ABSTRACT

On March 10,1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the tele­ phone. He filed his application for a patent just hours before his competitor, Elisha Gray.

While we're not going to cover it all here, the history of tele­ communications is a fascinating story. In the beginning, with multiple local telephone companies competing, you may have had three separate telephone instruments on your desk to call people who subscribed to one of the three different services.