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Telephone

Many people consider Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone patent to have been the most valuable ever issued by the U. S. Patent Office. In his recent book, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret, author Seth Shulman claims that Bell “stole the key idea behind the invention of the telephone,” having copied the idea for a liquid transmitter from a patent caveat filed by rival Elisha Gray, and that Gray’s idea unlocked the secrets of the telephone for Bell.

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Fall 2008 | Volume 23, Issue 3
Many people consider Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 telephone patent to have been the most valuable ever issued by the U. S. Patent Office. In his recent book, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret, author Seth Shulman claims that Bell “stole the key idea behind the invention…
Summer 2020 | Volume 26, Issue 2
Born in Massachusetts in 1848, Latimer served in the U.S. Navy and worked as a patent illustrator before authoring a number of inventions himself. “Like the light of the sun, it beautifies all things on which it shines, and is no less welcome in the palace than in the humblest home,” wrote Lewis…

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