitute history’s first ever telephone call. Bell had patented his “speaking telegraph” just three days prior, and, following this historic demonstration, events moved quickly. On June 25 of that same year, Bell demonstrated the telephone before stunned crowds at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, while on October 9 he and Watson succeeded in holding a conversation over a two mile telephone line strung between Boston and Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. In 1877, Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company - today AT&T - while in 1878 the first commercial telephone exchange was installed in New Haven, Connecticut. The new technology quickly spread around the world, shrinking the globe, making Bell and Watson, very wealthy men, and cementing their place in history as the fathers of modern telecommunications.

…at least, that’s the version of events we’re all taught in school. But like with basically every invention ever made by humans, Bell and Watson were far from alone in their pursuit of telephony, with many of their rivals being hot on their heels. So hot, in fact, that some have argued that the dynamic duo were not, in fact, the true inventors of the telephone, and that their place in history was the result not of superior brains and grit or even sheer dumb luck, but rather underhanded legal and political chicanery - a conspiracy that has lain forgotten in the annals of history for 150 years.

But is any of it actually true? Here now is the true story of the invention of the telephone.

Author: Gilles Messier Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices