150 Years of Long-Distance Calling

Speaking to someone halfway around the world is so commonplace today that it’s hard to imagine life without the long-distance call. It may be surprising, then, that Alexander Graham Bell needed the quiet inspiration of his family home in Ontario for an invention that has lead to a chatty world. 

Scottish-born Bell came to Canada with his family in 1870, settling in Brantford, Ont. Bell was 23, and his parents feared he had tuberculosis; they hoped Canada’s clean air would heal their son. It may well have helped, since eight months later, Bell was healthy enough to accept a teaching position in Boston, returning to Brantford for summers and holidays. One such summer, in 1874, as Bell watched the currents of the Grand River, he grasped the notion of sound waves moving through the air — a concept that would lead to the invention of the telephone.

Two years later, Bell successfully telephoned his assistant, Thomas Watson, uttering the famous phrase, “Mr. Watson, come here — I want to see you.” But while that call travelled only from one room to another, it wouldn’t be long before Bell’s invention went the distance.

Back in Brantford on Aug. 10, 1876, Bell had a telegraph wire run from his parents’ home to the Dominion Telegraph Company office in Robert White’s shoe store in Paris, Ont., 13 kilometres away. There, assembled guests were treated to singing and readings transmitted through Bell’s invention — and they became the recipients of the first long-distance call. A communication revolution was born.