How did the first telephone conversation in history go?

On October 9, 1876, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson conducted the first two-way telephone conversation from outside the laboratory. Lasting nearly three hours, this experiment became a milestone in the development of telephony.

According to the Smithsonian Libraries, on that day Bell was at the office of Walworth Manufacturing Company in Boston, USA, and Watson was in neighboring Cambridge. To establish communication, instead of stringing a new line, they used the telegraph wire connecting the company's office and factory.

During the historic conversation, the two inventors kept separate notes of what was said. Their records were later published together. This event is also commemorated on a plaque installed in Cambridgeport in 1961.

Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the invention of the telephone on March 7, 1876. He had submitted the application on February 14. Interestingly, on that exact same day, another inventor, Elisha Gray, filed a preliminary application for a similar device.

On March 10, 1876, Bell successfully transmitted the human voice over the telephone. At that time, he said to his assistant: "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" These words went down in history as the first famous sentence transmitted via telephone.

On August 10 of that year, Bell also tested telephone communication between the cities of Brantford and Paris in Canada. However, this experiment did not involve a two-way conversation.

Therefore, the experiment carried out on October 9 holds special significance in the history of the telephone. It demonstrated that two people in different locations could hear each other and communicate freely over the telephone.