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Bell Dethroned as Telephone Inventor
On Hold writes "The US Congress has decided that A. G. Bell was not the real inventor of the telephone. According to this article, it was invented by a Florentine immigrant called Meucci. Meucci later worked with Bell in a lab, but couldn't afford the patent fees. It seems like Bell could." Wait until you read the stories giving Shawn Fanning credit for inventing P2P...
Don't forget, Al Gore invented the Internet...
If I remember correctly similar things were true of Edison in that inventions made by those in his lab were patented under his name. Maybe they could have used some IP Lawyers back then :P
So does this mean that now we'll be calling Bell Lab "Meucci Lab" instead? Will we be referring to the Baby Bells as "Mini Meuccis?"
However, Bell is still recognized for creating a popular character who sold telephones in radio and telegraph ads with the hip catchphrase, "dude, you're gettin' a Bell."
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Here in Italy it's always been well known that Meucci invented telephone! ;-)
Ok, there's also always been the doubt, too, whether it's been him or Bell, but surely nobody thought it was Bell all on his own
dakkar - mobilis in mobile
It's all about the name !
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Or is that 50% predatation, and 50% liquidation?
Do not confuse duty with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different.Duty is a debt you owe to yourself.
This sounds like a possible hoax to me. Too many odd questions surround this story -- Since when does Congress make rulings on who properly holds a patent/invention? Isn't that something for the court system? Why is it I cannot find this story at other sites? And why is the one with the story an Australian site, why hasnt the US press picked this up? Hence, I think it's a hoax.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
hmm... I always thought Elisha Gray invented it...
has anyone else heard of her? - or is this just one of those weird memory-lapses I seem to get every one in a while...
Why does it take a Congressional resolution for this? Aren't there professional historians who are supposed to research historical documents to find out what really happened?
Software Wars
Whoever it is, I'm glad the inventor of the phone was not Alexander Graham Siren, Alexander Graham Foghorn, or Alexander Graham Bee-Gees. The ringing of a bell to indicate that the phone needs answering is so much better than many of thse alternatives.
Ever argue with someone who actually thinks it's true that Gore gave us the Internet? The defenses are usually the following:
- Gore never said it (never mind that CNN has the actual clip)
- Gore did not say he invented the internet. He said he created it. Big difference !!!!!
- Gore really did invent the internet, so get off his back.
Eliza Gray invented the simple computer psychologist program. It is named after her.
Remember Commodore Grace Hopper? When she was 64 years old, she invented a very popular wonder computer in the early 1980s that bears her title and age.
"Dude, you're getting an iHewlett Compaqard Dell 2000. Moo!"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Well, if Congress says it's true, it *must* be true, eh?
In my city, a developer signed a contract to renovate a building. After spending a couple million dollars, they gave up. Conveniently, the city passed a resolution determining that the renovation project was "complete". Of course, the building is still sitting there unused.
I hate it when the government makes things "true" by legislative fiat.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Wouldn't you rather that Congress spend its time re-writing Italian history from 2 centuries ago instead of designing ways to waste our money and limit our freedoms?
Seems like a relatively harmless undertaking.
First off the first person to ever make a phone, and call it the "telephone" was a German school teacher in the 1800s... also remember the story of how Bell and another man got to the patent office only an hour apart?
Carpe meam simiam!
The actual innovator of a concept or technology is almost never credited for it. Rather, it's the second-tier opportunist that takes the work and creativity of the innovator and reinvigorates it by repositioning it within the market or refining it in some way.
Sometimes it's because of the lack of savvy or capital posessed by the true innovator; other times it's that the innovator was operating just outside the realm of either technical practicality or social acceptability.
The true genius of Microsoft was building a business model around that oft-missed truth.
Reword that to make more sense. If you are one of Gore's defenders on this, what is take on it?
The real inventors of things often never get credit. Nikola Tesla invented radio before Marconi. Weed Eater was invented by a backyard tinkerer who got nothing. Edison took credit for things invented by others who were working for him, and bashed Nikola Tesla, making most people think he was nuts. It does not suprise me at all that Bell took credit for someone else's work.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Isn't Ameche an Italian name? I always knew he invented it; some even call it "the ameche".
Rather, it's the second-tier opportunist that takes the work and creativity of the innovator and reinvigorates it by repositioning it within the market or refining it in some way.
Like Thomas Crapper, whose name is now synonymous with toilet?
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Hope you are not one of those who thinks Thomas Crapper is a real guy! He's a hoax.
This is (sort of) completely off-topic, but I have to toss this in - Elisha Gray is my great, great, great grandfather.
The supposed story is that Bell was in collusion with the patent clerk (who was, I believe, his brother-in-law or son-in-law). Elisha Gray began the patent filing process earlier than Bell, but was told that without a working model, no patent would be granted.
While I have no problem with his having to produce a working model, after Elisha Gray turned in his plans for a telephone, the patent clerk (knowing Bell was working on a similar project) gave Bell the plans, and then allowed Bell to apply and receive a patent even without a working model.
