On the evening of that day, as the young inventor prepared a crude
experimental transmitter to try to send his voice over a wire to a room
down the hall where Watson was listening, he upset the acid of a
battery. It spilled over his clothes. Impulsively, Bell called out, “Mr.
Watson, come here: I want you!” An instant later Watson burst into the
room shouting “Mr. Bell, I heard every word you said—distinctly!”
Bell exhibited and demonstrated his telephone at the Philadelphia
Centennial in June, 1876, where it won the enthusiastic approval of
leaders in the scientific world. But the general public showed little
interest. The young inventor had no financial backing other than that of
Thomas Sanders and Gardiner C. Hubbard. In the fall of 1871 these men
had agreed to supply funds for Bell’s telegraph experiments in return
for a share in whatever patent rights might result from his experiments.
His telephone patents were later included in this agreement.
Bell’s first telephone patent had been granted on March 7, 1876, but was
earning no return. Sanders and Hubbard had advanced all they could. In
order to eke out his small personal income as a teacher, and to provide
funds for further experimentation, Bell began, early in 1877, to give
lectures at which he demonstrated the telephone. These were well
attended, and accounts of them were widely published. A few
forward-looking people began to realize the usefulness of the telephone.
In May, 1877, the first telephones were put into use on a commercial
basis. Soon people throughout the country began to inquire about how to
get into the telephone business.