The date was March 10, 1876. The place was a small laboratory in a Boston boardinghouse. A young man was working with an electrical instrument that was wired to one in another room, suddenly the instrument spoke: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you."

The end of the 1877 the Bell Telephone Company had been formed, and many phones were in use. Bell himself did not take part in the mean telephone business that developed.