was awarded on March 7 , 1876 , granting him ownership of his telephone system as well as the instruments in the system .
A mere three days after receiving patent 174,465 , Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first discernable speech , “ Mr . Watson , come here ; I want you .” to his long-time assistant , Thomas Watson who was in a separate room of the building .
THOMAS EDISON AND THE PHONOGRAPH Thomas Alva Edison was an important inventor ! His inventions contributed to the fields of : electric power generation , mass communication , sound recording , and motion pictures . Among his important inventions were the phonograph , motion picture camera , and early versions of the electric light bulb .
Thomas Edison invented the cylinder-recording phonograph in 1877 . It radically changed the relationship between listeners and performers because , for the first time , great performances could be captured and replayed for tens , hundreds , and even thousands of years !
The Alexander Graham Bell Telephone , New York the signal — similar in many ways to using two tin cans and a string — on steroids . His intent was to build a device that could transmit the human voice over telegraph-like wires — at that time , transmitting morse code over telegraph lines was the only means of instantaneous , long-distance , bidirectional communication . Later in that same year , Bell demonstrated his liquid microphone at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in June of 1876 . At the root of this design was a diaphragm with a conductive needle connected , suspended above a container filled with acidified liquid . The sympathetic reaction to sound waves vibrated the diaphragm , which moved the needle up and down in the liquid . The movement of the needle in the liquid was the source of the varying electrical current that was transmitted to the receiver .
With the successful transmission of sound from the microphone to the receiver , Alexander Graham Bell , on February 14 , 1876 , applied for a patent on his microphone design and the telephone system . Only a few hours after Bell applied for his patent , Elisha Gray — another American inventor — submitted a caveat to the U . S . Patent Office , informing them of his intent to apply for a patent very similar to Bell ’ s . Since Bell applied first , his patent ( U . S patent 174,465 )
Though the liquid microphone appeared to be the best solution at that time , it was still impractical and not robust enough to be a practical solution for the needs of a truly viable telephone system , not to mention that it didn ’ t sound very good .