Alexander Graham Bell Was Born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Son of Alexander

The first telephone made by Bell and his collaborator was a very crude device made of a wooden stand, a funnel (the kind you use to pour oil into a bottle), a cup of acid and copper wire.

The invention of the telephone has an interesting story. Bell filed his patent application just hours before his competitor, Elisha Gray, filed notice to soon patent a telephone himself. What's more, though neither man had actually built a working telephone, Bell made his telephone operate three weeks later. Elisha Gray was a professional inventor who already had several telegraph equipment patents to his name. Alexander Graham Bell saw telephony as the driving force in his early life. He became consumed with inventing the telephone. Born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Graham was raised in a family involved with music and the spoken word. His mother painted and played music. His father originated a system called visible speech that helped the deaf to speak. His grandfather was a lecturer and speech teacher. Bell's college courses included lectures on anatomy and physiology. His entire education and upbringing revolved around the mechanics of speech and sound. Several people were working on making a working telephone but most of them understood electricity and little about acoustics, the study of sound. Bell had a life long passion for acoustics while his collaborator Watson was very accomplished in electrical gadgets.

All of us have consulted the phone directory at some time. Did you know that the first telephone directory came out on February 21, 1878? It was single sheet of paper and guess how many names it had? Fifty! George Williard Coy and a group of investors in the New Haven District Telephone Company at 219 Chapel Street produced it. It was followed quickly by a Boston Telephone Despatch Company's listing.

In 1878, the first telephone was installed in the White House. The then President, Rutherford B. Hayes made the first call to, yes, Alexander Graham Bell himself who was sitting thirteen miles away! And what were the President’s first words? He instructed Bell to speak a bit slowly so that he could follow what was being said!

In 1889 the first public coin telephone came into use in Hartford, Connecticut.