- Gardiner Hubbard formed the Bell Telephone Company in July of 1877. Watson directed the Charles Williams shop, which made the first telephones. He was the Research and Development Department of the company.
- Alexander chose not to manage the company, and traveled to England for over a year.
- Roughly 3,000 telephones were in service by the end of 1877.
- Theodore Vail was made general manager of the Bell Company in 1878.
- At the time Vail was made general manager, roughly 10,000 phones were in service.
- Over the course of twenty years, the Bell Company won over 600 lawsuits.
- Vail expanded business to the cities and towns of the United States. Vail also created a long distance service to connect New England to the United States.
- In 1878, a manual switch was invented to have many telephones connected through a single exchange. The first switchboard was made in New Haven, Connecticut. The first operators of switchboards were teenage boys.
- The company flourished in the 1880’s. Many more phones were made and the company had a lot of business.
- The Bell Company is now AT&T