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A plaque commemorating the historic
first transmittance of sound over wire is located in front of the John
F. Kennedy Building on Cambridge Street. The marker reads, "Birthplace of the
Telephone. Here, on June 2, 1875, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A.
Watson first transmitted sound over wires. This successful experiment
was completed in a fifth floor garret at what was then 109 Court Street and
marked the beginning of world-wide telephone service." Mr. Watson had
twanged a clock spring in their experimental telegraphic device, which Mr.
Bell physically heard on a 2nd device.
On March 10th, 1876, at the same workshop on Court Street, Alexander Graham Bell shouted the famous words, "Mr.
Watson, Come Here, I Want to See You." Thomas Watson, his
assistant, surprisingly heard Bell's voice over their telegraphic contraption,
and this event marks the first use of a telephone in history.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was an immigrant from Scotland. He
worked in the field of vocal physiology, and as a teacher for the deaf.
Bell moved to Boston in the early 1870s, and became a professor at Boston
University. He was compelled to invent a device that would transmit
sound over telegraph wires. At the age of 29, his dream was
fulfilled when Mr. Watson came to his aid after hearing his voice through
his experimental telephone.
The telephone was first exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
in 1876, which gained Bell instant fame. Patent conflicts with the Western Union Telegraph Company were resolved in the next few years, and
Bell's company eventually became American Telephone and Telegraph. AT&T, or Ma Bell, was known for great innovation and service, and was
broken into smaller companies by government mandate in 1984. The
decibel, or unit of volume, was named in honor of Alexander Graham Bell.
Bell's Notebook Sketch of the First Telephone
Image courtesy of
Library of Congress.
Directions:
The marker rests in front of the John F. Kennedy Building on Cambridge
Street. From Government Center Station on the
MBTA Blue and Green Lines, walk north on Cambridge Street. The marker
is directly in front of the first building on the right, at the northwest corner of City
Hall Plaza.
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