106-468: Graybar Electric Company, Inc. is an American wholesale electrical, communications and data networking products distribution business, which also supplies related supply-chain management and logistics services. The company is based in Clayton, Missouri and is an employee-owned corporation. Graybar was incorporated on December 11, 1925, as the successor company of the general electric supply business of
212-486: A Baptist minister and family friend. The Bells soon purchased a farm of 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) at Tutelo Heights (now called Tutela Heights), near Brantford , Ontario. The property consisted of an orchard, large farmhouse, stable, pigsty, hen-house, and a carriage house , which bordered the Grand River . At the homestead, Bell set up a workshop in the converted carriage house near what he called his "dreaming place",
318-531: A patent application for it. Since he had agreed to share U.S. profits with his investors Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, Bell requested that an associate in Ontario, George Brown , attempt to patent it in Britain, instructing his lawyers to apply for a patent in the U.S. only after they received word from Britain (Britain issued patents only for discoveries not previously patented elsewhere). Meanwhile, Elisha Gray
424-480: A precedent . With a change in administration and charges of conflict of interest (on both sides) arising from the original trial, the U.S. attorney general dropped the lawsuit on November 30, 1897, leaving several issues undecided on the merits . During a deposition filed for the 1887 trial, Italian inventor Antonio Meucci also claimed to have created the first working model of a telephone in Italy in 1834. In 1886, in
530-481: A "talking dog". These initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance . At age 19, Bell wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis , a colleague of his father. Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Bell
636-596: A $ 100 million bond offering in the summer of 2001. This was the largest financing effort in its history. In 2002, Graybar acquired Frank A. Blesso, Inc., and selected SAP America’s mySap.com e-business platform to run its business systems applications. This included programs such as customer relationship management, supply chain management, human resources, and business intelligence. The company saw considerable growth in 2003. That year Graybar’s ERP program, launched with IBM, SAP, and Deloitte Consulting, linked Graybar’s then-network of 250 branch, zone, and district facilities in
742-588: A 3,400-mile wire between New York and San Francisco. Dr. Bell, the veteran inventor of the telephone, was in New York, and Mr. Watson, his former associate, was on the other side of the continent. As is sometimes common in scientific discoveries, simultaneous developments occurred, as evidenced by a number of inventors who were at work on the telephone. Over 18 years, the Bell Telephone Company faced 587 court challenges to its patents, including five that went to
848-475: A big success. While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a " phonautograph ", a pen-like machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Bell thought it might be possible to generate undulating electrical currents that corresponded to sound waves. He also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be able to convert
954-453: A copy of Hermann von Helmholtz 's work, The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music . Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz, who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork "contraption", Bell pored over the book. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition, Bell fortuitously then made
1060-421: A couple of the original claims from the lower court cases were left undecided. By the time the trial had wound its way through nine years of legal battles, the U.S. prosecuting attorney had died and the two Bell patents (No. 174,465, dated March 7, 1876, and No. 186,787, dated January 30, 1877) were no longer in effect, although the presiding judges agreed to continue the proceedings due to the case's importance as
1166-411: A cup of mercury, not water. He had filed the mercury application at the patent office on February 25, 1875, long before Gray described the water device. In addition, Gray abandoned his caveat, and because he did not contest Bell's priority, the examiner approved Bell's patent on March 3, 1876. Gray had reinvented the variable resistance telephone, but Bell was the first to write down the idea and test it in
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#17328516593001272-538: A deduction that would underpin all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: "Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech." He also later remarked: "I thought that Helmholtz had done it ... and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder ... If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments!" In 1865, when
1378-632: A deep interest in the emerging science of heredity . His work in this area has been called "the soundest, and most useful study of human heredity proposed in nineteenth-century America... Bell's most notable contribution to basic science, as distinct from invention." Bell was born in Edinburgh , Scotland , on March 3, 1847. The family home was at South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Bell's birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–1870) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–1867), both of whom died of tuberculosis . His father
1484-463: A family friend. To close relatives and friends he remained "Aleck". Bell and his siblings attended a Presbyterian Church in their youth. As a child, Bell displayed a curiosity about his world; he gathered botanical specimens and ran experiments at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbor whose family operated a flour mill. At the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating
