FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2022-048 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (March 10, 2022) – In Issue 2022-048 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, we celebrate the very first telephone call.

WATSON, COME HERE. I NEED TO SEE YOU

These words above were the world’s first telephone message, sent on this date in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant, Thomas Watson.

Bell, inspired by his father’s technique of teaching speech to the deaf, teamed up with Watson, who was a mechanic, to try to turn sound waves into a machine form.

Bell had just received his patent for the telephone three days before sending his famous message to Watson.  He beat out American inventor, Elisha Gray, by just a few hours in filing for the patent.  Along with his ownership of telephone instruments, Bell’s patent included the ownership of a telephone system.

Both Bell’s mother and wife were hearing-impaired.  Although his telephone invention did not solve the problem, he started out to fix, he continued working all his life with the deaf, most famously in cooperation with Helen Keller.

As Bell lived in Boston while delivering his famous message, here is Tallis’s map of Boston from 25 years prior.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon