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The Invention of the Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing and oath, officially approved March 7, 1876.

Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing and oath, officially approved March 7, 1876.

Transcript:

...[[object Object]]timony whereof I have hereunto signed [[object Object]] name this 20th day of January A.D. 1876

Alexander Graham Bell

Witnesses

Thomas E. Barry

[[object Object]]

State of Massachusetts

Suffolk County

Alexander Graham Bell -- the above named petitioner being duly sworn deposes and says that he verily believes himself to be the original and first inventor of the improvements in telegraphy described and claimed in the foregoing specification, that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever before known or used; and that he is a native of Great Britain and has declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States.

Alexander Graham Bell

Thomas E. Barry

[[object Object]] , Witnesses

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 20th day of January, A.D. 1876

Thomas E. Barry, Notary Public

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Citation Information
“Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent Drawing and Oath,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/b65a368d6d49457488b1ce7d261dc9ae.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 6 of 15 in the Primary Source Set The Invention of the Telephone

Previous ItemNext Item
A Congressional tribute from 1999 to Mr. Antonio Meucci, one of the inventors of the telephone.
A telegraph register made in 1870.
A telegraph sounder.
An experimental telephone made by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876.
Alexander Graham Bell's “large box” telephone, 1876.
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing and oath, officially approved March 7, 1876.
An excerpt from The History of the Telephone by Herbert Casson about Alexander Graham Bell’s breakthrough experiment, 1910.
A photograph of Alexander Graham Bell during his demonstration of the telephone for Joseph Henry's Family, January 13, 1877.
A diagram of Alexander Graham Bell’s speaking telephone, patented March 19, 1878.
A photograph of Thomas Edison’s parlor phonograph, which was used for experimentation by Alexander Graham Bell, 1879.
A photograph of Alexander Graham Bell in New York calling Chicago on the telephone, 1892.
A photograph of the first telephone office in the town of McGraw, New York, 1902.
A photograph of operators working the switchboard at the Utah Independent Telephone Company, 1905.
A photograph of Alexander Graham Bell and others at the opening of the first transcontinental telephone line, New York, January 25, 1915.
A photograph of workers in the Orange Central Office of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, Orange, California, 1915.

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