Throughout his life, Alexander Graham Bell had been interested in the education of deaf people. This interest led him to consider improvement of the telegraph. When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years with its Morse code-like signals. Before long, Bell found success with a device that could transmit speech as opposed to simple signals.

He first invented the microphone and, in 1876, Bell's experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally led to full success.

On March 10th of that year, Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his electrical speech machine to his assistant in the next room. According to the famous story, "Watson, come here; I want you,” became the first complete sentence to be transmitted by what we now call a telephone. He was just 29 years old.

Other inventors, however, are also credited with the invention of the telephone. Elisha Gray, one of those individuals, is said to have filed for a patent on the same day as Bell. The two inventors had simultaneously designed an electrical device for practical verbal communication. Gray, unfortunately, arrived two hours late to file his application and never mastered his design until after Bell had.

Alexander Graham Bell had created the first, modern prototype of the telephone; a device that would revolutionize everyday life and go on to pave the way for the information superhighway we live in today.