Telecommunication
The conventional telephone was invented independently by Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray in 1876. Antonio Meucci invented the first device that allowed the electrical transmission of voice over a line in 1849. However Meucci's device was of little practical value because it relied upon the electrophonic effect and thus required users to place the receiver in their mouth to "hear" what was being said. The first commercial telephone services were set-up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London.
County of Brant
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone at his father's homestead, Melville House, now the Bell Homestead National Historic Site. At the time, the homestead was in the County, outside the Brantford city limits. In a 1906 speech, Bell made the following comment, "the telephone problem was solved, and it was solved at my father's home". As well, two of the first successful voice transmissions of any notable distance were made in early August 1876, between the telegraph office in Brantford, Ontario and Melville House and Between Paris and Brantford.