Re: 7 March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell is Granted a Patent for The Teleph one

[Nick FitzGerald <nick () virus-l demon co uk>]

Fergie wrote:

> At Boston University he continued his research in the same field,
> and endeavored to produce a telephone which would not only send
> musical notes, but articulate speech. 
>
> With financing from his American father-in-law, on March 7, 1876,
> the U.S. Patent Office granted him Patent Number 174,465 covering
> "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other
> sounds telegraphically ... by causing electrical undulations,
> similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said
> vocal or other sound", the telephone. 

This "history" is rather contested.

If you're going to celeebrate the invention of the telephone, you 
should probably search out the story of Antonio Meucci, a poor 
Florentine immigrant to your country who (along with several others) 
clearly "invented" functional telephones somewhat before Bell.  Meucci 
could not afford the $250 patent fee, and could not even afford to 
maintain the $1/year fee for a renewable notice of an impending patent, 
although he did file one of these for one year in 1871.  In the hope of 
interesting the telegraph company in the notion and to help him get his 
invention patented, he even sent prototypes to Western Union, where 
Bell almost certainly saw them and could have worked with them.

> We sure have come a long way. :-)

I suspect that NPT might not agree with you...


Regards,

Nick FitzGerald

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