Episode Details

Today in 1877, the first telephone in Michigan rang, owned by the Grand Rapids Plaster Company, a friend of Alexander Graham Bell. Bell sent him a pair of the new devices for a public demonstration. The Bell Telephone Company had incorporated just a month earlier. Despite early design problems, the public quickly embraced the new technology. Within a month, the first commercial telephone line in Michigan connected a Detroit drug store to its lab. By October, Detroit police stations were linked by phone, and by decade's end, cities across Michigan were buzzing with telephone conversations.