On This Day: March 7th
Friday Fast Fact

In a myriad of ways, daily life as we know it would be almost unrecognizable without telephones. Globally, there are actually more phone numbers in use than there are people on Earth! Furthermore, the number of “unique” mobile users was recorded at 5.78 billion in January of this year – 70.5% of the global population.

Though the proliferation of phone use has increased with advancements in technology, the proper origin of telephones happened nearly 150 years ago. Alexander Graham Bell is famously regarded as the inventor of the telephone; history, however, may have played out very differently.

On the morning of February 14th in 1876, Bell filed his patent for the telephone. That very same morning, inventor Elisha Gray also filed a patent for his version of the telephone. Some contend that Bell actually stole the idea from Gray, or that misconduct within the Patent Office ultimately led to Bell receiving the patent over Gray.

According to later research, it may have been simply a matter of who filed the patent first – Bell’s was 5th of the day, Gray’s was 39th.

It was on this day in history, March 7th, 1876 that Alexander Graham Bell was granted the patent for the telephone – an advancement that would shape the future of the world forever. Just 3 days later, he conducted the first successful test of the device, asking of his assistant: “Mr. Watson – come here – I want to see you.”

Bell was at the time living in Salem, MA, and working to make advancements in education of the deaf – he founded a school in Boston that trained teachers of deaf students, which later became part of Boston University, where he then worked as a Professor of Vocal Physiology. It was during this time that his seminal invention and experiments took place.

In honor of Bell’s patent, and the ubiquity of telephones that has followed, let’s take a look at some interesting OOH facts in the Boston DMA, where his famous work took place!

According to Geopath Insights, in the Boston DMA:

• There are over 450,000 people that plan to buy a smartphone in the next year
• There are over 130,000 people who plan to buy a new phone service in the next year
• There are over 350,000 people who plan to go back to school in the next year
• There are over 330,000 people who plan to attend adult education classes in the next year

Below you’ll find Geopath’s infographic for the Boston DMA:

Geopath members can find this and other infographics in our geekOUT Library. For more information on Geopath, or for general questions, please reach out to us at [email protected]!