Back in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell obtained a patent for the invention of the telephone, but was he the proponent behind the novel invention?
Telephone Invention Credits
Alexander Graham Bell is credited as the telephone's inventor and as the first person to ever use a telephone for speaking. During this first phone call on March 10, 1876, Bell told his assistant, Thomas Watson, to "come" as Bell wanted to see Watson.
However, according to author Iwan Marcus, inventions rarely result from the work of a solo pioneer. Law professor Christopher Beauchamp also wrote in a 2010 paper that several other people held claims regarding the invention of the telephone. There were even those who suggested that Bell fraudulently seized the honor.
German physicist Johann Philipp Reis, American engineer Elisha Gray, and Italian inventor Antonio Meucci all had roles in the telephone's development. Antonio Meucci was belatedly honored in 2022 by the US House of Representatives for his role in the invention of the telephone. Johann Phipp Reis was also behind the construction of the 1861 first make-or-break telephone.
The contraption of Reis differed slightly compared to the more refined soluton of Bell. The former's output operated through a process executed with a circuit to make and break connections. The device was capable of capturing sound and converting it into electrical purposes that could be sent through electrical wires to a different device that further converted it into sounds.
The system largely depended on the repeated making and breaking of the connections. Because of this, it was not possible to have a continuous conversation through the device, unlike Bell's output.
This is partially why Bell has been credited through the years. However, Beauchamp notes that there is actually something more bureaucratic that took place.
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Patent Law
According to Beauchamp, Bell hired powerful and high-profile attorneys who already had records of winning several patent cases. The claims of Bell were declared by the court to be true. Thus, the court then granted him right over the said communication.
However, interestingly, Bell was not the only one who passed independent telephone patents. On February 14, 1876, both Gray and Bell submitted them. The former's application reached the office before Bell. However, the attorneys of Bell were more proactive and paid the fees for application as soon as they could.
Because of this, Bell's application was acknowledged and registered first. This ended up gaining approval and registration on March 7, which was just three days prior to Bell's famous phone call with his assistant.
Bell's novel invention was able to find a way to turn voice vibration into an electric current and to convert these variations to acoustic variations once more. Bell's breakthrough covered being able to reliably execute this.
