5 Exeter Place
- Alexander Graham Bell lived here when resuming residence in Boston,
January 1876. Here the telephone first transmitted a complete and
intelligible sentence, “Mr. Watson, come here I want to see you”. According
to Barney Finn, this is the correct quotation based on Bell’s original notes.
A short time later, the telephone successfully transmitted
the human voice over a leased telegraph line between Boston
and Salem, Massachusetts. Watson, a Boston Globe reporter and witnesses,
took part in a demonstration with Bell who was 14 miles away in Salem. The
conversation and singing of the people in Boston were distinctly heard in Salem. Professor Bell’s
lecture was plainly heard and applause sent over the wires by the listeners
in Boston.
This classic story is well known but few realize that the
R&D work of the Bell telephone companies originated and flourished in Boston
for nearly 30 years. From 1876 to 1907, ‘Bell Labs’ were located at these
addresses:
109 Court Street - Charles Williams Jr.
electric shop - here the telephone was born June 2, 1875, and the first
telephone was made to Bell’s specification by Thomas A Watson.
5 Exeter Place
- where the telephone was launched.
141 Pearl Street
- one of the earliest laboratories from 1884 to 1886, when the Bell System
was in its formative years.
125 Milk Street
- American Bell Telephone Company relocated here in 1891. Bell System
headquarters from 1891 to 1907.
Prior to 1907, the AT&T Engineering Department in Boston
was broadly responsible for Bell System engineering, development and
research work. This department established engineering standards for plant
design, prepared central office specifications, and advised the Bell associated companies on plant design and telephone
traffic problems. This Boston
department had experts and advisors who through committees and
correspondence, defined the service requirements for telephone cable and the
bulk of the telephone apparatus manufactured by the Western Electric
Company. Western Electric engineers at New York or Chicago then carried on
the necessary development work. In the summer of 1907, the AT&T headquarters
engineering staff moved from Boston
to New York.
