| 1870 |
May 28 |
Older brother Melville Bell dies of tuberculosis at the age of 25. |
|
|
July-August |
Bell, his parents, and his sister-in-law, Carrie Bell, emigrate to Canada and settle in Brantford, Ontario. |
| 1871 |
April |
Moving to Boston, Bell begins teaching at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. |
| 1872 |
March-June |
Bell teaches at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Boston and at the American Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. |
|
April 8 |
Bell meets Boston attorney Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who will become one of his financial backers and his father-in-law. |
|
Fall |
Bell opens his School of Vocal Physiology in Boston and starts experimenting with the multiple telegraph. Brochure for Bell's School of Vocal Physiology |
| 1873 |
|
Boston University appoints Bell Professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at its School of Oratory. Mabel Hubbard, his future wife, becomes one of his private pupils. |
| 1874 |
Spring |
Bell conducts acoustics experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He and Clarence Blake, a Boston ear specialist, begin experimenting with the mechanics of the human ear and the phonautograph, a device that could translate sound vibrations into visible tracings. |
|
Summer |
In Brantford, Ontario, Bell first conceives of the idea for the telephone. Bell's original sketch of the telephone Bell meets Thomas Watson, a young electrician who would become his assistant, at Charles Williams's electrician shop in Boston. |
Alexander Graham Bell's design sketch of the telephone.
Sketches, undated; handwritten text top and bottom of page, 1876.
Box 273, "Subject File: The Telephone--Drawing of the Telephone, Bell's Original."
Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers,
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
|
| 1875 |
January |
Watson begins working with Bell more regularly. |
|
February |
Thomas Sanders, a wealthy leather merchant whose deaf son studied with Bell, and Gardiner Greene Hubbard enter into a formal partnership with Bell in which they provide financial backing for his inventions. |
|
March 1-2 |
Bell visits noted scientist Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian Institution and explains to him his idea for the telephone. Henry recognizes the significance of Bell's work and offers him encouragement. |
|
November 25 |
Mabel Hubbard and Bell become engaged to be married. Letter from Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell |
| 1876 |
February 14 |
Bell's telephone patent application is filed at the United States Patent Office; Elisha Gray's attorney files a caveat for a telephone just a few hours later. |
|
March 7 |
United States Patent No. 174,465 is officially issued for Bell's telephone. |
|
March 10 |
Intelligible human speech is heard over the telephone for the first time when Bell calls to Watson, "Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you." Page from Bell's notebook |
|
June 25 |
Bell demonstrates the telephone for Sir William Thomson (Baron Kelvin) and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Letter from Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell |
| 1877 |
July 9 |
Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders, and Thomas Watson form the Bell Telephone Company. |
|
|
July 11 |
Mabel Hubbard and Bell are married. |
|
August 4 |
Bell and his wife leave for England and remain there for a year. |
| 1878 |
January 14 |
Bell demonstrates the telephone for Queen Victoria. |
|
May 8 |
Elsie May Bell, a daughter, is born. |
|
September 12 |
Patent litigation involving the Bell Telephone Company against Western Union Telegraph Company and Elisha Gray begins. |
| 1879 |
February-March |
The Bell Telephone Company merges with the New England Telephone Company to become the National Bell Telephone Company. |
|
November 10 |
Western Union and the National Bell Telephone Company reach a settlement. Newspaper article |
