Young Blonde Girl With An Old Telephone

• 14 February 1876 — Elisha Gray files a patent caveat for transmitting the human voice through a telegraphic circuit.
• 14 February 1876 — Alexander Bell applies for the patent "Improvements in Telegraphy", for electromagnetic telephones using undulating currents.
• 19 February 1876 — Gray is notified by the U.S. Patent Office of an interference between his caveat and Bell's patent application. Gray decides to abandon his caveat.
• 7 March 1876 — Bell's U.S. patent 174,465 "Improvement in Telegraphy" is granted, covering "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically … by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound."