Primary sourceDocument7 March 1876

U.S. Patent No. 174,465, Improvement in Telegraphy

Alexander Graham Bell · 7 March 1876

Bell's telephone patent, granted 7 March 1876, the legal foundation of his claim to the invention and of the Bell company's monopoly.

This is Bell's own patent, the legal basis of his claim to have invented the telephone.

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Scan of the first page of U.S. Patent No. 174,465, titled 'United States Patent Office,' naming Alexander Graham Bell of Salem, Massachusetts, and 'Improvement in Telegraphy.' Dense printed text in two columns follows. — Alexander Graham Bell, U.S. Patent No. 174,465, 1876. U.S. National Archives.

About this source

What it is

This is U.S. Patent No. 174,465, granted to Alexander Graham Bell on 7 March 1876, titled "Improvement in Telegraphy." It describes a method of transmitting vocal sounds using an undulating electric current. The original document is held at the U.S. National Archives.

Why it matters

This patent became the legal foundation of Bell's claim to have invented the telephone and of the Bell company's resulting monopoly. It was the most fought-over patent of its time, contested in legal battles known as "interferences" involving other inventors working on similar ideas, including Elisha Gray, Thomas Edison, and Emile Berliner. The dispute over who truly invented the telephone first continues to interest historians today.

Look closer

Why might a patent be written in such dense, technical language?
What does the list of people contesting this patent tell you about the race to invent the telephone?
What is missing from a legal document like this that a diary or letter might include?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Alexander Graham on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.