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...

Comments

Now what?

[jonerik]

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?"

credit where credit is due

[tps12]

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."

Old news

[dakkar]

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 ;-)

what about elisha gray?

[larry bagina]

On Feb. 14, 1876, Gray filed with the U.S. Patent Office a caveat (an announcement of an invention he expected soon to patent) describing apparatus 'for transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically.' Unknown to Gray, Bell had only two hours earlier applied for an actual patent on an apparatus to accomplish the same end. It was later discovered, however, that the apparatus described in Gray's caveat would have worked, while that in Bell's patent would not have. After years of litigation, Bell was legally named the inventor of the telephone, although to many the question of who should be credited with the invention remained debatable.

Re: what about elisha gray?

[Black Parrot]

This is one of the main reasons I think patents are, by and large, bogus. There is a marked tendency for multiple people to "invent" something at essentially the same time.

And that's hardly a surprise, since inventions depend critically on the mass of technology current in society. I conjecture that "little guys" do most of the work, and "inventors" merely skim the cream off the top.

1% Inspiration...99% perspiration

[pythorlh]

Or is that 50% predatation, and 50% liquidation?

screams of hoax to me....

[jeffy124]

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.

wasn't it..?

[FreakCERS]

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...

Wierd...

[mshiltonj]

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?

Alexander Graham Bee-gees.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Must be true.

[booch]

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.

This is standard for almost all inventions

[kroymen]

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.

No suprise

[uncoveror]

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.

Re:doh'

[T-Punkt]

I think you mean Phillipp Reis who made a public display of his telephone in october 1861 (BTW, it worked!). He died in the age of 40 two years before Bell filed in his patent and managed to get his prototype working.

And the other guy you mentioned was Elisha Gray. In the patent fight with Bell Gray used Phillipp Reis' invention for his defence ("prior art") but that hasn't helped him - Bell won.

Even the lowly john

[ShavenYak]

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?

Elisha Gray

[Dimwit]

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.

Re:Elisha Gray

[SN74S181]

I wonder if the difficulty coming up with a working model had to do with the 'wife' problem.

I mean, I read the article:

Dude is experimenting in Cuba with electric shocks to treat illness.

Wife becomes paralyzed.

Wife for some reason sells off machines for $6 to a second hand shop.

Probably she'd had enough with his electric shocks, etc. Perhaps he couldn't keep a prototype in the home because anytime he went out for a beer it mysteriously disappeared.

Re:Elisha Gray

[gnovos]

So, dammit, I could've been a billionaire. Stupid patents.

Was Gray married before or after this event? I wonder if you would even exist if he had gotten the patent and the wealth, and the debutante wife that he always wanted, instead of the great great grandmother that helped create you!

Re:Crapper is not real

[karmawarrior]

He is but he didn't invent the toilet.

Re:If he created it, he invented it.

[CokeBear]

Same thing. If he said he created it, he is also saying he invented it.

I have to disagree with you there. Creating and inventing are inherently different. If I create an Apple Pie (by mixing the ingredients together & putting it in the oven) that is very different from inventing Apple Pie, which only one person ever did. The same with the Internet. As a Senator, Gore pushed the legislation that mixed together the ingredients that made the internet, and put them in the oven. (and by the time that oven timer dinged, he was already Veep, and didn't have much say in it anymore. (BTW, anyone else, feel free to use and refine this metaphor I just came up with.)

Re:In this, the morons are on the left

[Rick the Red]

He did not say he invented it or created it, he said he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" and by that he means he took the initiative in funding it. Any congressperson, Republican or Democrat, would make a similar claim. What he meant is "it wouldn't exist without the legislation I introduced and worked so hard to pass," which is true. Oh, and unlike the Anonymous Cowards I'll cite a reference!

Re:Al Gore looks for the union label:

[DavidTC]

Good god. Are people still this misinformed yet managing to not get hit by traffic?

Here's a quote from Vincent Cerf (Yeah, that Vincent Cerf, the one that 'surfing' the internet comes from.) and Robert Kahn (You know, the guy who invented TCP/IP.)

'The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to offer our perspective. As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship.'

Yes, those are the fucking fathers of the internet collaberating Gore's 'lie'. If Vicent Cerf and Robert Kahn say someone helped create the internet, I'll believe it.

As for the union song, people laughed. It was a joke, period. People don't remember songs sung to them in the craddle, it was a throwaway line. Gore grew up in a very pro-union house, and was making a joke about.

But the real kicker is why the fuck would he 'lie' about that? Let's guess which is more plausible: He was making a joke about the pro-union feeling in his house, or he decided to make a completely unbelivable lie, because people can't even remember things in the cradle, and everyone knows that, for no appearent benefit?

Geez, if he walks in with a line 'I just flew here from Washington, and boy are my arms tired!', will people start nitpicking that he just had a nap on the plane and thus his arms can't be tired?

Re:Edison^WSwan

[T-Punkt]

Actually the inventor of the light bulb is Heinrich "Henry" Göbel, who built a working light bulb in 1854.