- Thomas A. Watson
Thomas Augustus Watson (
January 18 1854 -December 13 1934 ) was an assistant toAlexander Graham Bell , notably in the invention of thetelephone in 1876. He is best known because his name is the first word spoken over the telephone. "Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you." were the first words Bell said using the new invention, according to Bell's laboratory notebook. [Bruce, Robert V., "Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude", page 181]Biography
Born in
Salem, Massachusetts , Watson was a bookkeeper and a carpenter before he found a job more to his liking in the Charles Williams machine shop in Boston. He was then hired by Alexander Graham Bell, who was then a professor atBoston University .At the age of 27, using money from his royalties from his participation in the invention of the telephone, Watson tried his hand at farming and then set up his own machine shop. In 1883 Watson founded the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company. He soon began taking bids for building naval destroyers and by 1901 the Fore River Ship and Engine Company was one of the largest shipyards in America. It would later become one of the major shipyards during
World War II , after being purchased byBethlehem Steel Corporation .In 1910 Watson abruptly turned his attention to the stage, first joining Frank R. Berenson's Company of Shakespeare Players, then starting his own troupe and writing his own plays. He leaned toward adaptations of Dickens, including "Tale of Two Cities" and "
Oliver Twist ".On January 25, 1915, Watson was at 333 Grant Avenue in
San Francisco to receive the first transcontinental telephone call, placed by Bell from the Telephone Building at 15 Day Street inNew York City . PresidentWoodrow Wilson and the mayors of both cities were also involved in the call. [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0125.html]Watson wrote an autobiography, "Exploring Life: The Autobiography of Thomas A. Watson" (New York: Appleton, 1926).
Late in his life, at the age of 77, upon being impressed with a meeting with Indian spiritual leader
Meher Baba inEngland , Watson was instrumental in helping to arrange for Meher Baba to come to theUnited States for his first visit there in 1931. ["Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher," Bhau Kalchuri, Manifestation, Inc. 1986. pp. 1415-1419] Later Watson became disenchanted with Baba. [A. Mazur, 2004. A Romance in Natural History, Garret.]Watson died at his winter home in Pass-A-Grille, Florida, and isburied in the North Weymouth Cemetery,
Weymouth, Massachusetts . His grave overlooks the Fore River Shipyard.Footnotes
References
* [http://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/990319.stories.html University of House: "The Engines of Our Ingenuity" (radio program) No. 1177: "Thomas Watson". by John H. Lienhard]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/peopleevents/pande04.html PBS.org Watson biography]
* [http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1177.htm UH.com Watson biography]External links
*
* [http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1177.htm Short biography of Thomas Watson]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0118.html Associated Press obituary (December 15, 1934): "T. A. Watson Dead; Made First Phone"]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.