The invention of the telephone is most commonly credited to Alexander Graham Bell, who was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone on March 7, 1876. Bell's telephone was the first practical device capable of transmitting vocal sounds electrically, and on March 10, 1876, he made the famous first successful telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here—I want to see you"

. Bell was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor whose family background in elocution and his personal connection to deafness influenced his work on speech transmission. Although other inventors such as Antonio Meucci, Philipp Reis, and Elisha Gray also made significant contributions to the development of telephone technology, Bell's patent and subsequent commercial success established him as the primary inventor of the practical telephone

. Philipp Reis, a German school teacher, had constructed an early telephone device in 1861, but it was not commercially viable or fully practical. Antonio Meucci is recognized by some for his earlier work on voice communication devices, and Elisha Gray independently developed a telephone design around the same time as Bell, leading to patent disputes. However, Bell's patent was upheld and became the foundation for the telephone industry

. In summary, Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the first practical telephone and securing the key patent that led to the widespread adoption of the technology, although the invention was the result of contributions from multiple inventors