Early telephones, 19th-century artwork. These three early systems are, from left: an Ader-Van Rysselberghe telephone; a Blake-Bell telephone; and another Ader-Van Rysselberghe telephone. The telephone was developed in the 1870s. The most famous telephone pioneer is Scottish-US speech therapist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922). The others named here are Belgian engineer Francois van Rysselberghe (1846-1893), US engineer Francis Blake (1850-1913), and French engineer Clement Ader (1841-1925). This wood engraving dates from circa 1888.