The First Long Distance Call

The first plaque below, which can be seen on Essex Street in Salem, describes where Alexander Graham Bell lived in Salem while developing the telephone. The house in which he lived, no longer stands. It was owned by Mary Ann (Brown) Sanders.

The second plaque explains that Alexander Graham Bell made his first the first long distance phone call between the Salem Lyceum on Church Street and the Boston Globe office in Boston.

See below for more on Bell.

The First Long-Distance Phone Call

Young Thomas Watson of Salem was working in a shop that specialized in machines and electrical devices—a shop run by Charles Williams in Boston’s Scollay Square. At the age of 18, Watson learned to make telegraph equipment and fire alarm mechanisms. He soon earned a fine reputation as a skilled technician—one who could solve problems that had other electricians and mechanics baffled. It was in Williams’ shop that Watson met a tall man, quick of mind and unusually nimble of body for his size—a man named Alexander Graham Bell. Bell, it turned out, lived in Salem, Watson’s home town. Bell had lived there since 1873 in the attic of Mrs. Sanders’ house on Essex Street. During that time he’d been working feverishly on a device he called the telephone. 

Bell had been born in Scotland in 1847 into a family with an established reputation in the field of speech. His father had long been recognized as an authority on elocution and speech correction. The family emigrated to Canada in 1870. Within two years they moved to Boston. Graham soon opened a training center for teachers of the deaf and was later appointed professor of speech and vocal physiology at Boston University. 

Bell liked what he saw in Watson and Watson was inspired by what Bell was trying to do. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. On February 12, 1877, Bell made the first long-distance phone call in history from the Lyceum in Salem to Watson at the  Boston Globe in Boston.  

The phone Bell was using in his demonstration was what he called his “Long Distance” telephone. It was a wooden box about ten inches-by-ten-by-eight with a hole in the front. The caller would speak and listen through the same hole. Thomas Watson had devised a “thumper” that was used to signal the receiver that a call was coming through. Bell now held the thumper and made a tapping sound on the diaphragm, which in turn recreated the same sound on the diaphragm in Watson’s phone in Boston. Moments later, Bell heard a sound in his phone signifying that Watson was ready for the communication. 

Bell leaned close to the box and spoke into the speaking device—loud enough for his Lyceum audience to hear.

     “Mr. Watson, can you hear me?”

For a moment, the only thing the audience heard was a crackling sound coming from the receiving device. Then a voice came through. “Yes, sir, I hear you.” A brief pause. Crackle, scratch. Then, “Mr. Bell, I should like to sing a song for your audience in Salem. Are you ready?”  □

Note: A number of books have been published claiming that Elisha Gray invented the telephone and that Bell took credit for it. The fact is that both inventors filed with the patent office on February 14, 1876, and Bell's filing was given credit for being first. How this came about is an intriguing and fascinating story worthy of further reading. It appears clear that both had invented the phone independently of each other. It is also clear that Bell got to the market first and did a better job of promoting his invention.