Wire from the first telephone tests by A. G. Bell and T. A. Watson

"This piece of wire is part of the test line used by Prof. A. G. Bell and T. A. Watson in the first tests and all subsequent tests up to the final development of the Bell telephone. The test line in question was set up from room 13 to room 15 at No. 5 Exeter Place Boston in August 1875 and remained there until Mr. Watson removed it himself on July 8, 1877. Mr. Watson gave me 6 feet of wire, and I cut off a piece measuring around a yard. E. Berliner, Hanover, June 10, 1881."Emil Berliner, who had been Chief Instrument Inspector at the American Bell Company, set up his own telephone factory together with his brother Joseph in Hanover, the city of his birth, in 1881. That is how the memorabilia made it to Germany. When and in what context the wire and autograph were given to the Reichspostmuseum, the Imperial Postal Museum, is unfortunately not known.