
English: 
...and after years on a
single-minded quesé#t, Alexander
Graham Bell famously utters two
short sentences that still echo
more than a hundred years later.
>> Mr. Watson, come here.
I want you.
>> EDWIN GROSVENOR: In fact, I
read this in his journal that he
wrote that night.
He said, "I shouted into the
mouthpiece, 'Mr. Watson, come
here.
I want to see you.'
And to my delight, he came."
This was the first time that
anybody had ever transmitted
intelligible speech as opposed
to just tones.éé
>> ROWE: Alexander Graham Bell
was born on March 3, 1847, in
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Both his father and his
grandfather taught elocution,
and his mother was deaf.

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English: 
>> GROSVENOR: Alec, even as a
boy, was steeped in hearing and
voice and speech and
understanding how the human
voice was produced and how
people hear.
>> ROWE: Eventually settling inY
Boston, Bell himself became aé5
teacher of the deaf.
He also studied physics, and in
the early 1870s, spurred on by
his interest in acoustics, Bell
set out to improve the
telegraph.
>> GROSVENOR: Originally, Bell
was actually trying to invent a
telegraph which could send
multiple signals through the
same wire, and his financial
backing was for the multiple
telegraph, but he felt that the
human voice-- being able to
transmit that over wires-- was
just much more powerful.
>> ROWE: Bell soon discovered
that if you're going to change
the world, you're going to needT
a little help.

English: 
Bell found his in a young
electrician named Thomas A.é4
Watson.xX GROSVENOR: Bell's finl
backers hired Watson to help hiR
manufacture the models.éR
In othther words, Bell would sot
of draw them, come up with a
concept and then Watson would
help make the apparatus.
>> ROWE: Slowly, Bell and WatsoP
refined their inventions.
éPAt first, they could only
transmit sounds and tones, but
by early 1876, both men kné1ew
they were close.
On March 7, Bell applied for a
patent on the telephone.
The "eureka" moment came three
days later.
As the story goes, Bell and
Watson are working in separate
rooms.
Bell accidentally spills some
battery acid, prompting theéN
spontaneous comment that would
become the first words ever
transmité.ted electronically,
though what he actually said may
be open to debate.éO
>> GROSVENOR: If he had spilled
acid, he probably wouldnéJ't hae

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English: 
said, "Mr. Watson, come here. I
need you."
He probably would have said
something a little stronger.
>> ROWE: The invention wasé,
introduced to the public at the
Centennial Exhibition in
Philadelphia on June 25, 1876,
and the Bell Telephone CompanyéK
was founded the next year.
Eventually, telephone cables
would blanket the world.
While Bell continued to invent,I
designing hydrofoils, vacuum
jackets and even improving on
Edison's sound recording
machine, he will always be
remembered for the telephone.
>> GROSVENOR: The telephone led
to so much of what we know is,
you know...
So much of our modern life is
cell phones, fax, Internet,
e-mail.
All that began with the
telephone.
It was such an important and
transforming invention.éE

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English: 
éD
>> ROWE: In 1877, Rutherford B.
Hayes became the first U.S.
pré+esident to use a telephone
when he had a conversation with
Alexander Graham Bell.
Hayes was reported to have said,
"Please speak more slowly."
By the time Bell died in 1922,
there had probably been
countless such miscommunications
on that momentous invention oféa
his.
As a tribute to Bell, all
telephone service in the United
States was halted for one minute
during his funeral, but they
haven't stopped ringing since.
For the History Channel,
I'm Mike Rowe.
Join me next time on The Most.
