What inventions led up to the telephone?

Several inventions led up to the telephone including electricity, the Leyden Jar, batteries, electromagnets, electromagnetic devices, transmitters, receivers, microphones, and the telegraph. The tin can telephone (Lover's telephone) and acoustic telephones also led up to the telephone.

Several inventors have been credited with inventing the telephone, including Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray and others. Bell was the first to patent the telephone.