1590-435: A far-reaching decision to concentrate on his experiments in sound. Giving up his lucrative private Boston practice, Bell retained only two students, six-year-old "Georgie" Sanders, deaf from birth, and 15-year-old Mabel Hubbard . Each played an important role in the next developments. Georgie's father, Thomas Sanders, a wealthy businessman, offered Bell a place to stay in nearby Salem with Georgie's grandmother, complete with
1696-620: A large hollow nestled in trees at the back of the property above the river. Despite his frail condition upon arriving in Canada, Bell found the climate and environs to his liking and rapidly improved. He continued his interest in the study of the human voice, and when he discovered the Six Nations Reserve across the river at Onondaga , learned the Mohawk language and translated its unwritten vocabulary into Visible Speech symbols. For his work, Bell
1802-576: A network of locations throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico . The company distributes electrical, communications, and data networking products and related supply chain management and logistics services, and has a growing industrial automation platform. In 2017, Graybar started an innovation lab at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois. In 2019, Graybar marked 150 years since
1908-500: A patent for the same idea, which became known as the telephone. As it turned out, what Bell actually patented would have never worked, while Gray's idea would have. Western Union acquired both Gray's and Edison's telephone patents to challenge the American Bell Telephone Company (renamed AT&T in 1899), which led to a patent infringement suit and Bell ultimately being named the inventor of the telephone. Therefore it
2014-533: A patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. In May 1870, Melville died from complications of tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also experienced a debilitating illness earlier in life and been restored to health by convalescence in Newfoundland . Bell's parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for
2120-524: A result, when economic conditions improved in the 1980s Graybar was unable to gear up quickly enough to meet the rising demand for electrical products. The corporate headquarters moved from the Graybar Building in New York City to Clayton, Missouri in 1982. Graybar modernized its infrastructure with one of the first computer-to-computer ordering systems; however, a weak real estate market led to
2226-435: A room to "experiment". Although the offer was made by Georgie's mother and followed the year-long arrangement in 1872 where her son and his nurse had moved to quarters next to Bell's boarding house, it was clear that Mr. Sanders backed the proposal. The arrangement was for teacher and student to continue their work together, with free room and board thrown in. Mabel was a bright, attractive girl ten years Bell's junior who became
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#17328516593002332-561: A simple dehusking machine that was put into operation at the mill and used steadily for a number of years. In return, Ben's father John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to "invent". From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, and music that his mother encouraged. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family's pianist. Though normally quiet and introspective, he reveled in mimicry and "voice tricks" akin to ventriloquism that entertained family guests. Bell
2438-409: A slowdown in construction and affected the company’s bottom line. When the economy recovered in the early 1990s, business improved. Around the same time, Graybar led a movement within the industry to standardize bar coding. These efforts led to Graybar employees having seats on different industry committees working on standards for electronic data interchange (EDI), vendor-managed inventory (VMI), and
2544-407: A standard rate that cannot be less than 15%. Countries like Hungary , Croatia , Denmark , and Sweden have higher standard VAT rates, while Luxembourg , Malta , Cyprus , Germany , and Romania have lower rates. The alternative to selling wholesale to distributors or retailers is to sell retail either through company-owned stores or online . Advantages include receiving a larger slice of
2650-533: A student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and £10 per session. The next year, he attended the University of Edinburgh , joining his brother Melville, who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, not long before he departed for Canada with his family, Bell completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to University College London . Bell's father encouraged his interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see
2756-575: A teaching practice and in 1871, he accompanied his father to Montreal, where Melville was offered a position to teach his System of Visible Speech. Bell's father was invited by Sarah Fuller , principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (later to become the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf ) to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller's instructors, but he declined
2862-561: A telephone. The patent examiner , Zenas Fisk Wilber, later stated in an affidavit that he was an alcoholic who was much in debt to Bell's lawyer, Marcellus Bailey , with whom he had served in the Civil War. He said he had shown Bailey Gray's patent caveat. Wilber also said (after Bell arrived in Washington D.C. from Boston) that he showed Bell Gray's caveat and that Bell paid him $ 100 (equivalent to $ 2,800 in 2023). Bell said they discussed
