---
title: "Which came first, the car or the telephone?"
description: "the car vs the telephone: the telephone came first, by 10 years — 1876 against 1886. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-telephone/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the car or the telephone?

**Which came first, the car or the telephone?: the telephone**

1876 — 10 years before the car

the telephone came first, by 10 years. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

## Side by side

|  | the car | the telephone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1886 | 1876 |
| Date | 1886-01-29 | 1876-03-07 |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen. | Bell was granted US patent 174,465. |

## the car

Benz's patent of 29 January 1886 is the usual date for the first practical petrol car. The vehicle's commercial breakthrough came from his wife: in 1888 Bertha Benz drove 106 km to Pforzheim without telling him, fixing the fuel line with a hatpin and the ignition with a garter on the way, and the resulting publicity sold the machine. Ford did not exist until 1903 and the Model T not until 1908.

## the telephone

Bell's patent was granted on 7 March 1876 and he made the famous call to Watson three days later. Elisha Gray filed a caveat for a similar device on the same day in February that Bell filed his application, and the priority dispute has never entirely gone away. Antonio Meucci had demonstrated a working voice telegraph in New York in 1860 but could not afford to renew his caveat.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the car or the telephone?

the telephone, by 10 years — 1876 against 1886.

### When did the car start?

1886. Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen.

### When did the telephone start?

1876. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

## Related pages

- [Big Ben or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/big-ben-vs-telephone/)
- [the Statue of Liberty or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/statue-of-liberty-vs-telephone/)
- [the Eiffel Tower or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/eiffel-tower-vs-telephone/)
- [Germany or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/germany-vs-telephone/)
- [the hamburger or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/hamburger-vs-telephone/)
- [the bicycle or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-telephone/)
- [the bicycle or the car?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-car/)
- [photography or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/photograph-vs-telephone/)
- [the fax machine or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-telephone/)
- [the telephone or television?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/telephone-vs-television/)
- [the lightbulb or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/lightbulb-vs-telephone/)
- [the car or the Statue of Liberty?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-statue-of-liberty/)

## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)