Naturally this good demand for so serviceable an instrument encouraged 'the proprietors' of the Bell patents to branch out on a little broader basis. As Graham Bell had transferred all right, title and interest to Mr. Hubbard on July 9, 1877, thus placing the control in the batter's hands, on August 1, 1877, Mr. Hubbard organized the Bell Telephone Association, of Boston, without capital stock and served as trustee, while Mr. Sanders acted as treasurer.
Then the development of the exchange business and the assignment of territorial rights began in earnest, and Mr. Hubbard visited all the larger cities seeking to interest men of prominence. But though he journeyed hither and thither, striving to influence capital to favorably consider the telephone as a desirable investment, yet the task of interesting investors in the development of local exchanges proved difficult, and progress was made slowly in the United States.
In Europe some progress was made through elaborate experiments carried on by foreign governments to practically demonstrate the utility of the telephone. On November 28, 1877, it was officially promulgated that 'the introduction of the telephone in the practical telegraph service of the German Empire has been formally accomplished; and the passing of the telephone into practical use may be regarded as satisfactorily completed.' This conclusion was based largely on the excellent results secured on a toll circuit two hundred and thirty miles long, established between Berlin and Prince Bismarck's country residence at Varzin, in Pomerania, early in October, 1877. Probably that was the first official recognition of the practical value of the telephone on the part of a foreign nation. Yet, early in 1877, Mr. Preece, the head of England's telegraph department, had notified his government that Alexander Graham Bell "has rendered it possible to reproduce the human voice with all its modulations at distant points. I have spoken with a person at various distances up to thirty-two miles." In November, 1877, conversation was excellently maintained for two hours between Dover and Calais, a distance of twenty-two miles, by using a telegraph circuit in a submarine cable. Then, in December, 1877, Mr. Preece officially reported having successfully carried on a long conversation through a submarine telegraph cable sixty-seven miles in length, extending from Dublin to Holyhead, by means of hand telephones.
In the United States the first lease for territorial rights was executed on October 2-1, 1877, with the Telephone and Telegraph Construction Company, of Detroit, Michigan; yet eleven months passed before a telephone exchange was opened in that city.
The second lease was assigned to the District Telephone Company of New Haven, Connecticut, and included the counties of New Haven and Middlesex. The former county was rapidly developed and has the honor of having established within its limits the first two commercial telephone exchanges (at New Haven and at Meriden), the first mutual
