Canadian history · Drawing 15 of 43
Voices on the wire
August 10, 1876
On August 10, 1876, in Paris, Ontario, Alexander Graham Bell heard voices coming through a wire from Brantford, 13 kilometres away. It was the world’s first long-distance telephone call.
Look together
Who would you like to call on the telephone?
An idea to try
An adult pokes a small hole in the bottom of each of two paper cups, then joins them with a long string knotted inside each cup. Pull the string tight, then take turns whispering and listening.
For the adult reading along
A little more to discover
Born in Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell moved to Brantford, Ontario, with his parents in 1870. He taught deaf students in Boston and spent summers in Brantford, where, he said, the principle of the telephone came to him on July 26, 1874. He received a U.S. patent on March 7, 1876, and on March 10 spoke the first words by telephone to his assistant, Thomas Watson. That August, he tested his invention on telegraph wires in Ontario. On August 10, family members spoke and sang into a transmitter in Brantford; in Paris, 13 km away, Bell recognized their voices through the crackling.
The call went only one way, but it showed that people in different towns could talk by telephone. Ask your child how people sent news to faraway family before telephones, and how we do it today.
Sources and illustration notes (3)
An imagined scene in a small telegraph office: the man is not a portrait of Bell, and the receiver is simplified.
These links lead to other websites. Explore them with an adult. References identify the institution and the related lesson; some linked pages are in French.
- Parks Canada — Invention of the Telephone National Historic EventFundamental principle of the telephone conceived at Brantford on 26 July 1874; public demonstrations on 3 and 4 August 1876; the world’s first long-distance call, to Paris, 13 kilometres away, on 10 August.
- The Canadian Encyclopedia — Alexander Graham BellBorn in Scotland; moved to Brantford in 1870; taught deaf students in Boston; summers in Brantford; patent of 7 March 1876; first words to Thomas Watson on 10 March 1876.
- Engineering and Technology History Wiki (IEEE) — First Distant Speech Transmission in Canada, 1876On 10 August 1876, family members spoke and sang into a transmitter in Brantford and Bell heard them in Paris, 13 km away, over telegraph wires; one-way communication; voices recognized through crackling.
Page prepared on September 24, 2026. Illustrations simplify places and scenes; they are not historical documents.
This drawing is from the book Canada’s Great Moments to Colour
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