2968-539: A trip to Rochester, he and Barton, who was then 26, agreed to go into partnership . To raise the $ 400 her son needed for his share of the business venture, Barton's widowed mother mortgaged her home. The new firm, located at 93 St. Clair Street in Cleveland, grew. In May 1869, Elisha Gray , an Oberlin College professor and inventor of telegraphic equipment , bought out Shawk's interest. Up until then, Gray had been one of
3074-513: A unique automaton developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone based on the earlier work of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen . The rudimentary "mechanical man" simulated a human voice. Bell was fascinated by the machine, and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen's book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred
3180-425: A vital link between America's manufacturers and America's defense needs. Defense-related business continued in the postwar era, with Graybar again aiding the military during the subsequent Korean War and Vietnam War . Overall the company enjoyed strong growth in the years following World War II, its momentum not checked until the recession of the mid-1970s , which led to Graybar slashing its workforce by 20%. As
3286-467: A working model of his telephone. On August 3, 1876, from the telegraph office in Brantford, Bell sent a telegram to the village of Mount Pleasant four miles (six kilometres) away, indicating that he was ready. He made a telephone call via telegraph wires and faint voices were heard replying. The following night, he amazed guests as well as his family with a call between the Bell Homestead and the office of
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3392-623: A young child, Bell, like his brothers, was schooled at home by his father. At an early age, he was enrolled at the Royal High School , Edinburgh; he left at age 15, having completed only the first four forms. His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lackluster grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology, while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to his father's dismay. Upon leaving school, Bell traveled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell, on Harrington Square . During
3498-531: Is credited with patenting the first practical telephone . He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885. Bell's father , grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices, which eventually culminated in his being awarded
3604-445: Is the act of contracting to purchase real property, and assigning that contract to an investor. Often, in the United States, wholesalers are not required to charge their buyers sales tax , if the buyer has a resale license in the state the wholesaler is located. Out-of-state buyers are not charged sale tax by wholesalers. In China , wholesalers are subject to a Value-Added Tax (VAT) of either 9% or 13% on imported goods, depending on
3710-432: Is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial , commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers ( wholesale businesses ) and related subordinated services. In general, it is the sale of goods in bulk to anyone, either a person or an organization, other than the end consumer of that merchandise. Wholesaling is buying goods in bulk quantity, usually directly from
3816-662: The Boston University School of Oratory. During this period, he alternated between Boston and Brantford, spending summers in his Canadian home. At Boston University, Bell was "swept up" by the excitement engendered by the many scientists and inventors living in the city. He continued his research in sound and endeavored to find a way to transmit musical notes and articulate speech, but although absorbed by his experiments, he found it difficult to devote enough time to experimentation. With days and evenings occupied by his teaching and private classes, Bell began to stay awake late into
3922-399: The U.S. Supreme Court , but none was successful in establishing priority over Bell's original patent, and the Bell Telephone Company never lost a case that had proceeded to a final trial stage. Bell's laboratory notes and family letters were the key to establishing a long lineage to his experiments. The Bell company lawyers successfully fought off myriad lawsuits generated initially around
4028-572: The Western Electric Company , which was founded in 1869 in Cleveland, Ohio , by Elisha Gray and Enos M. Barton . The separation of product lines was intended to provide a separate identity from the telephone supply function of Western Electric to the Bell System , given its importance as the largest merchandiser of electrical apparatus and related equipment in the world in the 1920s. During
4134-583: The "world's first long-distance call". It proved that the telephone could work over long distances, at least as a one-way call. The first two-way (reciprocal) conversation over a line occurred between Cambridge and Boston (roughly 2.5 miles) on October 9, 1876. During that conversation, Bell was on Kilby Street in Boston and Watson was at the offices of the Walworth Manufacturing Company. Bell and his partners, Hubbard and Sanders, offered to sell
4240-540: The Bell family moved to London, Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a telegraph wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend. Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His brother Edward
4346-656: The Deaf (United States) , but in his memoir Memoir upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race , he observed that if deaf people tended to marry other deaf people, this could result in the emergence of a "deaf race". Ultimately, in 1880, the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf passed a resolution mandating the teaching of oral communication and banning signing in schools. In 1872, Bell became professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at
