An outgrowth of the original Bell Telephone Company founded by Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) in 1877, the American Telephone & Telegraph Company is one of the best known companies in the United States. The company is commonly known by its corporate initials, AT&T, or by its familiar nickname, "Ma Bell." Incorporated in 1885, AT&T became the parent company of the Bell System in 1915. In 1915, AT&T also extended its New York–based network to San Francisco, California, permitting the first transcontinental telephone (see entry under 1900s—The Way We Lived in volume 1) calls. The company had a controlling interest in Western Electric, its manufacturing unit, and in Bell Labs (now the independent Lucent Technologies), its research and development division. AT&T introduced the first commercial transatlantic telephone service between the United States and London, England, in 1927 and the first transpacific service to Hawaii in 1931 and to...