Thomas Augustus Watson was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, notably in the invention of the telephone in 1876.
Thomas A. Watson
Watson in his later years, holding Bell's original telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
Bell c. 1917
Melville House, the Bells' first home in North America, now a National Historic Site of Canada
Bell, top right, providing pedagogical instruction to teachers at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, 1871; throughout his life, he referred to himself as "a teacher of the deaf"
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing, March 7, 1876