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4452-500: The Deaf for a recommendation. Teaching his father's system, in October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his "School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech" in Boston, which attracted a large number of deaf pupils, with his first class numbering 30 students. While he was working as a private tutor, one of his pupils was Helen Keller , who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. She later said that Bell dedicated his life to
4558-487: The Dominion Telegraph Company in Brantford along an improvised wire strung up along telegraph lines and fences, and laid through a tunnel. This time, guests at the household distinctly heard people in Brantford reading and singing. The third test, on August 10, 1876, was made via the telegraph line between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, eight miles (thirteen kilometres) away. This test is said by many sources to be
4664-577: The Graybar brand. By 1941 the company's sales volume was more than $ 100 million, the number of distribution houses had jumped to 86, and there was a corresponding increase in personnel. Also that year, the remaining outstanding shares of stock were purchased from Western Electric with a $ 1 million check signed by Graybar President Frank A. Ketcham. When the country entered World War II , Graybar's ingenuity and knowledge of logistics proved to be of immeasurable value in providing war-needed goods. Graybar became
4770-776: The Industry Data Warehouse (IDW). In 1995, Graybar formed the Solutions Providers Alliance with wholesale distributors Kaman Industrial Technologies, WWR Scientific Products, and Vallen Corporation. That same year Graybar was realigned into two business groups, one focused on electrical supplies and the other on comm/data business. Prior to this change, in 1991, the comm/data market accounted for 17% of Graybar sales. After this change, growth in this market significantly impacted Graybar’s business, and by 1999 sales totaled 38%. In 1992, Graybar acquired Ellis & Howard expanding its business into Canada . Then, in 1997,
4876-550: The U.S. The program won Graybar a 2003 InfoWorld 100 award. Additionally, the company acquired Monroe Contractors Electrical Supply, Inc. and the All-Phase Electric Supply location in Eugene, Oregon. 2003 was also the year that Graybar made one of its largest purchases with the acquisition of Splane Electric Supply. Graybar’s strategy was successful, and revenues increased over the next several years. Now, Graybar operates
4982-661: The United States alone. It explains methods to instruct deaf-mutes (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people's lip movements to decipher meaning. Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his father's public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin , Scottish Gaelic , and even Sanskrit , accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation. As
5088-510: The Western Union Telegraph Company. He offered to enter the business as an equal partner with Gray and Barton, providing the company's headquarters was moved from Cleveland to Chicago , Illinois . In December 1869, the company moved to 162 S. Water Street, Chicago . The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 came within two blocks of its small plant. The destruction caused by the fire resulted in greater growth for Gray & Barton, as
5194-424: The ability to create a working model of his ideas. But a chance meeting in 1874 between Bell and Thomas A. Watson , an experienced electrical designer and mechanic at the electrical machine shop of Charles Williams, changed that. With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Watson as his assistant, and the two experimented with acoustic telegraphy . On June 2, 1875, Watson accidentally plucked one of
5300-433: The boys on with the enticement of a "big prize" if they were successful. While his brother constructed the throat and larynx , Bell tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could "speak", albeit only a few words. The boys would carefully adjust the "lips" and when a bellows forced air through the windpipe , a very recognizable Mama ensued, to
5406-480: The challenges by Elisha Gray and Amos Dolbear . In personal correspondence to Bell, both Gray and Dolbear had acknowledged his prior work, which considerably weakened their later claims. On January 13, 1887, the U.S. government moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. After a series of decisions and reversals, the Bell company won a decision in the Supreme Court, though
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#17328516593005512-674: The company acquired Harris & Roome Supply Ltd. when it became majority stakeholder after having purchased an interest 6 years prior. In 2000, Graybar combined these two subsidiaries into what is still known today as Graybar Canada. In 2000 Graybar saw revenues improve to $ 5.2 billion, and net income exceeded $ 66.2 million. In 2001, Graybar opened its eleventh of 16 planned regional distribution centers. Each regional center maintained inventory of electrical, communications, data supplies and equipment. This inventory enabled Graybar to ship orders to 98% of its customers within 24 hours. To further expand its nationwide distribution centers, Graybar placed
5618-617: The company sold fire alarms and helped rebuild the Western Union infrastructure in the city. After several relocations, all in Chicago, the business was incorporated as the Western Electric Manufacturing Company in 1872 to meet the capital requirements of the telegraph supply business. The new company so closely allied with the elder Western that three of its five directors were Western Union executives. Moreover, Stager
