Today In History; Alexander Graham Bell Granted Patent For Telephone

1876: Although Alexander Graham Bell did not actually invent the first telephone (that honor goes to Italian-American Antonio Meucci), his improvements on the invention made it practical. Bell patented his method of using electromagnetic signals to duplicate sound vibrations across wires. He also experimented with the phonograph, an early way to reproduce sound and music by machine, and the photophone, transmission of sound on a beam of light, the precursor of modern fiber optics.