Question Who is credited with inventing the telephone?

Answer

Alexander Graham Bell is credited with being the inventor of the telephone since his patent and demonstrations for an apparatus designed for “transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically…causing electrical undulations” were successful.

Bell is known as the father of the telephone as his design was the first to be patented, and it was Bell who continued the work beyond this patent to make a working device that would revolutionize the way we communicate.

Bell was granted US Patent Number 174,465 for an “Improvement in Telegraphy” on March 7, 1876, and it was March 10, 1876 that Bell declared to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you!” over the lines of his working telephone, as he wrote in his laboratory journal.  There is some dispute over the exact words used. Sometimes the line is cited as “Watson, come here, I want you!” which Bell said in the ceremonial first transcontinental telephone call, and quoted by the Bell Company throughout its history.

However, his invention did not come to be in isolation. There are many others who are often put forward as co-inventors, such as Antonio Meucci, Johann Reis and Elisha Gray.

Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone in 1849. In 1871, he filed a caveat (an announcement of an invention, often a precursor to a patent) for his design of a talking telegraph. Due to financial hardships, Meucci could not renew his caveat. His role in the invention of the telephone was overlooked until the United States House of Representatives passed a Resolution on June 11, 2002, honoring Meucci’s contributions and work. You can read the resolution (107th Congress, H Res 269) on Congress.gov.

Johann Philipp Reis is another inventor who is sometimes cited as another candidate to be the inventor of the telephone. Reis was a physics teacher in Germany who developed a device that transmitted speech (albeit badly) in the early 1860s. He called his apparatus a “telefon,” the first time the term was used to refer to an apparatus that converts sounds to electrical signals. Reis demonstrated his device widely, but never sought a patent nor did he continue to further develop his idea. 

The most contentious telephone invention debate is the conflict between Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. While Bell’s patent was granted on March 7, 1876, the application for this patent was submitted on February 14, 1876. That same day, but just a few hours later, Elisha Gray applied for a caveat for a very similar invention. Bell’s was the fifth entry of that day, while Gray’s was 39th.

In patent law, when two (or more) patents have potentially overlapping similarities, this triggers “interference” proceedings to determine which inventor gets the patent. Both Gray and Bell’s patent documents incorporate a “liquid transmitter” (a wire vibrating in water), which Gray claims was his idea first. The conflict went to court and the case was ruled in Bell’s favor, awarding Bell with the first patent for a telephone.

First Bell Telephone, June 1875. Emile Berliner collection, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress.

Scholars have long made allegations that Bell stole Gray’s idea, pointing to the remarkable similarity of one of Bell’s drawings to Gray’s. There are also claims that if Bell didn’t directly plagiarize from Gray, surely his lawyers or patent officials must have. However, none of these accusations have been substantiated.

This conflict shows how mythical the idea of a lone inventor often is. In this era, 250,000 miles of telegraph cables had been laid out across the country and inventors all over were working to secure the next big advancement in telegraphy, so Bell was far from the only person working on a way to transmit spoken words via wire. There are many cases throughout history where two inventors have come up with remarkably similar inventions at surprisingly similar times. Other examples of simultaneous advancement include the development of the theory of natural selection by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, the invention of the lightbulb by both Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan, and the invention of the integrated circuit by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.

Determining who gets credit for an invention isn’t always straightforward, and Bell certainly can’t be said to be the first to think that it could be possible for a voice to be carried down a wire. But he takes the forefront with the first patent, and for seeing that patent through to a working model. His technical determination and business savvy brought his invention into homes across the country, and his name into the history books.

Published: 02/22/2022. Updated 9/12/2024. Author: Science Reference Section, Library of Congress