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My interview with William Coughlin, head of AT&T’s Archives and History Center, began with an ironic incident. The Microsoft Teams video call failed, so we ended up talking on the “normal” call. phone.
“Normal” may not be entirely accurate, given the infrastructure. But it was fitting for the topic of our conversation: the first phone call, which occurred exactly 150 years ago.
On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell famously exclaimed to his assistant: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” This sentence crossed a single copper wire into the next room. Although the technology that enables communication has changed radically over the past century and a half, the experience has remained essentially the same. Two people in two different locations were having a conversation—and seeking to communicate—in real time.
Colin told me that Bill had been working on the experiments for a year by then. But although he was able to transmit speech sounds over copper wire in 1875, it was incomprehensible. “Watson could hear the noises and voices, but he couldn’t understand what Bill was saying. But Bill knew he was on the right track at that point,” Cullen said.
These experiences culminated on March 10, when the sounds became clear.
Read more: AT&T says it is pumping $250 billion into new infrastructure improvements
Antiques of the future
To celebrate the anniversary of that first transmission, AT&T She created a pop-up exhibition at her Dallas headquarters, which is open to the public through Thursday, March 12.
Some notable artefacts on display from this day 150 years ago include the copper wire through which the letter was sent, which in 1914 was wound into a loose spool and placed behind glass. There is also Thomas Watson’s notebook, where he recorded those historic first words.
“It is one of the greatest treasures in our collection,” Colin said.
The original copper wire through which Bell sent the first telephone call in 1876 is on display in a pop-up exhibit.
The first transcontinental call, with Bell at the center, took place in New York City in 1915. In front of the person to Bell’s right is the original copper wire used in the first telephone call in 1876.
From left, AT&T chief engineer John J. Carty; New York City Board Chairman George McEneaney; Vice President AT&T UN Bethell; Alexander Graham Bell; New York City Mayor John Burrowy Mitchell; Nebraska Telephone Company President Casper E. Yost; and New York City Comptroller William A. Prendergast.
Thomas Watson recorded in his diary what was said during Bell’s first phone call.
With its red ribbon and official seal, the original patent dated March 7, 1876 for “Improvement in Telegraphy” is said to be the most valuable patent ever granted.
In a pop-up exhibit at AT&T headquarters, Bell’s original patent for the telephone is framed, along with the copper wire used to transmit the first telephone call and Watson’s notebook that recorded the experiments.
The telephone occupied Bell’s attention for only a few years. Although it launched an industry, Bell was still tinkering elsewhere, according to Cullen.
“He was a lifelong learner, scientist, and researcher, and although he left the telephone business in 1878, he continued to experiment.”
Cullen said that Bell considered the photophone his greatest invention. In 1880, Bell transmitted a human voice through a beam of light. It was a precursor to today’s fiber-optic cables, which do the same thing: send pulses of light through glass fibers over thousands of miles. Bell transmitted his voice using mirrors and a parabolic receiver 1,300 feet away in another building. It required direct sunlight, but the sound was very clear.
Bell patented the “photophone,” a system for transmitting sound via rays of light using mirrors and large parabolas.
Also in the archive is the original transistor invented by AT&T physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, which Coughlin says is “the second greatest invention to ever come out of AT&T.”
It’s the technology behind most of the items on my desk and whatever device you’re reading this story on. “In your smartphone, you have approximately 20 billion transistors,” Colin noted.
His 1950 patent is also included in the collection.
The first transistor is part of the AT&T archives.
Communications then and now
At a Boston laboratory in 1876, the network consisted of a copper wire running from Bell’s transmitter to the receiver that Watson was using. Now, AT&T says it’s moving exabytes (1 billion gigabytes, or the equivalent of nearly 4 million storage units). iPhone 17e smartphones) of data across its network every day.
Voice calls represent a small portion of that traffic. The technology that connects our phones — 5G networks, fiber backbone, and satellite calling — continues to evolve even as the number of calls remains a small part of how we communicate. Nearly three times as many text messages will pass through AT&T’s network in 2025.
I, personally, always prefer to chat via text rather than make a phone call, mostly for the sake of it.
But the phone calls didn’t go away. If anything, they would have turned into a nuisance, considering A barrage of fraudulent calls And now impersonal Artificial intelligence-based customer service systems Which hinders human communication. Today’s carriers and phone makers are having to implement more aggressive measures Filter toolsthough with mixed success.
However, when I want to connect with someone and focus my full attention on them, a voice call or video call is the way to do it. And unlike the old days, I can make a call from anywhere without worrying about long distance charges. Well, I don’t need to memorize phone numbers anymore – just tap one of my favorite contacts or ask the resident voice assistant to make the call for me.
No doubt Bill knew the importance of hearing someone’s voice directly over the telephone line. A century and a half later, through amazing advances in telephone technology, this communication is still valuable.