These are said to have been the first words spoken on the telephone – on 10 March 1876. Watson was Bell's technical assistant. According to some sources, Bell had spilt some battery acid (used in the microphone) on his trousers; he shouted to Watson, who was in the next room, but Watson heard every word over the telephone.
Three months later, in June 1876, Bell set up an exhibit at the US Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The newspapers reported the astonished reaction ("My God – it speaks!") of Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, on hearing the device replicating Bell's words – a recitation of the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet – and the telephone became a public phenomenon.
© Haydn Thompson 2017