So, dammit, I could've been a billionaire. Stupid patents.
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
There are several desceendents of Preston Tucker around. He was a would-be auto magnate who tried to get the Tucker '48 (Torpedo) motor company going, but was destroyed by overzealous and corrupt government regulators.
In an alternate reality, these descendents would be famous Edsels or Bill Clay Fords. In this reality, one of them achieved local fame in a small city when he opened a sub shop.
So hopefully the US will recognise that Joseph Swan invented the lightbulb next.
Okay, where's the clip?
;)
And if only you have a copy, how do I know that it's not faked?
That's one of the reasons I hate copyright stupidity, you can't have a real debate on anything because most of the facts are locked up, or the arguments or discourse as well.
In fact how do I know that CNN didn't fake it?
-- Ender, Duke_of_URL
Exact quote from Gore: "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
This is from a left-wing web site that then goes and says that Gore did not say he invented it. He merely said he created it.
Gore has made other similar expansive claims to have created this or discovered that.
Gore did not invent or create it. Get a clue.
Here is left-wing web site: Salon:
Notice how they are hung up on some falsely perceived difference between "creating" and "inventing".
This "Salon" quote is telling: "The word "invent" practically leaped into Gore's mouth. News outlets across the board -- including Salon -- have now burned the distortion of the vice president's words into the public mind"
.... as if replacing create with invent makes one bit of difference!
Well, I guess it all depends on what the meaning of is is.
Michael Corleone: Meucci -- Who's Meucci?
Joey Zasa: He's the Italian-American who invented the telephone. He did it one year before Alexander Graham Bell.
Well, I'll be. Zasa was right.
Do you know this guy's name, or the town he came from, or anything else?
-- Ender, Duke_of_URL
Check this link: skeletons
It contains many of Gore's whoppers, including his hearing as a baby a labor union song lullaby that had not been invented yet. The Skeletons web site is non-partisan, it doesn't care what the party is when it comes to political liars. (Read their scathing sections on Bush, and on Saint Ralph)
Gore must be above the truth. Remember all the times he claimed to be above the law (no legal authority controls him)?
But the previous poster made a claim, which that article counters. Namely that the Gore said that he 'invented' the internet, and not only that, that Gore said it somewhere (CNN) on record.
I'd like to see that record, becuase I believe, as Salon and other reputable people believe, that it's not true. I'm willing to be proven wrong, but I'll need some proof first.
-- Ender, Duke_of_URL
In Italy we have been always taught it was Meucci who invented the telephone. Bell is barely mentioned as someone the americans think invented the telephone. Personally, I always thought it was some old-time residue nationalism inherited from the fascist era.
Same thing. If he said he created it, he is also saying he invented it.
"Personally, I always thought was some old-time residue nationalism inherited from the fascist era."
Quote from Chekov: "Scotch?"...It was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
So who are my ancestors supposed to be known as... Scottish Americans? Because we have always considered ourselves Americans. however, like with color of clothes, if the subject comes up we will say our family is 'Scottish'. I am not certain why so many are infatuatued and fixated with this [nationality]-American crap. Either you are an American or not. This is especially the case when someone is born here (no immigration for YOU!)
Who's going to go back and revise all those history books, PBS specials, etc. to tell the truth? The unfortunate truth is that Alexander Graham Bell will likley remain the 'inventor' of the telephone for at least another generation, if not in perpetuity. It's easy enough to 'fix' things going forward, but rewriting the millions of copies of bogus wetware out there is next to impossible. I'll probably have forgetten this fact within the next 24 hours.
Damn the truth, just give me the facts!
"As a Senator, Gore pushed the legislation that mixed together the ingredients that made the internet, and put them in the oven"
Nope. It was around for years before he got involved. He didn't invent an internet. He didn't create the internet. He didn't invent the Internet, and he didn't create the Internet.
Check your ARPAnet, etc history.
From "A Brief History of the Internet":
http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html
"Did Al Gore invent the Internet?
According to a CNN transcript of an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Al Gore said,"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Al Gore was not yet in Congress in 1969 when ARPANET started or in 1974 when the term Internet first came into use. Gore was elected to Congress in 1976. In fairness, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf acknowledge in a paper titled Al Gore and the Internet that Gore has probably done more than any other elected official to support the growth and development of the Internet from the 1970's to the present."
It is clear that he is lying when he says he created it. In terms of the history of it, he came on the scene long after it was invented OR created.
Saying he created it is like saying that Henry Ford invented the automobile, or that Josef Stalin founded the Soviet Union. No matter how much you help something along, if you didn't start it you didn't start it.
This works. Begin OT ....
My old mathteacher said that, as long as you declared your assumptions at the beginning of a piece of work, then anything goes... I declared Pi = 3 at the start of an end of term paper, worked everything out to NO decimals, used log tables (remember those?), with workings in the margin, and finished in no time with what amounted to a sheet full of approximations. I passed....
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.