Aug. 10, 2023, will mark the 147th Anniversary of Historic Phone Call

The Cobblestone House built by Levi Boughton at 22 Church Street in Paris was home to Baptist Minister and School Inspector, Thomas Peter Henderson. The Reverend was a close family friend of Alexander Graham Bell, and in 1870, the Bell family stayed at the Henderson house for several months, while their home at 94 Tutela Heights Road (now the Bell Homestead National Historic Site) was under construction. Henderson continued to be involved with the Bell family and later became the first General Agent for the telephone business in Canada

Source: Town of Paris, By-Law

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WORLD’S FIRST LONGDISTANCE TELEPHONE

CALL - Alexander Graham Bell revolutionized the communications world with his invention of the telephone. Paris and the County of Brant played an important role in this invention. In 1874 at the Bell Homestead on Tutela Heights, Bell discovered the fundamental concept for the telephone. In August 1876, while on holidays at the Bell Homestead, Bell completed several important tests.

The first one involved a transmitter at the Dominion Telegraph office on Colborne Street in Brantford while a telegraph line carried the message to a receiver in Mount Pleasant. This was the first telephone communication between two communities.

On Aug 10 1876 the world's first successful one-way long-distance call took place between Brantford and Paris. Eight miles (13km) of telegraph wire connected the Dominion Telegraph office in Brantford to the telegraph office in Paris. On the night of the 10th of August 1876, Alexander

Graham Bell transmitted human voices by means of electrified wires from Brantford, Ontario, Canada, to Paris, Ontario, Canada, a distance of 8 miles or 13 km, firmly establishing the electric speaking telephone as an effective method of communication. Musical notes, the human voice, and songs spoken and sung were plainly audible at the other end This was a one-way communication, sounds from Brantford were audible to Bell in Paris. This was the climax of several "distance tests" Bell had conducted in Ontario.

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