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

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.

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.