Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist and inventor best known for inventing the first working telephone in 1876 and founding the Bell Telephone Company in 1877. Bell’s success came through his experiments in sound and the furthering of his family’s interest in assisting the deaf with communication.

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.

In the 1870s, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. Both men rushed their respective designs for these prototype telephones to the patent office within hours of each other. Bell patented his telephone first and later emerged the victor in a legal dispute with Gray.

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully received a patent for the telephone and secured the rights to the discovery. Days later, he made the first ever telephone call to his partner, Thomas Watson. The telephone revolutionized communication by allowing conversations to take place between individuals at different locations.