Figure 65. — Interior of the box telephone 

 used by Bell and Watson in their experiments 

 in the fall of 1876. {USNM 308214; Smith- 

 sonian photo ly^o^-D.) 



Massachusetts; it ran between the shop and the home 

 of Charles Williams. A box telephone was used 

 at each end of this 3-mile line. Requests for other 

 telephones were rather slow in coming, but by June 

 1 877 Bell was able to place his first order with Williams 

 for 25 box telephones and 50 hand telephones. By 

 the end of June there were 230 telephones in use; by 

 the end of July, 750; and by the end of August, 1,300. 

 In July 1877 Bell and his associates formed the Bell 

 Telephone Company in order to exploit this new 

 invention. However, as yet, they did not have an 

 efficient transmitter. 



The magneto telephone receiver had been capable 

 of improvement and of becoming commercially 

 practical. This was not, however, true of the magneto 

 transmitter. Even if the person using the telephone 



S^z^.I 



J^-^.^. 



J^^.Z. 



cn 



jr^.S. 



J%.^. 



rMT' 



□ 



i 



jruf.3. 



Figure 66. — Patent drawings of Bell's box 

 telephone. From U.S. patent 186787 (Jan- 

 uary 30, 1877). 



324 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