5724-546: The company’s original founding, and 90 years of employee ownership. To celebrate, the company announced its Empowering Our Communities program, which includes a matching program for employee charitable donations and a paid workday for employees to volunteer. In January 2020, the company announced the Graybar Construction Trades Scholarship for high school students planning to enroll in a community college or trade school upon high school graduation. Through
5830-517: The deaf could be taught to read lips and speak (known as oralism ), enabling their integration with wider society. Members of the Deaf community have criticized Bell for supporting ideas that could cause the closure of dozens of deaf schools, and what some consider eugenicist ideas. Bell did not support a ban on deaf people marrying each other, an idea articulated by the National Association of
5936-543: The degree examinations, devoting his spare time to studying. Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull's private school for the deaf in South Kensington , London. His first two pupils were deaf-mute girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While Melville seemed to achieve success on many fronts, including opening his own elocution school, applying for
6042-538: The delight of neighbors who came to see the invention. Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family's Skye Terrier , Trouve. After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding "Ow ah oo ga ma ma". With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate "How are you, grandmama?" Indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw
6148-451: The device to Queen Victoria , placing calls to Cowes, Southampton, and London. These were the first publicly witnessed long-distance telephone calls in the UK . The queen found the process "quite extraordinary" although the sound was "rather faint". She later asked to buy the equipment that was used, but Bell offered to make "a set of telephones" specifically for her. The Bell Telephone Company
6254-499: The director of the Smithsonian Institution , to ask his advice on the electrical multi-reed apparatus that Bell hoped would transmit the human voice by telegraph. Henry said Bell had "the germ of a great invention". When Bell said that he lacked the necessary knowledge, Henry replied, "Get it!" That declaration greatly encouraged Bell to keep trying, even though he had neither the equipment needed to continue his experiments nor
6360-585: The distribution business continued to grow, handling an extensive line of electrical supplies such as wire , conduit , wiring devices and pole line material. By the 1910s, the company became the world’s largest distributor and the United States’ leading wholesaler of electrical supplies. These facts attracted investment by the American Bell Telephone Company , which also discovered that Gray and Barton could purchase supplies and sell them to
6466-502: The electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray's liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use. The examiner raised the question of priority for the variable resistance feature of the telephone before approving Bell's patent application. He told Bell that his claim for the variable resistance feature was also described in Gray's caveat. Bell pointed to a variable resistance device in his previous application in which he described
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#17328516593006572-411: The firm's top customers. He had invented a needle annunciator for hotels and elevators, a telautograph (a machine for the electrical transmission of writing), and the telegraph answer-back call box. Gray and Barton joined forces with an investment of $ 2,500 each, with Gray as the senior partner. The success of the new company attracted the attention of General Anson Stager , general superintendent of
6678-589: The first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications , hydrofoils , and aeronautics . Bell also had a strong influence on the National Geographic Society and its magazine while serving as its second president from 1898 to 1903. Beyond his work in engineering, Bell had
6784-454: The first of three cases in which he was involved, Meucci took the stand as a witness in hope of establishing his invention's priority. Meucci's testimony was disputed due to lack of material evidence for his inventions, as his working models were purportedly lost at the laboratory of American District Telegraph (ADT) of New York, which was incorporated as a subsidiary of Western Union in 1901. Meucci's work, like that of many other inventors of
6890-528: The general supply business opened separate general offices in the newly constructed Pershing Square Building in New York City. Scores of electrical supply manufacturers were using the company's distribution network, and business relationships were formed. Some of these relationships, such as with General Electric and the Square ;D Company , are more than a century old and still exist today. Having become
6996-419: The great cost of constructing new lines. When Bell mentioned to Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders that he was working on a method of sending multiple tones on a telegraph wire using a multi-reed device, the two began to financially support Bell's experiments. Patent matters were handled by Hubbard's patent attorney , Anthony Pollok . In March 1875, Bell and Pollok visited the scientist Joseph Henry , then
7102-497: The largest merchandizer of electrical supplies in the world and close to fifty distributing houses in the United States, the division was incorporated as a separate entity on December 11, 1925 with the name Graybar Electric Company , in honor of Western's original founders, Elisha Gray and Enos Barton . Albert Salt, in the 1920s, was Western Electric's Vice President of purchasing and became responsible for leading Graybar and established Graybar's first New York corporate office on
