Bell, Gray and the Telephone

The telegraph needed trained operators and code; the telephone let ordinary people speak directly. Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher of deaf students, filed his patent application on 14 February 1876, the same day Elisha Gray filed a notice for a similar idea, and Bell's patent was granted on 7 March. Three days later he spoke to his assistant Thomas Watson through the device. Bell's patent became the basis of a giant company, and it survived hundreds of legal challenges.

The first commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1878. Exchanges employed many young women as switchboard operators, one of the first large-scale office jobs for women. At first, telephone companies marketed the device for business; ordinary users turned it into a tool for social conversation. The telephone shows that users, not just inventors, decide what a technology is for.