Bell's "Box" Telephone
1876

The most valuable patent ever issued by the U.S. Patent Office
On November 26, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell used this "box" telephone to transmit sound clearly between Cambridge and Salem, MA. Eight months earlier he had registered his invention--which functioned as both a transmitter and a receiver--with the United States Patent Office. Patent Number 174,465 covered "The method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sounds." It is often referred to as the most valuable patent ever issued by the U.S. Patent Office.

	Gift of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1923
	Alexander Graham Bell, born March 3, 1847, Edinburgh, Scotland; died August 2, 1922, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada
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