Description

Charles Williams Jr. ran a workshop that manufactured electrical telegraph instruments in Boston and also worked with individual inventors to do custom work for new inventions. One of these inventors was Alexander Graham Bell, who worked closely with Williams’ employee, Thomas Watson. After Watson and Bell perfected their telephone technology in 1877, they worked with Charles Williams to produce the first commercial telephones and telephone parts. In 1878, the Bell Telephone Company gave Charles Williams exclusive rights to manufacture telephones and their parts. After a spike in demand, Bell licensed with other manufacturers to produce auxiliary telephone equipment in 1879, leaving Williams to focus on transmitters and receivers. In 1881, Charles Williams sold his company to the Bell Telephone Company, which became (with other firms owned by Bell Telephone), part of the Bell-owned Western Electric Company.