"Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you." These words, spoken by inventor Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876, were the first to be transmitted over the new invention called the telephone. Before the end of the year, Bell and Watson had the first two-way conversation over the telephone, and by the summer of 1877 the new Bell Telephone Company in Massachusetts had its first two hundred customers. The telephone revolutionized long-distance communication by allowing people to speak with each other quickly, clearly, and affordably. Today, you can send and receive information from virtually anywhere using a wireless telephone, faxes, or E-mail, thanks to Bell's invention of the telephone. Turning Point Inventions is the first series of books to focus on the important inventions we often take for granted and how they have affected our lives. In lively text and fascinating pictures, these books explore the world before the invention; the life of the inventor and how he or she came upon the discovery; how the world was changed by the invention; and how it may influence our future.

A special full-color foldout in each book shows in detail how the invention works.