7208-500: The liquid transmitter, Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly. Although Bell was, and still is, accused of stealing the telephone from Gray, Bell used Gray's water transmitter design only after Bell's patent had been granted, and only as a proof of concept scientific experiment, to prove to his own satisfaction that intelligible "articulate speech" (Bell's words) could be electrically transmitted. After March 1876, Bell focused on improving
7314-928: The manufacturer or source, at a discounted rate. The retailer then sells the goods to the end consumer at a higher price making a profit. According to the United Nations Statistics Division , wholesale is the resale of new and used goods to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional or professional users, or to other wholesalers, or involves acting as an agent or broker in buying merchandise for, or selling merchandise to, such persons or companies. Wholesalers frequently physically assemble, sort, and grade goods in large lots, break-bulk , repack, and redistribute in smaller lots. While wholesalers of most products usually operate from independent premises, wholesale marketing for foodstuffs can take place at specific wholesale markets where all traders are congregated . Traditionally, wholesalers were closer to
7420-682: The markets they supplied than the source from which they got the products. However, with the advent of the internet and e-procurement there is an increasing number of wholesalers located nearer to the manufacturers in China, Taiwan , and Southeast Asia. The profit margins of wholesalers depend largely on their ability to achieve market competitive transaction costs. In the banking industry "wholesale" usually refers to wholesale banking , providing tailored services to large customers, in contrast with retail banking , providing standardized services to large numbers of smaller customers. In real estate, wholesaling
7526-414: The next day resumed work, drawing in his notebook a diagram similar to that in Gray's patent caveat. On March 10, Bell succeeded in getting his telephone to work, using a liquid transmitter similar to Gray's design. Vibration of the diaphragm caused a needle to vibrate in the water, varying the electrical resistance in the circuit. When Bell spoke the sentence "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you" into
7632-433: The night, running experiment after experiment in rented facilities at his boarding house. Keeping "night owl" hours, he worried that his work would be discovered and took great pains to lock up his notebooks and laboratory equipment. Bell had a specially made table where he could place his notes and equipment inside a locking cover. His health deteriorated as he had severe headaches. Returning to Boston in fall 1873, Bell made
7738-481: The object of his affection. Having lost her hearing after a near-fatal bout of scarlet fever close to her fifth birthday, she had learned to read lips but her father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Bell's benefactor and personal friend, wanted her to work directly with her teacher. By 1874, Bell's initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage, with progress made both at his new Boston "laboratory" (a rented facility) and at his family home in Canada
7844-466: The patent only in general terms, although in a letter to Gray, Bell admitted that he learned some of the technical details. Bell denied in an affidavit that he ever gave Wilber any money. On March 10, 1876, Bell used "the instrument" in Boston to call Thomas Watson who was in another room but out of earshot. He said, "Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you" and Watson soon appeared at his side. Continuing his experiments in Brantford, Bell brought home
7950-424: The patent outright to Western Union for $ 100,000, equal to $ 2,861,250 today, but it did not work (according to an apocryphal story, the president of Western Union balked, countering that the telephone was nothing but a toy ). Two years later, he told colleagues that if he could get the patent for $ 25 million (equal to $ 789,310,345 today), he would consider it a bargain. By then, the Bell company no longer wanted to sell
8056-475: The patent. Bell's investors became millionaires while he fared well from residuals and at one point had assets of nearly $ 1 million. Bell began a series of public demonstrations and lectures to introduce the new invention to the scientific community as well as the general public. A short time later, his demonstration of an early telephone prototype at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia brought
8162-510: The penetration of that "inhuman silence which separates and estranges". In 1893, Keller performed the sod-breaking ceremony for the construction of Bell's new Volta Bureau , dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf". Throughout his life, Bell sought to assimilate the deaf and hard of hearing with the hearing world. He encouraged speech therapy and lipreading over sign language. He outlined this in an 1898 paper detailing his belief that, with resources and effort,
8268-400: The period, was based on earlier acoustic principles and, despite evidence of earlier experiments, the final case involving Meucci was eventually dropped upon Meucci's death. But due to the efforts of Congressman Vito Fossella , on June 11, 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives stated that Meucci's "work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged". This did not put an end to
