Editing Bell Labs (section)

===Early antecedent===
The Bell Patent Association was formed by [[Alexander Graham Bell]], Thomas Sanders, and [[Gardiner Hubbard]] when filing the first patents for the telephone in 1876.

Bell Telephone Company, the first telephone company, was formed a year later. It later became a part of the American Bell Telephone Company.

In 1884, the [[American Bell Telephone Company]] created the Mechanical Department from the Electrical and Patent Department formed a year earlier.

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company and its own subsidiary company took control of American Bell and the Bell System by 1899.

American Bell held a controlling interest in [[Western Electric]] (which was the manufacturing arm of the business) whereas AT&T was doing research into the service providers.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Telephone Enterprise |last=Garnet |first=Robert |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1985 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |pages=1–44}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bell-labs.com/about/history-bell-labs/ |title=Nokia Bell Labs History |date=July 20, 2018 |website=Nokia Bell Labs |access-date=July 21, 2018 |archive-date=July 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714130736/http://www.bell-labs.com/about/history-bell-labs/ |url-status=live }}</ref>