Telecommunications

Alexander Graham Bell: inventions and patents

Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, received US Patent 174,465 on 7 March 1876 for an improvement in telegraphy, the patent associated with the telephone. The National Inventors Hall of Fame says the telephone grew out of his research on improving the telegraph, and that he worked with the model maker Thomas Watson. He also developed the photophone and founded the National Geographic Society in 1888.^1,2

Patents

Inventions

• Telephone, 1876. An apparatus for transmitting sound by electricity, which the Hall of Fame says grew out of his research on improving the telegraph.¹
• Photophone. A device that transmitted sound on a beam of light, described by the Hall of Fame as a precursor of optical fibre systems.¹

Recognition

• 1974 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame¹

Sources

1. National Inventors Hall of Fame, Alexander Graham Bell (accessed 2026-10-27)
2. Google Patents, US174465A Improvement in telegraphy (accessed 2026-10-27)