8374-719: The post in favor of his son. Traveling to Boston in April 1871, Bell proved successful in training the school's instructors. He was asked to repeat the program at the American Asylum for Deaf-mutes in Hartford, Connecticut , and the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts . Returning home to Brantford after six months abroad, Bell continued his experiments with his "harmonic telegraph". The basic concept behind his device
8480-524: The post- Civil War Reconstruction Era , entrepreneur Enos M. Barton (who had served as a telegrapher during the war) worked for Western Union in Rochester , New York . During this period, Barton met George Shawk, the foreman of the company's Cleveland, Ohio shop. When that shop was closed down, Shawk bought some of the equipment and went into business for himself, making various kinds of electrical and other apparatus, including inventor's models. While on
8586-411: The price paid by the consumer; disadvantages include difficulty in reaching consumers. Direct selling is a business model wherein sellers sell the goods directly to the end customer. Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell ( / ˈ ɡ r eɪ . ə m / , born Alexander Bell ; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who
8692-452: The primacy of Bell's patent. Bell was in Boston on February 14 and did not arrive in Washington until February 26. On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office issued Bell patent 174,465. It covered "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically ... by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound" Bell returned to Boston that day and
8798-550: The receiving telephone. Pedro II of Brazil was the first person to buy stock in the Bell Telephone Company. One of the first telephones in a private residence was installed in his palace in Petrópolis , his summer retreat forty miles (sixty-four kilometres) from Rio de Janeiro . In January 1915, Bell made the first ceremonial transcontinental telephone call . Calling from the AT&;T head office at 15 Dey Street in New York City, Bell
8904-410: The reeds and Bell, at the receiving end of the wire, heard the reed's overtones that would be necessary for transmitting speech. That demonstrated to Bell that only one reed or armature was necessary, not multiple reeds. This led to the "gallows" sound-powered telephone , which could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech. In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic telegraph and drew up
9010-508: The sale of all the family property, conclude all his brother's affairs (Bell took on his last student, curing a pronounced lisp), and join his father and mother in setting out for the " New World ". Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, as he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him. In 1870, 23-year-old Bell traveled with his parents and his brother's widow, Caroline Margaret Ottaway, to Paris, Ontario , to stay with Thomas Henderson,
9116-532: The scholarship, Graybar hopes to increase awareness of careers in the construction trades. In 1995, Graybar made the Fortune 500 list for the first time. The list ranks the biggest companies in the United States by revenue. Graybar had over $ 2 billion in revenue at the time. Graybar then reached $ 3 billion in revenue in 1996, $ 4 billion in 1999, and $ 5 billion in 2000. The company surpassed $ 6 billion in revenue in 2015. Wholesale Wholesaling or distributing
9222-468: The still contentious issue. Some modern scholars do not agree that Bell's work on the telephone was influenced by Meucci's inventions. The value of Bell's patent was acknowledged throughout the world, and patent applications were made in most major countries. When Bell delayed the German patent application, the electrical firm Siemens & Halske set up a rival manufacturer of Bell telephones under its own patent. Siemens produced near-identical copies of
9328-455: The telephone companies more efficiently than the companies could acquire the supplies themselves. A chain of warehouses was established across the nation, and the growth of the distributing business continued to increase through World War I and into the post-war period. On December 31, 1920, the supply department of Western Electric was divided by forming operating divisions for general electrical supplies and telephone equipment. In 1923,
9434-511: The telephone to international attention. Influential visitors to the exhibition included Emperor Pedro II of Brazil . One of the judges at the Exhibition, Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), a renowned Scottish scientist, described the telephone as "the greatest by far of all the marvels of the electric telegraph". On January 14, 1878, at Osborne House , on the Isle of Wight , Bell demonstrated
9540-624: The title of company electrician and spent his days working on his inventions, becoming increasingly less involved in the operations of the shop, and eventually he sold his interest in Western Electric in 1875 and retired to pursue independent research and to teach at Oberlin College . In 1876, he filed a caveat with the U.S. Patent Office , announcing his intention to soon patent an invention that would transmit vocal sounds telegraphically. Gray dubbed his telephone "the harmonic telegraph". Only hours earlier, however, Alexander Graham Bell applied for
9646-468: The type of product. Additionally, consumption tax is levied on products such as tobacco , alcohol , and luxury goods . These taxes are part of China's broader strategy to promote domestic consumption and regulate imports. On the other hand, Vietnam imposes a standard VAT rate of 10% on most goods and services, with exemptions for certain agricultural products and essential services. In Europe , Value-Added Tax (VAT) rates vary among member states, with
