Thomas Watson, American Inventor and Businessman

Thomas A Augustus Watson (January 18, 1854 - December 13, 1934) was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, notably in the invention of the telephone in 1876. He is best known because, as the recipient of the first telephone call his name became the first words ever said over the phone. Mr. Watson. Come here. I want to see you, Bell said when first using the new invention. Watson resigned from the Bell Telephone Company in 1881 at the age of 27. Using money from his royalties, he first tried his hand at farming. He became a fairly successful traveling Shakespearean actor for time and then set up his own machine shop. In 1883 he 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 WWII, after being purchased by Bethlehem Steel Corporation. He died of heart disease at the age of 80. No photographer credited, 1902

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Augustus Fore Machinist Shakespearean Technological

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