Thomas A. Watson received the first transcontinental telephone call

Thomas A. Watson

Thomas Augustus Watson (January 18, 1854 – December 13, 1934) was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, notably in the invention of the telephone in 1876. He is best known because his name was one of the first words spoken over the telephone. "Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you." were the first words Bell said using the new invention, according to Bell's laboratory notebook. There is some dispute about the actual words used, as Thomas Watson, in his own voice, remembered it as "Mr. Watson - Come here - I want you," in a film made for Bell Labs in 1931 which is referenced below in "The Engines of our Ingenuity."

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas A. Watson