On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully makes the first telephone call. While it would ultimately impact the lives of people around the world, that first message was a short and simple one directed at his associate: 'Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you.' Though there is debate over whether or not Bell had stolen the telephone from his rival Elisha Gray (both men had filed patents for similar designs for the telephone using a liquid transmitter on the February 14 but Bell was granted the patent on March 7), Bell had only used the liquid transmitter design for the initial proof of concept with the first call. Afterwards, he focused on refining the design of the electromagnetic transmitter. However, there were still accusations of corruptions, including accusations of a conflict of interest on the part of the patent examiner (who was in debt to Bell’s lawyer) and of an exchange of information regarding Gray’s patent caveat between the examiner and Bell. In the end, Bell managed to make the first successful phone call and went on to improve the design of the phone and one of the owners of the Bell Telephone Company (now AT&T).
