The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876 - The Elisha Gray-Alexander Bell Controversy and Its Many Players

The invention of the telephone is a subject of great controversy, central is which is the patent issued to Alexander Graham Bell on March 7, 1876. Many problems and questions surround this patent, not the least of which was its collision in the Patent Office with a strangely similar invention by archrival Elisha Gray. A flood of lawsuits followed the patents issue; at one point the government attempted to annul Bells patent and launched an investigation into how it was granted. From court testimony, contemporary accounts, government documents, and the participants correspondence, a fascinating story emerges. More than just a tale of rivalry between two inventors, it is the story of how a small group of men made Bells patent the cornerstone for an emerging telephone monopoly. This book recounts the little-known story in full, relying on original documents (most never before published) to preserve the flavor of the debate and provide an authentic account. Among the several appendices is the "lost copy" of Bells original patent, the document that precipitated the charge of fraud against the Bell Telephone Company.

About the author

The late A. Edward Evenson was an industrial engineer and lived in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Product details

• Authors: A. Edward Evenson
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.12.2000
• EAN: 9780786408832
• ISBN: 978-0-7864-0883-2
• No. of pages: 269
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 14 mm
• Weight: 331 g
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > General, dictionaries; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, HISTORY / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Inventions, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Telecommunications, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, History of the Americas, Inventions & inventors, Inventions and inventors, Telephone technology, conspiracies