1-630-477 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Scottish-born American inventor, 1926. Bell produced the first intelligible telephone transmission on 5 June 1875. He patented the device as the telephone in 1876, beating rival inventor Elisha Gray, who had invented his own version, to the US patent office by just 2 hours. Bell, who became a naturalised American in 1874, also invented the phonograph (1880) and the gramophone (1887). From An Outline of Christianity, The Story of Our Civilisation, volume 4: Christianity and Modern Thought, edited by RG Parsons and AS Peake, published by the Waverley Book Club (London, 1926).