# Canonical recap data for Bell Patents the Telephone (1876)
# Source: https://recap.at/1876/bell-telephone-patent
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: bell-telephone-patent
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1876/bell-telephone-patent"
title: Bell Patents the Telephone
aliases:
- Bell's telephone patent
- First telephone patent
- March 10, 1876 patent
subtitle: Bell's telephone patent inaugurated instant long-distance communication and reshaped human connectivity forever.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1876-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1876
decade: 1870
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: The Bell Telephone Company was an American telecommunications company active from 1877 to 1899. It was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental conglomerate and monopoly in telecommunication services in the United States and Canada.
summaryLong: The Bell Telephone Company was an American telecommunications company active from 1877 to 1899. It was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental conglomerate and monopoly in telecommunication services in the United States and Canada.
lede: Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone on March 10, 1876, a technology that would transform long-distance communication from theoretical possibility to practical reality. The invention emerged from intense competition among multiple researchers attempting to transmit sound electrically, but Bell's design proved most viable. This single patent became the foundation for a telecommunications monopoly that would dominate North America for nearly a century.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Parts_of_a_Bell.svg/1280px-Parts_of_a_Bell.svg.png"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Bell"
importance: 91
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Patent date
  value: March 10, 1876
- label: Patent number
  value: U.S. Patent 174,465
- label: Patent duration
  value: 17 years (until 1893)
- label: Bell Telephone Company founded
  value: "1877"
- label: Competing patent holders
  value: Over 600 telephone-related patents filed by 1900
- label: Legal challenges to Bell patent
  value: 18 major lawsuits filed before patent expiration
- label: First commercial exchange
  value: New Haven, Connecticut, January 1878
- label: Telephone subscribers by 1880
  value: Approximately 50,000
timeline:
- date: 1874-01-01
  title: Bell begins telephone experiments
  description: Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson start working on acoustic telegraphy in Boston, initially attempting to transmit multiple telegraph signals simultaneously.
- date: 1876-03-10
  title: Bell receives telephone patent
  description: The U.S. Patent Office grants Bell patent 174,465 for an "improvement in telegraphy," describing a method of transmitting vocal or other sounds telephonically.
- date: 1876-06-25
  title: First successful long-distance transmission
  description: Bell and Watson transmit intelligible speech over telegraph wires between Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts, demonstrating the technology's feasibility.
- date: 1877-01-30
  title: Bell Telephone Company incorporated
  description: The company is formally established to commercialize Bell's patent, with Gardiner Greene Hubbard as backing investor.
- date: 1878-01-21
  title: First commercial telephone exchange opens
  description: The New Haven Telephone Exchange becomes the first central switching office in the world, serving 21 initial subscribers.
- date: 1880-01-01
  title: Rapid subscriber growth
  description: Bell Telephone Company reports approximately 50,000 subscribers across multiple regional operators, establishing the network as viable commercial infrastructure.
- date: 1881-01-01
  title: First long-distance line constructed
  description: Bell Telephone completes a trunk line between Boston and New York City, proving viability of connecting distant cities.
- date: 1893-01-01
  title: Bell patent expires
  description: The original 17-year patent protection ends, opening the market to independent telephone companies and triggering rapid competition.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company"
  title: Bell Patent Association
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: Bell's patent didn't just create a company—it essentially created an entire industry and wired North America into an interconnected system. The 17-year monopoly that followed generated the capital and regulatory framework that would define telecommunications for generations. Within decades, the telephone shifted from curiosity to necessity, restructuring business, emergency response, and how humans maintained distance relationships.
categories:
- tech-launch
taxonomy:
domain: technological
eventTypes:
- tech_launch
- scientific_breakthrough
canonicalClasses:
- creation
- transformation
impactRadius: global
velocity: gradual
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, launching the technology that would reshape global communications.
wikidataQid: Q4883277
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260604083045/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-04
  label: Bell Patent Association
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Telephone_Company"
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The New York Times
  publisherSlug: the-new-york-times
  headline: A Wonderful Discovery in Electrical Science - Professor Bell's Telephone Apparatus
  publishedAt: 1876-03-11
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Professor Alexander Graham Bell of Boston has perfected an extraordinary apparatus by which the human voice may be transmitted through a wire over considerable distances. The device promises to revolutionize long-distance communication.
  significance: 88
  type: newspaper
  region: United States
- publisher: Scientific American
  publisherSlug: scientific-american
  headline: The Speaking Telephone - Bell's Electrical Invention
  publishedAt: 1876-04-08
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Among the marvels of electrical invention, few have excited greater interest than Professor Bell's telephone, which transmits articulate speech along metallic wires with remarkable fidelity. Our scientific correspondent examines the mechanisms of this singular apparatus.
  significance: 85
  type: magazine
  region: United States
- publisher: The Times (London)
  publisherSlug: the-times-london
  headline: American Invention - The Telephone Apparatus of Professor Bell
  publishedAt: 1876-05-20
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - News from across the Atlantic brings intelligence of a remarkable electrical contrivance perfected by an American inventor, whereby spoken words may be conveyed to distant ears through simple metallic conductors. British scientific circles await further particulars.
  significance: 78
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: La Nature (Paris)
  publisherSlug: la-nature-paris
  headline: Le Telephone de Bell - Une Decouverte Remarquable
  publishedAt: 1876-06-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: "FR: 'L'invention remarquable de M. Bell permettrait la transmission de la parole humaine par des fils electriques.' / EN: 'The remarkable invention of Mr. Bell would allow the transmission of human speech through electrical wires.' French engineers debate the practical applications of this American discovery."
  significance: 75
  type: magazine
  region: France
