Today In History - "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you. "

It was March 10, 1876 when those words were shouted into the mouthpiece of a contraption that has since become indispensable in modern day life. Yes, those were the words spoken by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas A. Watson (photo was dated 1876 and is actually one of Bell speaking into a prototype of the telephone). Watson quickly obeyed Bell's command to come to him for he had heard Bell's words clearly. While Watson was only as far away as the next room, he may as well have been a world away for the means by which he had heard Bell was the first telephone, and the telephone has definitely bridged a gap as wide as the world when it comes to communication. As a matter of fact, in 1915, when Bell was invited to participate in the celebration of the completed transcontinental telephone lines, he again uttered those same words to his faithful assistant Watson. This time Watson replied that it would take at least a week for him to do so. You see Watson was in San Fransicko Francisco at the time and Bell was calling him from New York City!

For more info see:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr002.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html (go to March 10 if this brings up another day).

All the best,
Glenn B