9752-436: The undulating currents back into sound. But he had no working model to demonstrate the feasibility of these ideas. In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and, in the words of Western Union President William Orton , had become "the nervous system of commerce". Orton had contracted with inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to find a way to send multiple telegraph messages on each telegraph line to avoid
9858-574: The world's largest office building. On January 1, 1927, Western Electric's holdings in Graybar were transferred to Electric Research Holdings, a Western Electric company. In 1928, the Graybar Management Corporation, held by Graybar employees, was created to purchase Graybar from the Western Electric Company. During the 1930s, the company explored many avenues of income, including a line of appliances and sewing machines under
9964-482: The year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, attributes he would need to become a teacher himself. At age 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of elocution and music at Weston House Academy in Elgin, Moray , Scotland. Although enrolled as
10070-407: Was Alexander Melville Bell , a phonetician , and his mother was Eliza Grace Bell ( née Symonds). Born as just "Alexander Bell", at age 10 he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers. For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the name "Graham", chosen out of respect for Alexander Graham, a Canadian being treated by his father who had become
10176-512: Was Bell's patent and not Gray’s that launched the telecommunications industry. As applications of electricity broadened, Western Electric not only sold the electric bells and batteries , telegraph keys , fire alarm boxes and hotel annunciators it originally manufactured, but also many items it purchased from other manufacturers. Stager served as president of Western Electric until shortly before his death in 1885, and Barton then served as president from 1886 to 1908. Western Electric Company
10282-494: Was also deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12), and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlor. He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead, whereby she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study acoustics . His family
10388-401: Was also experimenting with acoustic telegraphy and thought of a way to transmit speech using a water transmitter. On February 14, 1876, Gray filed a caveat with the U.S. Patent Office for a telephone design that used a water transmitter. That same morning, Bell's lawyer filed Bell's application with the patent office. There is considerable debate about who arrived first and Gray later challenged
10494-434: Was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress and danced traditional dances. After setting up his workshop, Bell continued experiments based on Helmholtz's work with electricity and sound. He also modified a melodeon (a type of pump organ) to transmit its music electrically over a distance. Once the family was settled, Bell and his father made plans to establish
10600-427: Was created in 1877, and by 1886, more than 150,000 people in the U.S. owned telephones. Bell Company engineers made numerous other improvements to the telephone, which emerged as one of the most successful products ever. In 1879, the company acquired Edison's patents for the carbon microphone from Western Union. This made the telephone practical for longer distances, and it was no longer necessary to shout to be heard at
10706-458: Was heard by Thomas Watson at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. The New York Times reported: On October 9, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson talked by telephone to each other over a two-mile wire stretched between Cambridge and Boston. It was the first wire conversation ever held. Yesterday afternoon [on January 25, 1915], the same two men talked by telephone to each other over
10812-594: Was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin , and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially The Standard Elocutionist (1860), which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over 250,000 copies in
10918-402: Was named president, although it was Barton as secretary/treasurer who actually handled day-to-day affairs. Although the young firm thrived in the telegraph industry, it was not until the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, and the incandescent lamp by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879, that Western Electric began to gain stature as a large company. Part-owner Gray held
11024-474: Was similarly affected by tuberculosis . While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as "A. G. Bell") and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, Bath , England, his brother's condition deteriorated. Edward never recovered. Upon his brother's death, Bell returned home in 1867. Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at University College London , Bell considered his next years preparation for
11130-476: Was that messages could be sent through a single wire if each was transmitted at a different pitch, but work on both the transmitter and receiver was needed. Unsure of his future, he contemplated returning to London to complete his studies, but decided to return to Boston as a teacher. His father helped him set up his private practice by contacting Gardiner Greene Hubbard , the president of the Clarke School for
11236-627: Was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. It invested in Nippon Electric Company in 1899. Western Electric held 54% of NEC at the time. Their representative in Japan was Walter Tenney Carleton . By the turn of the century, Western Electric had become the main producer of telephone equipment in the United States. It also manufactured arc lamps , lighting equipment and power apparatus, ranging from small fans to huge motors and generators. Alongside manufacturing,
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