In Boston, on March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell transmits the first complete message - “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!” - with the use of his invention, the telephone.
About two years later during the period from July 30, 1878 to April 17, 1880, a series of Massachusetts corporations controlling Mr. Bell’s patent rights are organized. Bell Telephone Co., is the first of the corporations and is soon superseded by National Bell Telephone Co., which is replaced with American Bell Telephone Co. These firms supply telephone instruments to Bell-licensed exchange companies across the country. The Bell-licensed exchange companies then rent the telephone instruments to local subscribers.
Then on March 3, 1885, the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (now known as AT&T) is established as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone Co. Because the firm connects remote exchanges, it is popularly called the long-distance company.
Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company was a major manufacturer of telephone exchange equipment. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois, by Milo G. Kellogg, an electrical engineer. Along with Western Electric (who supplied the Bell system), Automatic Electric (who supplied General Telephone) and Stromberg-Carlson, it controlled the nation’s supply of telephone equipment until after World War II.
