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Alexander Graham Bell never set out to invent the telephone. Initially, he wanted to develop a multiple telegraph. Only later did he realize that a far greater prize lay at the end of the road. In telegraphy, a current is interrupted in the pattern known as Morse Code. Bell hoped to convey several messages continuously, each at a different pitch. However, he could not see a way to make-and-break the current at the precise pitch …

…had generated an undulating current, solely on the strength of a slight magnetic field. In that moment, the telephone was born. The telephone patent was one of the most valuable ever issued. Bell received it on March 7, 1876, four days after his 29th birthday. Speech, however, had not yet been transmitted. That would occur five days later, on March 12, when Watson heard the famous words, "Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you."